One of the greatest injustices in modern gaming is 2D Mario's success over 3D Mario. As Mario Galaxy mines the magical depths of the human imagination, it's New Super Mario Bros - safe, reliable New Super Mario Bros - that does the business.
Why bother, eh? Why bother flipping gamers inside out and upside down when all they want is to walk in a straight line? Nintendo believes the problem is accessibility: despite navigating a 3D space on a daily basis, people can't apply that knowhow in game. Ironically it is those who sit still - gamers - who understand 3D worlds best.
On a basic level, the game speaks the visual language of Super Mario Bros 1 and 3. Destructible bricks, question mark blocks and bottomless pits lead to a reassuring flagpole. Mario shrinks with a hit, grows with a mushroom. A more specific debt to SMB3 sees the revival of Tanooki tails, musical note blocks and battleship bosses. On the surface the game says "Don't be afraid 3D non-believer. You know this stuff."
Below the surface bubbles subtle attempts to ease newbies in. Large landmasses are all but removed in favour of linear obstacle courses. Side branches lead to Star Medals or 1-up opportunities, but for the most part Land's A to B dashes mimic Mario 64's Bowser gauntlets or Sunshine's abstract void stages.
Part of Mario 64's cleverness was letting us rotate the camera to a side-on view to make complex 3D spaces manageable. Nintendo enforce the view here so granny needn't get upset at camera controls. The grandmas of the world salute Nintendo. The arthritic ones just smile.
We'd argue Super Mario Galaxy 2 was already heading in this direction. In fact, some of its better galaxies inspire stages here.
Beat Block, where platforms shift in time to a metronome, returns, as does the notorious Flip-Swap. Ah, Flip-Swap. Without Mario's spin jump, platforms reverse on his common jump, turning it into a purer vision of hell. Throw in some cosmic clones in a later return visit (more on that in a second) and the stage is about as fist-gnawingly brutal as 3D Mario gets.
Point is, linear needn't be shorthand for easy. Problem is for the first half of Land, it is.
Super Mario 3D Land has the easiest Mario campaign since Super Mario Land 2. Yes, more so than New Super Mario Bros on DS. A mix of ailments does for the difficulty: an overabundance of power-ups keeps enemies at bay, while the massively overpowered Tanooki flutter is basically a shortcut over Land's more fiendish level design.
Level length is the real culprit. Stages are small, verging on micro - allegedly inspired by the time between the director's train stops.
The timer offers 400 seconds and rarely hits 200 before Mario has slid down the flagpole. Length prevents stages from blooming into true challenges. Where Galaxy introduced a level's gimmick in the first stretch and ramped it up from there, Land never takes ideas to gutsy extremes.
It is a game of enticing first stretches, slamming the ideas accelerator only to crash into a flagpole. We end up with ideas whiplash, and the sense of being short changed.
Comments
22 comments so far...
mountainflames on 10 Nov '11 said:
FIRST!!!! (And in 3d incase your screen can't display it!!)
Seems to be getting better 8.0 and 9.5...at least the quality of 3ds games are getting better.
jm3811 on 10 Nov '11 said:
First was Mauk Escher:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Escher_Waterfall.jpg
NEO_SUPERMAN on 10 Nov '11 said:
THIRD!
Toying with the idea of buying this bad lad and a 3DS for Xmas.
Something to anti-socially play as I sit amongst my family on Xmas day, rather than engaging in conversation, listening to my uncles "jokes", my nanas "anicdotes", watching the queens speech and wanting to throw myself headfirst out the window and into the cold snow.
DoomGuy84 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Ive been pondering over whether to buy a 3DS for this and Mario Kart but because i would only be playing this at home (i would be too scared to wonder the streets with a brand new 3DS) ive got a feeling i would breeze through it including the hidden worlds in a few hours. As a veteran of Mario 64, Sunshine and the galaxies, a few hours of joy may not be worth £160
humanhand on 10 Nov '11 said:
1,2,3... click click.
Clusks on 10 Nov '11 said:
Should've been the game the 3DS launched with.
Can't wait to play this, haven't played a Mario game for ages considering this is my first DS and I skipped the Wii
Joe_Slap on 10 Nov '11 said:
So half game is boring?
King Bohan on 10 Nov '11 said:
I'm liking the look of this! If they confirm the new Conduit game to be coming soon I may just buy a 3DS.
rbt2 on 10 Nov '11 said:
Sonic Generations?
Pfft!
Had this on preorder longer than I care to recall and I can't wait.
Mario's always bested Sonic - right from the early 90's and it's still doing it now.
razors edge on 10 Nov '11 said:
Sonic and Mario were NEVER in the same league, and I like Sonic.
