Super Mario 3D Land is the best Super Mario game that Nintendo could made for the Nintendo 3DS. The game is perfect in what they wanted to do.

It's a super classic 3D Super Mario game. It's really fun to control Mario on those stages. I also have to say this: SUper Mario 3D Land is even better than the sequel Super Mario 3D World for the Nintendo Wii U.

Super Mario 3D Land also has the best 3D effect of the Nintendo 3DS. It's incredible how they made the game thinking the best way to use it.

If you have good memories with Mario franchise, I can say Super Mario 3D Land is a must have for you. I know it's really hard to find 3DS games because Nintendo shuted down the digital store, but if you have the game you have to play it.

Nintendo tributes Super Mario Bros. 3, one of the most inventive, joyously meaningful leaps they've ever taken, by taking a bunch of iconography from it for their kinda lame advertisement for a side gimmick most people turned off anyway.

Ok it's not as bad as that makes it sound, but we're scraping the barrel of Nintendo's game design here. Literally one of the first ? blocks has the raccoon suit in it for you to fuck around with. The easy criticism is that they want you to remember old thing to feel good, but the real problem is that this game has a lack of progression. You don't get the cape in Super Mario World until the second area for a reason; that game had design principles and ideas to introduce and wanted you to get to grips with the basic movement before unleashing you with the cool shit. This is so important to the game that when I watched people play that lovely SMW ROM hack where it was remade from memory, one of the first big things that jumped out to people was that they gave you a cape in the first area. And yeah that's because we've all played it 1000 times, but also because it fucks with the progression in a clear way. I shouldn't have this. In 3D Land you get that item within 10 steps because there's nothing they want or need to teach you. We're all on autopilot and everyone knows all you need to do is run and jump.

There's no concept of how the disparate levels fit together through theming or design, just some vague idea of gradually increasing difficulty and making sure there aren't like two Ghonst Houses in a row. It's a linear sequence of level ideas Shigru Miyamo had inbetween giving bad instructions to the Paper Mario guys for fun. The thing is, a lot of those levels are pretty fun, even though Mario's moveset is by far the lamest it's ever been. It turns out the minimum viable product baseline Nintendo platformer is still enjoyable because they know basic movement, momentum, and how to direct you through a level. They know too much to fuck it up but weren't ambitious enough to make it good.

In conclusion: play 3D World instead. I really like that game despite a fair number of these criticisms also applying to that. Does that mean I'm full of shit? Probably. But presentation means a lot. Plus it has more everything AND that more is higher quality. It brings my brain electricity to higher than 0, which is what I want in life and love.

La idea es la de siempre: completar, a base de saltos, una corta y condensada carrera de obstáculos. Lo que viene siendo un Mario 2D, ahora en 3D. Toca medir distancias en perspectiva cenital y depender de nuestra sombra para adivinar donde aterrizamos, cosa que no suma y los diseñadores lo saben. Para compensar, el juego de cámaras se las arregla continuamente para dirigirnos en una dirección clara (con posibles desviaciones laterales). Un apaño que deja caer el peso del juego en el diseño de niveles. Reduce el concepto de Mario a su esencia: saltar en parques de recreo imposibles. Alejándose del sandbox de la línea de 64 y eludiendo cualquier gimmick estúpida de los Galaxy (como prueba irrefutable de que estamos ante un gran Mario, la ausencia absoluta de Yoshi, que ni está ni se le espera). Ahora las plataformas desaparecen y aparecen, ahora rotan sobre si mismas o se inclinan con tu peso. Ahora lo mismo pero un mago te lanza proyectiles o tienes que esquivar unos rodillos de pinchos que se balancean. Sencillo, directo y divertido. El Mario más redondo desde Donkey Kong 94.

Mario playing it faithfully to a tee in 3D. Levels are short, narrow and platformy very akin to the 2D formula. Awesome variety in level themes per world, very refreshing when one world doesn't span one entire level thematic.

