Retro Review: Super Mario 3D World

Platform: Nintendo Wii U
Players: 1-4

Nintendo has a habit of putting their heart and soul into each major Mario installment, trying their hardest to add something substantial to the genre in order to assure a fulfilling experience. Super Mario 3D World is an odd entry in that it takes a different approach.

This could easily end poorly...

Imagine if you took the design concepts of Super Mario 3D Land, the cooperative ideology of New Super Mario Bros. U, the varied character selection of Super Mario Bros. 2, the soul of Super Mario World, the overworld exploration of Super Mario Bros. 3 and then combine everything together. This is Super Mario 3D World (henceforth 3D World). It’s a game that successfully mashes together the best ideas from throughout the franchise into a complete and working package. Visually it takes the same style as Super Mario 3D Land and ups the ante to Full HD, and is absolutely gorgeous. Couple this with some of the catchiest tunes in the series and 3D World is definitely one of the most aesthetically pleasing games you’ll play on the Wii U.

Team Cat!

The first thing you’ll notice is that you have full control over how you move in the World Map. It’s very reminiscent of SMB3, even going so far as hiding secrets for you to find (such as warp pipes). As you begin a stage, you are given the ability to choose your character. Mario controls similar to what you already know, if you’ve played any 3D Mario game; Luigi is similar but with the ability to jump higher and falls a bit slower; Peach runs slower but can hover for a short bit, giving her a lot of air control; Toad runs the fastest, but doesn’t jump quite as high as the others; a secret character is also present who plays as a sort of combination of Luigi and Peach. Every character has their own appeal, and it’s especially fun when you’re playing multiplayer and everybody is moving around in a different way. It’s frenetic but reasonably controlled.

An avid Mario player will see a potential 1-up opportunity here.

It’s unfortunate that the level design doesn’t really feel like it takes advantage of the various characters’ strengths and weaknesses. I was hoping for something similar to Sonic & Knuckles, where the shared stages had paths designed specifically for Sonic or Knuckles respectively. There are a handful of sections or parts that are clearly designed for one character over another, but I’ve been able to access almost everything with every character with some crafty mobility. This is a complaint solely as a solo player, though. When playing with others, it makes sense to have all parts of the level accessible by each character in order to assure a more fluid cooperative experience. It’s a love-hate relationship I have with the way this turns out in practice. I make this sound worse than it actually is. Forgetting about the multiplayer vs single player issue, the level design is extremely well done. Practically every level feels unique in its own way. Each world has an underlying theme, as is the case with the Mario games. Each world focuses on an environment, and develops the stages as you progress, utilizing the environment in every way imaginable into a crescendo in the final stage coupled with a really fun castle stage.

Lava=Bad

To go along with these are unique puzzle-like stages with Captain Toad. Since we can’t use 3D effects like the 3DS, they wanted to preserve some of that depth feel in some sort of gameplay, and thus created these small stages to fill that void. Captain Toad is vulnerable and can’t attack. You have full control over the camera, which helps you figure out what paths you can take to collect all the stars. They’re clever, and there’s just enough of them to be interesting without them overstaying their welcome. Along with these are Mystery Box stages where you go through a gauntlet of mini-sections requiring various tasks in order to acquire a multitude of stars. Speaking of stars, there’s a ton to acquire in the game. Every normal stage has 3 stars hidden in the stage along with a stamp to be used in MiiVerse (which is now closed permanently, unfortunately). Along with that, climbing to the top of the flag pole at the end will give you a special mark on the overworld. There’s plenty of collectibles to keep you busy. If you want to complete the game at 100% then you’d have to get all the stars and finish every single stage with a top-of-flagpole finish with every character. It’s a bit tedious, but thankfully you don’t need to do that in order to unlock all the real content, and is made easier via co-op since each player’s finish is counted towards the game’s completion.

One of the more interesting mini-bosses.

Along with the main 8 worlds, there are a handful of secret worlds that add some much needed challenge to a relatively easy game. I really like this idea of making the main game accessible so that nobody feels like they are unable to enjoy the adventure, then throwing a bunch of really challenging optional stages at the player if they choose to tackle them. As is expected there are bosses at the end of each world. Most of these bosses feel more like mini-bosses and progress as iterations on themselves, making them a little dull and repetitive. This has been a common issue with the series since the beginning, and is likely here to stay based on the way 3D World handles it. Halfway through every stage is a mini-boss, which is usually just fighting against a handful of enemies such as Fire Bros. The real joy is in the major bosses, which are between every couple worlds or so. They are huge, have unique fights and are very fun to fight against. The final encounter is an especially fun-filled encounter that is very different from what we’re used to in the franchise. It throws all sorts of surprises at you, is extremely tense and very satisfying upon completion. In fact, this may be my favorite finale of the entire franchise.

Where did Luigi go?

Super Mario 3D World was released during the Year of Luigi, and as such has a bunch of hidden 8-bit Luigi hiding all over the game, which is a cute little touch that makes this release extra special. This game doesn’t really do anything to re-invent the franchise, in the way that the 3D games are known to do. The thing is, this is perfectly fine. Super Mario 3D World takes the best parts of the entire franchise and throws them together in a sort of celebration of where Mario had come up to 2013. In many ways, this is refreshing and results in a very polished and fulfilling experience. If you are one of the lucky few who still has a Wii U and has not played 3D World, I would highly recommend you do so.

- Teepu

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Gameplay: A
Graphics: A+
Sound: A+
Value: A+

OVERALL: A+

Pros:
+ Extremely creative and varied level design despite having tons of levels overall
+ Large scale bosses are an absolute blast
+ Co-op is interwoven into the level design, allowing for many fun antics

Cons:
- Getting 100% while playing solo is painfully tedious
- The repeat bosses are underwhelming and repetitive
- MiiVerse being offline for Wii U means that some of the collectibles and their functionality have no purpose anymore (stickers for MiiVerse posts)

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