A total of 23.88 million units have been sold worldwide for Wii U and Switch, making it one of the best selling video games of all time.

In the "Boost Mode" feature, a fifth player using the Wii U GamePad can interact with the environment, such as putting blocks down that can be stepped on or stunning enemies by holding down on them.

Along with returning elements such as Ice Flowers and Yoshis, the flying squirrel is a new power-up that allows players to glide across long distances or slowly descend down vertical paths[3] and cling to the side of the walls.

Boost Rush takes place on an automatically scrolling level which increases in speed as players collect coins, with the goal of clearing the stage as quickly as possible.

He manages to jump up onto the airship, but his weight causes it to crash, and they are forced to flee on Bowser Jr.'s Koopa Clown Car.

[10] The game, initially titled New Super Mario Bros. Mii, was first revealed at E3 2011 as one of several tech demos demonstrating the capabilities of Wii U.

[11] Shigeru Miyamoto later announced that the Mario demo would be released as a full game for the system, and would be demonstrated in its revised form at E3 2012.

The power-up glides horizontally to differ it from the propeller suit in New Super Mario Bros. Wii which can fly vertically.

[29][40][42][27] GamesMaster magazine called it "a great excuse for families to gather round the TV, and an enticing glimpse of Mario's HD future".

[29] IGN stated that "Nintendo's approach here strikes a great balance in all areas, ranging from its difficulty to design to enemies and bosses".

[31][59][8] GameSpot observed how "It's a challenging platformer, an excellent recreation of Mario's best moments, and it's the perfect way to kick-off Nintendo's journey into HD.

The game is perfectly well made for what it is, and I had plenty of fun playing it in short bursts here and there, but at this point the series' by-the-numbers design philosophy is starting to lend the name 'New Super Mario Bros.' a degree of unintentional irony".

[60] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe yielded sales of 455,006 physical copies within its first month in Japan, outperforming its Wii U counterpart.

[61] As of December 2019[update] more than 747,589 physical copies have been sold in Japan,[62] and in January 2021, it was reported that Japanese sales figures had surpassed one million.

[70] Though much of the content is reused from the base game, notable differences include Mario's absence and Luigi's role as the main character.

Along with this, Luigi has his flutter jump from Super Mario Bros. 2 and the overall level design is more difficult when compared to the base game.