Super Mario 3D Land
Super Mario 3D Land
With every new Nintendo platform revealed there is, as every fan knows, always a Mario game on the rise, each game showing off the best of the new console. The quality of the new Mario game defines how successful the console will be, a bad Mario game and the system is doomed to failure. Luckily for Nintendo fans Nintendo never fail to deliver a top quality platformer for each of their machines each game bring something new and exciting to table - while keeping the great formula. The 3DS is no different, Super Mario 3D Land shows off the best of what the 3DS has to offer while mixing and mashing the best of past games. The story of Super 3D land is that a huge storm ravages the mushroom kingdom, when Mario and the toads wake up the next morning they discover that - surprise, surprise - Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and - even more surprisingly - Mario has to rescue her. Nice of Nintendo to think up an interesting new plot line, though story aside the gameplay itself is very interesting. At first the game seems like a Super Mario Galaxy style game, You can move in all directions, do back flips and long jumps etc. but as you start to play you discover the 2D side-scrolling heart of the game. Although you can move in all directions like in 3D there is a flag rather than a star at the end of each level, there is a dash button, you go from big Mario to small Mario when take a hit rather than 3 pieces of health. Then, Super Mario 3D land is secretly a 2D side-scroller - but to confuse you in 3D. This blend of the different dimensions is very interesting - and will satisfy all Mario fans - although it lacks a new element when compared to Galaxy, which was a whole different game
The levels in Super Mario 3D land are the amusing colourful levels you would expect from 3D Mario game, each level with its own distinctive theme and design from buzz saws that slice up the platforms as you jump on them to platforms that disappear and reappear to the beat of the music. The game is stuffed full of ideas and each world and level will offer new challenges and experiences so you will never tire of the same gameplay of jumping. There is however one flaw in the level design. Although the rest of the game is full of carefully crafted levels the developers seem to have skipped over the boss battles leaving them as dull repeats of other boss battles. While Super Mario Galaxy had tons of exciting and varied bosses Super Mario 3D land’s bosses can be put into two groups. The first is the fake Bowser battles which are your standard run-past-Bowser-and-jump-on-the-button espionages - which lack any real change. The second type are the airship battles against Boom Boom (yes; that’s his real name - Nintendo are Japanese, what do you expect from a company that have characters called Lakitu, boo and Birdo) or the female version of him which are the standard jump-on-their-head-three-times affair. Neither of these boss battles are particularly fun and after you’ve beaten your third airship battle it can get quite tedious.
Obviously it wouldn’t be a Mario game without an assortment of new power-ups and this game has its selection. First up is the most common power-up in the game the tannoki suit, the suit which was first used in Super Mario Land 3 and allowed you to fly, here it enables you to do a Yoshi style flutter jump and a tail swing much like the spin attack in the Galaxy games. Next is the new boomerang suit which allows you to throw boomerangs like the bommer-bros, collect items and kill enemies with your boomerangs. Apart from those two there is not much else other than the normal fire flowers, starmans, grow mushrooms and propeller blocks so there are less power-ups than New Super Mario Bros Wii and while the power-ups are fun there’s no ice flower, no mini mushroom and most depressing of all no Yoshi.
The game map also falls short of what you would expect, usually in Mario games the world maps have their distinctive themes, different routes and lots of scenery to give hints about what might be coming up in the next level. The map is Super Mario 3D is simply a straight line with little or no theme and level icons floating above Mario. Although the world maps do not make the actual game less fun they do detract from the overall experience. The game seems a tad short and tad easy at first. You will plough through the first eight worlds with ease and find yourself standing outside Bowser’s castle in no time at all with a large sum of lives. However once you complete the final castle and watch the credits roll by you will unlock another eight special worlds effectively doubling the amount of content. These special levels are a mix of re-mastered levels from the previous eight worlds and a host of entirely new levels. The special levels are also a lot harder than the first eight worlds - making it have a good amount of reply value as you return repeatedly to get every star coin or every gold flag.
The Graphics are excellent, the game looks like a slightly lower resolution version of Super Mario galaxy which, if you’ve ever played the galaxy games you’ll know, is an incredible feat for a handheld system. Super Mario 3D land is also the first 3DS game to actually use the 3D. In other games the 3D was there to up the graphics and give the “wow” factor but the games could easily be played with the 3D off. In Super Mario 3D land however you will actually be a disadvantage if you play it 2D. The 3D allows you judge distances a lot better and be able to jump long distances and be able to make the jump. This is especially clear when you look at the game from a top-down perspective; it is very difficult to judge how far above or below things are from you if you have the 3D off. Another place is the puzzle rooms, little rooms in which you some blocks and a star coin, in 2D it appears as if the blocks are neatly stacked on each other, put it into 3D and you will realise that some of the blocks are floating away from the rest of the blocks.
The sound is equally good with the usual mix of new tunes, old tunes and remixed old tunes. The music is different in nearly each level give them a sense of real character.
The game also supports the new and rather fun Street Pass feature. In amongst the levels you will find purple blocks which when jumped into present you with ten seconds to defeat some enemies and collect a bunch of coins. When you street pass someone you can challenge their time plus you get an item from them in a toad house, the more you street pass them the better items they give you. You can even street pass people who don’t have the game.
My Rating – 9.4 A great game stuffed full of imagination and innovation perfectly designed to suit the 3DS despite flaws in some content and lack of a innovative story