Mario overall feels good to control, though his air momentum can be weirdly over-sensitive at higher velocity and jittery to align with platforms due to the akward depth perception at times, meanwhile the movement acceleration is a bit slow and can make for some unintentional short distance leaps without a support of good sprinting distance.

However, whenever you have the tanooki suit you have the best air mobility in the game which completely breaks the game in half.

This game starts out as a leasurely stroll and turns upside down as you get to the later postgame levels. Many of these are almost par to par rehashes of their original stages with some altered or added obstacles, while others are completely different levels. Fuck the chasing cosmic marios clipping through everything, they were just cheating bulldozers and a bit overutilised. Other than that it's a great and oddly underappreciated mario title, not as high budget and spiced as 3D World, but it's still a high standard 3D platformer, amazing to play on the go.

This is basically the first mario game I have ever played since the original one because I pretty much never owned a nintendo console since recently so I might not have noticed certain issues more well versed nintendo/mario fans might have had.

The 3D effect is used nicely, graphically it looks nice and colorful and I appreciate how the levels are all short but to the point experiences, its basically 100% meant for a handheld and it works.

I guess my main issue is how easy it really is, I even went for all the stars and didn't have much trouble aside from a couple of ones so a little more challenge would have been nice.

Of all the changes to Mario's moveset, those regarding the long jump are perhaps the most immediately striking. It's utility has been altered to the point of seeming like an explicit downgrade compared to it's predecessors, sporting much shorter distance and lowered height. So low in fact that you may notice it's altitude throughout the duration is conspicuously aligned with the top of standard sized enemies, allowing for cathartically consistent 3D head bouncing. This is a very welcome addition in isolation but the real kicker is the way you can carry momentum from the long jump after the bounce. This was present in 64 and the Galaxy games as well but there was scarcely any reason to do so. Aside from the awkward high altituide, the long jump was just extremely powerful by itself and the level design didn't really incentivise it. The straight ahead, linear level design of 3D Land has allowed the designers to place enemies in such spaces that abusing them with the long jump allows you to skip past certain sections or just generally enjoy a much faster paced experience. This delightful action feels much like a classic 2D Mario maneuver although I'd say at their best, the multifaceted nature of the 3D environments allow this particular aspect to shine much more than the limited 2D planes did. Additionally, the Tanooki suit's flutter can also carry the long jump's momentum, letting you smugly ignore certain massive chunks of meticulously designed level geometry in a manner reminiscent of it's original SMB3 incarnation.

I believe this fundamental change to the way the long jump works is just one of many in favour of truly holistic game design. The long jump's original value to cross vast spans of distance still exists, it's just now dependant on other game factors. The enemies and power ups have been made quite valuable as a result, something 3D Mario had been struggling to accomplish-if not outright ignoring- for 15 years.

Perhaps the most apparent addition to Mario's new 3D control scheme is the dash which functions much like it did in Super Mario World as opposed to a more analogue momentum focused system. There is a short period where Mario goes into an initial dash state and will then transition into a distinct full speed state. What differentiates 3D Land's dash from World's is that the extra dimension allows this full speed state to be maintained as long as you have some flat ground as opposed to being forced out of it whenever you need to press left. Much like the long jump example, maintaining said speed for as long as possible across this Willy Wonka's Platform Factory of gimmicks is a pleasure that is most delightfully & texturally reminiscent of a momentum focused side scrolling Mario. That delicious taste of self authored risk that one can ebb and flow between to differing degrees depending on the context of the situation is just the right kind of dynamic and intrinsic magic that made the original so great.

The real genius of the dash's implementation, however, is how it solves the general movement problems of past 3D Mario's. In the Galaxy games, the lack of momentum helps in aiding precision but isn't as intrinsically enjoyable as 64's mobility. The problem with 64's movement is that when the game asks you to be precise, the slippery controls end up feeling like a hinderance. In 3D Land, you are defaulted to a precise and rigid movement system à la Galaxy and may opt in to a more slippery, risky, and enjoyable movement style whenever you please. This allows the level designers to create situations that are made with precision in mind but still let you to approach them with caution thrown to wind if you so wish. 3D Land takes the concept of World's dash, manages to conjure an appeal similar to it's momentum focused ancestors with it as a result of it's context and solves the issues with general movement from past 3D games all in one fell swoop.

