Super Mario 3D Land is a relatively new 3D platforming game for the Nintendo 3DS. I had 0 exposure to this game prior to starting it, but have just been feeling in a Mario kind of mood lately, and definitely not feeling any lengthy RPGs. So did the game scratch my Mario itch?
The gameplay here is a bit of a cross between Super Mario 64 and Super Mario World, and has been done a bit before. In the bonus stages in Super Mario Sunshine, you have little self-contained bonus stages within levels. These stages are generally pretty short and difficult, and feature creative takes on Mario franchise, including turning Mario into a ball in a Pachinko machine. The controls are more or less like Super Mario 64, including classic skills like ground pounding and jumping, but in a fully 3D space. The basic rules and logic of the game, however, are far more like the classic 2D platformers, in that getting hit makes you lose your powerups, the levels are generally shorter and have only one objective (completion), and there are lots of levels compared to the 3D Mario games, which generally have tons of objectives in each level to keep from having to create dozens of huge 3D environments.
Most 3D platforming games struggle for one primary reason, which is that you are attempting to simulate a sensible 3D environment on a 2D surface. Games like Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario Sunshine, and Crash Bandicoot all really struggle with this, and have to make precision platforming a small and forgiving part of the experience (Banjo), fail (countless failed 3D platformers), or just give tons of lives and embrace the frustration (the Crash path). The path to success for a game like Super Mario 3D Land is even tougher, however, in that all of this action is taking place on a small handheld screen. Getting a sense for depth and position of objects and enemies in this kind of game is really tough, and Super Mario 3D Land definitely struggles with this at times.
The 3D portion of the screen should, theoretically, make things easier for the player. Giving a true sense of three dimensions by having the background screen is a great idea, but I found it mostly not terribly helpful here. There were tricky times when it helped, but I kept it off for the most part. But the best ways in which the game helps out the player are the design tricks it uses to orient the player to their position on the screen. The first of these tricks is the camera perspective, which changes depending on the level to give you the best view to get a sense of depth. They finally figured out that a position behind the player is not always the best spot for platforming, and have made sure that the camera is ALWAYS in a good location. There wasn't a time in which I felt like I could have succeeded with a better view here. The game also uses shadows magnificently well and gives you time to line up your jumps using the shadows. You can always see a shadow underneath Mario, which is really helpful when you're launching yourself off of a cliff onto a platform well below. In Super Mario Sunshine, situations like this were a death sentence. Now, they're very manageable, and actually fun! The game also frequently will make sure you have access to the floaty tanooki suit to ensure that you can float down and correct if your shadow gets offline, which is a nice touch. The controls have also been wisely restricted a bit from full 360 motion. By this, I mean that if you hit right and slightly up on the control stick, you'll still go straight right, which is really important since it's really hard to tell if you're drifting towards the foreground and background in games from a side perspective if the controls are too responsive. This is also really important since the 3DS lacks a true control stick, so it uses the tech it has really well. The level design (more on this later), is also made to be pretty forgiving, so that you're rarely trying to drop on tiny patches of land, making a little deviation from the intended path acceptable. All in all, the experience isn't perfect, but you can tell that Nintendo put a lot of thought into developing this game, and made the changes necessary to reduce frustration and increase fun.
The visuals are absolutely beautiful, and are a primer in exactly how to make excellent graphics on a limited console. Embracing the cartoony nature of Mario lets them play seemingly endlessly with classic Mario visuals with slightly modernized polish, and the game looks great throughout all environments, whether you're floating through the clouds, jumping over lava, or swimming under the sea.
The music is fantastic, featuring plenty of callbacks to classic tracks from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World, but with several original tracks as well.
The level design is some of absolute finest level design of all time. I don't say this lightly, but this game is definitely in the pantheon of well-crafted levels along with Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Shovel Knight, and Mega Man X. Every last element of the game encourages learning on the fly, new elements are introduced all the time, and the game gives you great moments of fun feedback throughout each level. There are little tricks and secrets hidden throughout the levels which will encourage you to go back again and again. Even on challenging levels which you will repeat many times, you never stop having fun despite the fact that you're pushing yourself. This is a master class in good level design, and everyone should pay attention.
The game felt a little short to me...but then I found out that after completing 8 worlds of levels, you get 8 more worlds of levels! In all seriousness, the 8 now worlds are just riffs on the original levels, but add in new and challenging elements to them that will make them fun to replay at least once more. These include an array of awesome challenging, including having only 30 seconds to complete a level, increasing the number of enemies in the level, having multiple bosses, being chased by a shadowy Mario who will kill you if you ever stop moving or retread your own paths, and tons of other new twists. These special levels are an absolute delight, and I'm still working through them. I will never stop until I've beaten them all. I'd say the game is at a perfect length.
The game's first run is definitely too easy. When I completed the game, I had about 70 lives left over, which is a good sign that it didn't challenge me enough. I don't mind that too much as long as the game is fun, however, and this one was unbelievably fun. The worst part about the difficulty level was an absolutely spineless move by Nintendo to give out absurdly overpowered powerups after dying a few times. Once you die 5 times, you get a tanooki suit combined with a star that never wears off, which basically makes every level impossible to lose, unless you fall in a pit or lava. I'm fine with the Crash Bandicoot 2 (at least I think it's 2) approach in which after dying a few times you get a little powerup to help you get through, but becoming eternally invincible while being able to float is way too strong. As if that wasn't enough tepid handholding, apparently for those of us who are so brainless that we would die after 5 more attempts while being able to float and be invincible, the game automatically teleports you to the next level. This never happened to me, but it infuriates me that it's even a part of the game. Don't bail people out, especially when you have infinite continues, the challenge is part of the fun, and you can always go back to old levels to farm lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <end rant>
The only other small objection I had to this game was the boss fights. While the boss fights are all fun, especially the fights against Bowser, there are only really three fights in the game, and these rotate with minor variations throughout the game. It's not like these were super complex fights either, so I thought they could have easily come up with a few more bosses (Mouser or Wart, anyone?) to enjoy.
Anyway, besides the natural difficulties of 3D platforming, disappointing diversity of bosses, and the pathetic rescuing of inept players, I absolutely adored this game. It realizes its weaknesses (for the most part), does a great job of accounting for them as best it can, and doubles down on its strengths to great effect. This is an unquestioned "must own" 3DS title, and I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I did. I'll be spending many more hours in this version of the Mushroom Kingdom. I'll give it a 9.3/10.
Up next is another platformer I'm looking forward to! It's been really relaxing not needing to commit 30-40 hours to a game, so I'm hoping this one delivers as well.
-TRO
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