I'm looking forward to this, will be busy with Skyward Sword though so it will have to wait until chrimbo. With this, Revelations at the end of January and Luigi's Mansion 2 inbound it's a good time to be a 3DS owner (now there are some words I never thought I'd type).
AJDarkstar on 10 Nov '11 said:
Loving the melding of New Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Galaxy visual styles. Still a bit perplexed by calling it "3D Land" - the 3D bit I get, before anyone says something stupid, but the land aspect? It isn't worded to riff off of Super Mario Land, I don't think, unless Nintendo are using the name to launch a new series. Now there's an enticing prospect! Bring back real flight!
PMIKE5 on 10 Nov '11 said:
I find it odd that when the article says half of the game just isn't good enough, the music was bitty and you have to hold the B button throughout the entire game, that this game receives a 9 out of 10. After reading this review, I was half expecting a 7 or even 6 (that is if 5 still means average). It just goes to show kids that you should never judge a game by it's score, always read the review.
Also, there was no mention of the garish colours.
Imaduck on 10 Nov '11 said:
This is a Nintendo title Mike, you have to take the reviews with a pinch of salt (or weed really) unless you're a fan.
Welsh Jester on 11 Nov '11 said:
Well i wouldn't call many of mario's games challenging.. since they went 3D they have been pretty easy.
Sonic Rush is more challenging than any Mario game i've played lately.
and unfortunately Mario 3D land looks like it's worth buying second hand.. a 4 hour game is pretty short, so that tells me it's probably made for kids in the difficulty department
Gutsukyo on 13 Nov '11 said:
Mario and Sonic are both good games. I mainly prefer Sonic over Mario b/c of the faster game play and awesome soundtracks. I'm still trying to decide on whether or not to buy a 3DS, video games have really become boring for me, but this Mario is looking pretty damn good. I just hope that they will release a a version of Sonic generations on the 3DS, b/c I really have no play to buy a PS3 or Xbox 360. And then again, there is Halo.
Balladeer on 13 Nov '11 said:
So tempted to put a rolling eyes emoticon here, but I'm not a complete ass. But for the love of all things vaguely sane, please read the article before you post. It'll save you embarrassment in the long run.
Fr33Kye on 13 Nov '11 said:
So i messed with a 3ds that was on display. I got to play super mario 3d land and see a bit of the 3d. First let me say that the night before i had watched immortals in 3d, and i have 20/20 vision. The 3d hurt my eyes, and i was surprised at the small viewbox where it worked but it didn't hurt my eyes that bad, and at the right angle i was actually impressed, and i really really wanted to see super mario 3d land. I eventually barely noticed any eye strain. I started playing super mario 3d land and i expected it to be amazing since every level seems to be designed to look better in 3d. So played super mario 3d land. Very disappointed with the 3d, at certain points it was a nice visual flair, but i felt overall it looked better with the 3d off.
So as for the game itself, amazing visuals, great use of a varied color pallet. I'm not a huge fan of super mario bros, at best i find it enjoyable with multiplayer, at worst i find it frustrating and extremely annoying. Super mario 3d land was much more enjoyable for me. I wasn't blown away but with the little amount of play time it seemed fun at it's core, had great looking levels, and i really hope to play it more at some point. Still a shame it seemed more enjoyable with the 3d off.
theideal on 14 Nov '11 said:
I totally disagree about the 3D. Mario 3D Land is the only game on 3DS that I prefer to play with the 3D on. There are 2 depth settings by the way, you switch between them with up and down on the Dpad. It just all feels as though the 3D is normal, as though it's always been there, it doesn't feel forced like every other game on 3DS, it just feels natural. It's perfect. You notice when the 3D is off rather than when you turn it on, as though it's missing something with it off rather than just being gimmicky when it's on.
Loving it so far and can't wait to get to the second bunch of worlds.
Fr33Kye on 14 Nov '11 said:
Ahh, well it must have been on it's lowest because i much preferred playing without it. Everything just seemed sharper with it off. Either way it seems like a good game.
shuggybarr on 19 Nov '11 said:
If you haven't bought this yer, try Morrison's. I got it this morning for £24.99. A tenner cheaper than HMV etc
shuggybarr on 19 Nov '11 said:
If you haven't bought this yer, try Morrison's. I got it this morning for £24.99. A tenner cheaper than HMV etc
shuggybarr on 23 Nov '11 said:
Wish the reviews had pointed out that you need to collect Star Medals.
I tried o go through it as quick as possible only to hi world 5.5 with only 22 medals. You need 50 by this point or you can't go any further.
Great - now I have to start all over again!!!!!