When I concieved my hypothosis about 3D Land's holistic design goals, I believed I'd caught the game slip with it's big/small Mario system which seemed haphazardly thrown in for tradition's sake. I was pleasantly surprised to realise that the concept of breaking blocks from underneath has simply been replaced by rolling into discreet ground level blocks holding secrets in walls instead. This isn't as nuanced or dynamic as the more generally applicable blocks of old but handing out more concrete rewards for not getting hit is a decent compromise, especially considering the comparatively low difficulty.

From the innate joy of maintaining speed, jumping on enemies for big air and creating a wholly holistic dish
of mechanics, 3D Land is much more than just "3D Mario but now there's a goal pole at the end". This is a meticulous, virtuosically contructed true translation of Super Mario's very soul.

In the Iwata Asks: 3D land interview, director Hayashida commented that he wanted the game to be like a hamburger. Something you could "just gobble down".
Gobble it down I did, but I'd argue that the game is actually much more like homemade soup.
It's familiar in all the right ways. All the aspects that you remember being good are just as good as they always were.
It's comfortingly simple and easy to to digest, but you can taste the nuance and love underneath.
Yeah, maybe it could use a couple fewer dashes of auto/quasi-auto scrollers.
Yeah, maybe you aren't quite sure why those slices of side jumps are in there, but you're thankful for em anyway.
Gobble it down I did, indeed Hayashida. Needless to say that I'll be coming back for seconds.

Coin Companion

In a way, Super Mario 3D Land (2011) exudes as a class act in why historical familiarity of what lineage a recent work is actually building off of is useful context for assessment. What I mean is that Super Mario 3D World (2013, or 2023 depending on port) is clearly a direct continuation on the approach in this one but when I wrote my post on it I ignored the information I hadn't interfaced with to instead draw the point of influences from Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) which thereby stressed the excess of coins, gambling machines, weak boss engagements, etc.

While I think that the reflection holds water just fine without playing this one, its become a situation where the most frustrating aspects of 3D World become less acceptable. For instance, the Bosses in 3D Land have hazard variations during the fights, flame pits etc. The 7th stage boss actually throws 2 separate boss encounters at the player at the same time. Once we get to 3D World this aspect is removed for seemingly no reason. On the other hand, most of the iterations I applauded 3D World for actually started here. For instance, the rather large post game as well as the 'pity help' Invincibility Leaf are both concepts that were externalized properly in 3D Land. Unfortunately the main takeaway here is it makes the ease of the flat plain boss encounters in 3D World downright unacceptable, you fight every boss in that game 3 separate times and there's nothing to make them more difficult than last time. It's even the same 2 Bowser Jr. kids! They could have literally just self plagiarized the layouts from Land point blank and it would have been more interesting so its frustrating and bizarre that they didn't to the point it makes me depreciate those games remarkably more.

I don't think I'm quite as guilty of malpractice as I make it sound because after pondering it for a while I think the 'bad' naming conventions may be a way for Nintendo to basically launder its own products and create the illusion of the improvement towards some sort of ubermench supergame when in reality they are recycling their old ideas with a new coat of paint. There's something to be said about how not tacking a number on the end actually does manifest them more as art than as disposable products. There's a mildly funny meme that goes 'If sex is so good where is sex 2' but becomes funnier when you recognize this is a format that is only popular in gaming. The sequel to the Iliad (8th Cent. BCE) is not 'Illiad 2' it's The Oddysey. Ditto for Shakespeare, etc. So in that way I think Nintendo and Sega walking away from numerological conventions is a good thing, but we can't pretend that the increase in title jank like New Super Luigi U (2013) operates as anything other than an artifice to confuse potential consumers into the historical lineage because it would unmask that the companies behind it are running out of quickly marketable ideas.

