Super Mario 3D Land Review
Mario holds a special place in my heart as the first video game I ever played. Back when I was 4 years old, I distinctly remember going over to my aunt's house and discovering a neat little grey box with a screen called a Game Boy. I picked it up and began playing my first video game ever: Super Mario Land. Needless to say, I was really bad at it. I had never seen anything like it, but I was addicted none the less. I just had to keep playing until I was good enough to get to that final boss at the end of the game. This was the start of my life as a true gamer.
Now jump ahead 21 years. I just picked up Mario’s newest portable adventure: Super Mario 3D Land. Every time I see a classic style Mario game released, I just have to get it. The last one I purchased was New Super Mario Bros for Wii and DS, which both are great games. Super Mario 3D Land takes that familiar side-scroller gameplay, and supercharges it by adding depth.
The story is pretty much the same one we’ve heard over and over for the past 30 years. A princess has been taken hostage by Bowser and Mario must make his way through several levels to rescue her. Bowser also manages to steal all the leaves off the Tanooki Tree in front of the Mushroom Kingdom’s castle, granting him and his henchmen some new powers. The cast of characters doesn’t offer anyone new, but it does contain many classic characters from Mario’s NES and SNES days, including my favorite from Yoshi’s Island: Magikoopa.
Now jump ahead 21 years. I just picked up Mario’s newest portable adventure: Super Mario 3D Land. Every time I see a classic style Mario game released, I just have to get it. The last one I purchased was New Super Mario Bros for Wii and DS, which both are great games. Super Mario 3D Land takes that familiar side-scroller gameplay, and supercharges it by adding depth.
The story is pretty much the same one we’ve heard over and over for the past 30 years. A princess has been taken hostage by Bowser and Mario must make his way through several levels to rescue her. Bowser also manages to steal all the leaves off the Tanooki Tree in front of the Mushroom Kingdom’s castle, granting him and his henchmen some new powers. The cast of characters doesn’t offer anyone new, but it does contain many classic characters from Mario’s NES and SNES days, including my favorite from Yoshi’s Island: Magikoopa.
"This is an awesome tip of the hat to the first Super Mario Bros game"
The main reason I picked this game up (other than the fact that it was a new Mario game of course) was because of the unique platforming gameplay. Super Mario 3D Land manages to be similar to both the side-scrolling platformers of the past and the newer 3D worlds like in Super Mario Galaxy. The game funnels you from the start of the level to a flag at the end with a fairly straight forward path. In this respect it is similar to the sidescrolling adventures of the past. However, it also provides 3D depth and offers some slight deviations from the path allowing some minimal exploring of levels to collect items like Star Coins and Power Ups.
The new visuals are stunning. This is graphically the best looking Mario game I’ve ever played. The developers made perfect use of the 3D display to offer depth to the gameplay that would be nearly impossible to complete without the 3D effect. Platforms and bricks are placed in front and down in the screen, making it completely necessary to play the game in 3D mode at all times. If you turn down the 3D effect and flatten the screen, the things that used to be at different depths now all appear lined up. I get pretty bad headaches after playing for about an hour, so this inability to play the game without the 3D effect could possibly be taken as a negative. On the other hand, it’s this necessity for the 3D effect that makes this title so unique.
The new visuals are stunning. This is graphically the best looking Mario game I’ve ever played. The developers made perfect use of the 3D display to offer depth to the gameplay that would be nearly impossible to complete without the 3D effect. Platforms and bricks are placed in front and down in the screen, making it completely necessary to play the game in 3D mode at all times. If you turn down the 3D effect and flatten the screen, the things that used to be at different depths now all appear lined up. I get pretty bad headaches after playing for about an hour, so this inability to play the game without the 3D effect could possibly be taken as a negative. On the other hand, it’s this necessity for the 3D effect that makes this title so unique.
"It looks like a classic side-scroller remixed in a 3D world. Beautiful."
Since Super Mario 3D land only contains 8 worlds with 6 levels each, I expected this game to be fairly short with very little replay value. Needless to say, I was absolutely wrong in that assumption. The game doesn’t offer a large number of mini games like New Super Mario Bros did, but it does give you some “special” bonuses that act as incentives to go through and collect all of the Star Coins in every level. I don’t want to spoil the game and tell you what these bonuses are, but they offer many more hours of challenging gameplay and plenty of replay value.
If you own a 3DS, this is currently the best game you can buy. I’m not saying you need to go buy a 3DS right now to play it, but with the current release lineup it might be worth it to start looking at picking one up. By no means is this the definitive Mario title that will be recognized for generations to come, but it was a very unique and entertaining game that I will definitely go back to.
Score: 8.0/10.0 This is a very fun and solid entry into the Mario series
If you own a 3DS, this is currently the best game you can buy. I’m not saying you need to go buy a 3DS right now to play it, but with the current release lineup it might be worth it to start looking at picking one up. By no means is this the definitive Mario title that will be recognized for generations to come, but it was a very unique and entertaining game that I will definitely go back to.
Score: 8.0/10.0 This is a very fun and solid entry into the Mario series
Reviewed By: Eh-Rok