Super Mario 3D World review.

Super Mario 3D World Review.

Not to be mistaken with Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS, Super Mario 3D World is the first Mario game on the WiiU that isn’t 2D; not that there’s anything wrong with the 2D games, it’s just that the ‘New Super Mario Bros’ games can only carry you so far, so it was up to Nintendo to put out a fully 3D Mario game, akin to games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. At this stage in their lifespan, and given the unprecedented amount of success and high accolades the previous 3D Mario games have received; Nintendo would have to do something pretty substantial in order to mess things up now. Thankfully, they haven’t. What they have managed to create is not only an excellent game in its own right, but possibly one of the best Mario games period.

Story is typically not what you think of when you play a Mario game; standard procedure is ‘Bowser kidnaps Peach, go rescue her, maybe she’ll bake you a cake’ and it’s not really different here except that instead of Peach being kidnapped, Bowser has gone after fairies and imprisoned them in bottles, and now its up to Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad to go and rescue them. So essentially one damsel has been swapped out for 8 smaller ones; but nobody really plays a Mario game for in-depth storytelling, so lets start talking about what makes the game great.

The overworld maps in Super Mario 3D World are setup very much like the maps in Super Mario Bros 3 for the NES; in that they look “open” (note the very heavy air quotation marks) but are actually as linear as the world map in Super Mario World for SNES. The way this is achieved is that levels are dotted around the map area and you have to walk to the next level, but while you aren’t being forced down a set path, but there is really nothing to do on these world maps as they are fairly barren save for Toad houses and special levels (which I’ll get to later on). To actually make progress in the game, you’ll need to collect green stars to unlock later levels. Each level has 3 of these stars either in plain sight or hidden away in the environment, needing a power-up in order to collect it.

I find that there are two main pulls for any Mario game, one more important than the other but both are still factors into how much you’ll enjoy the game. The first major pull is level design, no matter how high the production values in a game are, if the levels aren’t fun to explore then it’s all resources wasted. The other pull is power-ups, this clearly isn’t as important as level design but how you can change your character can greatly impact how you play the game, and therefore how you explore the levels. So in terms of level design, Super Mario 3D World is just a fantastic place be to and the various worlds/levels are just plain fun to run around. Of course you have the standard world types like the grass world and the fire world, each world presenting more challenges and enjoyment. For example, in one level you might be in inky darkness and you’ll have to use a Fire Flower to light torches so you can see, and another level is basically a homage to top-down shooters. Of course as you might expect the late-game levels can be on the higher end of the difficulty curve, resulting in a more than a few deaths, but this is definitely a case of blame the player not the game when you die so you can’t be too mad when you encounter a level you find particularly difficult. Of course the WiiU GamePad had to be utilized in someway, and while you will have to use the touchscreen and microphone features to advance in some levels, these segments are few and far between so when they are used, they don’t feel very forced of gimmicky, which was always the danger. If for some reason you want to try something else in the game, there are special ‘Captain Toad’ levels which task you to collect a set number of green stars before time runs out; the catch being that Captain Toad only moves/turns in a grid based fashion and you can’t jump. Given these restrictions, the levels are a lot of fun and it’s a shame that there aren’t more of them.

Another major part of every Mario game are the power-ups; there’s always the standard Super Mushroom and Fire Flower, it wouldn’t be a Mario game without them, but it’s the inclusion of new power-ups which grabs peoples attention. One power-up has garnered more attention that any other this game; the bell, which dons Mario in a catsuit. This allows him to run on all fours, climb a certain distance up walls, and also dive from a jump to cover more ground. It’s easily the most prominent power-up in the game, and I found myself finding it constantly throughout the game. Another new power-up in this game is the Double Cherry, which as the name suggests, creates another character; so you’ll be in control of two Marios, and if you pick up another cherry it’ll be three Marios and so on. Bosses are another key part of the game, and while they may not be the most difficult bosses to defeat, they’re still fun to battle. The only real challenging fight, appropriately, is the final boss fight with Bowser as it has multiple phases which will most likely test your endurance as well as your platforming skills.

One feature that I haven’t been able to test out is the multiplayer portion of the game; essentially it’s a drop-in/drop-out style where a player can choose a character and start playing. After watching videos of 4 players trying to play, it looks like mayhem and also a lot of fun. Unfortunately the multiplayer is local only, but if you’re only buying this game for it’s multiplayer component, then clearly you don’t understand that Mario is primarily a single-player experience. Another cool feature is that you can choose to play as any character you want; Mario, Luigi, Peach or Toad. Each has their own special abilities that make them better than other characters, Mario is an all-rounder, Luigi has a higher jump, Peach can float for a small amount of time after jumping and Toad can run faster than everyone else. The controls in Mario games are nearly always spot on and the same holds true here; the only gripe I have is how running works. To run, as in all games, you hold the run button then your character gains momentum before reaching top speed. However in this game, when you hold the run button you speed up to a jog, then a few seconds afterwards you’ll break into a full run.

In terms of presentation, it looks and sounds great. Not only is it one of, if not the best looking game on the WiiU, however it can easily hold its own against games on more powerful systems like the PS4 and Xbox One. Obviously the WiiU can’t match the technical prowess of the other two, but it still looks amazing. The soundtrack is also fun to listen to, although while not as grand and fantastic as the orchestral soundtrack to the Galaxy games, there will definitely be a couple of tunes you’ll find yourself humming even when you shut off the game.

Overall, Super Mario 3D World is a great experience and easily one of the best games of the WiiU. This game reminds us that Nintendo is capable of amazing things when they put their minds to it, and can also make some of, if not the best first-party games around. Now if Nintendo could just make a new online F-Zero…

Super Mario 3D World is available through various retailers for around £34.99-£39.99, or you can download it though the Nintendo eShop for £49.99.