If I timed my word count properly, the Coin Companion should be about finished speaking now so its up to you if you want to loop it or keep it off assuming you didn't turn it off within the first 3 minutes. It's very annoying isn't it? Well, I choose it for the point of accuracy, because its what happens apparently in a Mario title like 3D Land if you take away a score counter and replace it with coins. The hyper inflation of coins is not only grating it also trivializes most of how you engage with the levels. For instance trying to get higher on the pole at the end or do the 5 red coin challenges only reward you with a 1 Up, thereby making them only intrinsically motivated goals because the inflation in play is such that by world 5 you will have raked up so many coins to have somewhere in the ball park of 40 - 60 lives regardless of your skill level. Lives were already perfunctory in Mario games past the point of the Game and Watch to NES era but here they become so inflated as to make almost nothing in the level aside from the exit meaningful. For the record this probably does explain why World reintroduced score but I still hold to the point that the real approach is to use star bits instead with the ability to feed those star lumas for levels. Along with the currently substantiated 3 coins that you pick up so that everything in a level moves towards new unlockable level (hell you even still have a touchpad in both games to point and feed them with). This may seem like a paltry reward, but as Land's own structure shows, unlocking new levels is supposed to be its own reward. Which is fair actually, it worked for Mario Galaxy (2010) so there's no reason in theory it wouldn't work elsewise as long as the player is enjoying the game and wants to see more.

If its not obvious by now, I did not enjoy the game and now that I've hit the post game content I don't want to see more. There's a few reasons for this I haven't mentioned yet. For one, the depth perception for landing jumps is far more awkward, not particularly helped by the fact the camera is pointed mostly down at the player so it makes it hard to see gaps forwards unless you walk. On top of this the main appeal of Land is supposed to be as a way to show off the 3D effects of the 3DS, which to be fair, its not nothing, its a pretty cool effect as long as you line your eyesight up with the device in a perfect perpedicular angle, but the Binoculars that you can stop and look through actively expose the weakness of the technology the moment you move around: if you aren't looking perpedicular the effect is garrishly disorienting. As if youre glasses fell off in the middle of a traffic stop with everything blurring up and looking hideous. More particularly, you can't play as Peach in this game, and shes made a sexist trope as per usual in this one. Worse than usual because in the picture letters between levels shes crossing her eyes a lot. She has so little autonomy in this one it borders on the expectations you'd get for those fetish porn mobile games. It's absurd, they have pink ribbons around the cage and in every cutscene all she yells is 'mario' and all Mario does is his strained wahoos and yipees that made me want to chop out his tongue and cook it as a delicatessen for Bowser.

Peach sexism would be heinous on its own, but it's even worse here because I realized in the course of play as Mario that trying to actually land jumps without a float mechanic to give control in the air is miserable. If you don't have the Tanuki suit on, you're going to fall off and die from an inability to assess how far your limited movement can take you. My guess is that if you aren't playing as Peach in 3D World its almost equally miserable, but at least in that one you can blow up the screen more to a whole TV to get a sense of your jump length and also there's enough camera variation and general spectacle to keep it at bay.

Now that I've bloated the length of this piece to the point only the regulars are going to read I'm going to unveil my true extremism: Peach supremacy. Mario has fallen off since 64, his long jump isn't nearly as good anymore, hes old and weak and unlikable. He should retire. Everything that makes the 3D games good is a sense of control which is why high level 64 play feels so satisfying. In Sunshine he 'crossdresses' via peach's float with the help of F.L.U.D.D. but then abandoned that once he realized the public wouldn't like him for it. Meanwhile he and Bowser maintain a sexist dowry over Peach which she openly flaunted against at the end of Odyssey. In every game where you play as Peach shes far more entertaining and satisfying on both a mechanical and story level. The sections in Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door were way more interesting for instance. Also, she's a go to character to play in Double Dash until you unlock Toadette, because the Heart power is sleeper good. If Nintendo is going to put off their announcements due to the death of the queen, they should just go full monarchist and respect their own queen and free her! I have retroactively decided every Mainline Mario title between Sunshine up to Bowser's Fury is bad if there is no Peach gaming and that every game where you play as Peach clears. I also will now agknowledge every Sunday as the Day of Peach. Now I must write another paragraph to hide this rampant monarchist support from the public in case they decide to just skip to the last paragraph to 'get the jist'.

All in all I think 3D Land exposed to me a latent point that is always worth keeping in mind: Game Companies are constantly borrowing their own ideas and pretending otherwise for the illusion of novelty. It's probably better to check the historicity of what has directly inspired a work before writing a large critique on one game over the others and, to that effect, is a tacit reason why going through a franchise in order of release might be a good idea. Therefore if I ever talk about Zelda or Metroid games you better believe I'm going to try and play them in chronological order so I have enough familiarity to say what has been added and what hasn't. Perhaps ditto with every franchise, we will see though.

3D Land é o puro suco de Mario destilado para caber numa tela portátil. Dá para pegar ele em qualquer momento, qualquer nível, e ter uma sensação de diversão e se sentir satisfeito em coisas de minutos. É como um gerador de gratificação instantânea na palma de suas mãos.

3D Land é também, ao mesmo tempo, originalíssimo e um resgatador de legados. Ele é um novo jeito de se fazer Mario, diferente do visto tanto nos side-scrollers quanto nos 3Ds. Mas ele cria esse novo jeito pegando inspirações fortes dos Marios de NES e GB. Ele é o "verdadeiro" New Super Mario Bros. que New Super Mario Bros. jamais foi.

E, acima de tudo, 3D Land é um jogo bom. Consistentemente bom, do início ao fim. Bom, bom, bom.

Mas não excelente.

Não sei muito bem explicar essa sensação. Me diverti rejogando 3D Land do início ao fim, sem nenhum momento sequer de tédio. Até me espantei com o quão rápido zerei ele - fiz tudo em apenas umas 3 sessões de jogatina, completando de 2 a 3 mundos inteiros de uma vez só. Esse é um jogo muito fácil de pegar e só jogar, jogar, jogar.

Entretanto, se jogar 3D Land foi uma experiência sem vales, também foi sem nenhum pico memorável. E se tem uma coisa que eu sei que essa série é capaz de fazer é criar momentos marcantes de quase êxtase.

Bom em tudo, excelente em nada. Acho que essa é o elogio mais cruel que posso dar a Super Mario 3D Land.

Super Mario 3D Land is how I thought the Mario game from the future would be like when I was playing Super Mario World in the early 90s.

3D Land doesn't offer the level of freedom that other 3D Mario games like 64 and Sunshine do, but it provides just enough 3D movement set in linear levels to create a unique experience hence why this game is to me, the natural progression of Mario games from 2D to 3D.

Level variety is great with different themes, colorful locations, and design that offers both vertical and horizontal configuration of levels.

I didn't think it was possible to relive childhood experiences, but 3D Land was able to convey emotions that I experienced playing masterpieces like Super Mario World and that alone makes this game something very special in my collection.

Uau, quem diria que a franquia Super Mario seria uma das melhores dos videogames 😱😱

Mas é, gostoso demais. Sinceramente é até emocionante o quão esse jogo explora as 3 dimensões duma fase clássica do Mario, é obviamente menos experimental que Super Mario 64, mas acho que em sua plenitude alcança resultados muito mais satisfatórios de se analisar.

Fora que é um jogo extremamente fácil e convidativo. Não sei se gosto exatamente de ser fácil, mas o fato de ser convidativo apeteceu muito meu cérebro complecionista que curte pegar tudo em colletaton. Eu tava meio traumatizado com fazer 100% em jogo do Mario depois de ter sido basicamente punido por pegar todas as estrelas em Super Mario 64 (sério, não jogue pela primeira vez pegando tudo, só aproveita as fases).

Faz muito bem pra Super Mario 3D Land ser um jogo de portátil. São poucos colecionáveis, são fases rápidas e sucintas que precisam do tempo suficiente só pra explorar o conceito que ela vai apresentar (e provavelmente não vai mais voltar), e a construção dos segredos faz com que a fase se revele totalmente pra você depois do 100%. É uma exploração da "perspectiva da plataforma" bem melhor realizada, até.

Enfim, joguem. É bem legal.

Esse jogo é incrivel, sério, Super Mario 3D Land é um jogo extremamente fácil de ser elogiado principalmente se for jogado através do proprio console que foi o meu caso, pois em momentos chaves é extremamente util e até mesmo muito bonito e impressionante de se usar o 3D do console.

Jogar esse jogo é uma experiência bem única, apesar de ser o mesmo e bom jogo do mario 3d de sempre, ele faz com maestria diversas coisas, tais elas como; Level design das fases, a construção dos cenários, o retorno de diversos inimigos clássicos com um design mais polido e moderno sem estragar a essência dos antigos, os power-ups, entre diversas outras coisas que tornam esse jogo fantástico

Em resumo, é mais um jogo do mario, mas é mais um jogo do mario com todos os pontos positivos que fazem ser um jogo excelente da franquia, é uma experiencia extremamente agradável, leve, curta e que é quase obrigatória pra quem tem o console.

this game keeps reminding you to take a break whilst playing so just to spite them i beat it in a single sitting.

there is no bad level in this game. such consistently phenomenal platforming. there aren't that many levels in this game, but when there are single levels in 3d land with more ideas that entire other games, how can you complain?

my biggest gripe (which is pretty small all things considered) with this is the difficulty, there was no level that took more than like 15 tries. would've preferred if it demanded a bit more out of me. also it's 30fps, a very stable 30fps, but a game like this should really be 60.

god how is every 3d mario game so fucking phenomenal. he is the king of games and i am his loyal servant boy.

One of the first and most notable titles on the 3DS. It's not notable for being an amazing game or anything, it's just notable for being a 3D Mario game. And why shouldn't it? Mario is what started the entire 3D genre, and is the main innovator of it to this day. However, this title sits on a different couch than the main 3D titles. Unlike 64, Sunshine, the Galaxy games, Odyssey, and even it's direct sequel on Wii U, this black sheep of 3D Mario games doesn't do much to innovate. It's kinda just a 2D Mario game that decides to use the z-axis.

While 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy have their own unique controls and mechanics, 3D Land aims for something much more standard of the Mario franchise. What it does is take the formula of 2D Mario games and implement them in a 3D environment. This includes many things that make it completely different from every other 3D title.

Instead of a health bar, Mario's health is now determined by his current power-up. Small Mario has 1 hitpoint, a mushroom will turn that into 2, and any other power-up will make that 3. Levels are now incredibly linear and end at a flagpole rather than a collectible. Although the Galaxy games also had a somewhat linear level structure, there's still more room to explore as well as more depth to the level design itself.

Mario's moveset is withered down to fit with the "2D in 3D" environments. You've got the normal jump, side somersault, and long jump for basic movement options. No double or triple jump this time around, which is weird because those were also present in the New Super Mario Bros. games. Instead of a traditional backflip, you can crouch for a second to charge a backflip akin to the high jump in Super Mario Bros. 2. This move has little to no use and I cannot recall a single time I used it. Mario can roll by pressing the dash button while crouching, and this also has little to no use. This is only mandatory to use if there's a block in front of you that you needed to break and you don't have a tanooki suit. It's incredibly unreliable as a movement option because it has an insane amount of lag and doesn't increase your speed because of that. The weirdest thing about the movement is how stupid the normal jump is. It goes just as far, if not, further, than the long jump, goes about as high as the side somersault, and still allows you to keep your momentum after. If there's a jump you need to make to the flagpole and you need a lot of distance to get to it, don't long jump, a normal jump will do just fine. The inclusion of a dash button also feels somewhat redundant, mainly because there's never a single moment in which you won't be holding it down.

The power-ups don't change his basic moveset much aside from the tanooki suit, which is actually really fun to use. It allows you to hover and gain more speed with a weird dash crouch hop movement trick. The other power-ups are just there. The fire flower lets Mario shoot fireballs, and the boomerang flower lets Mario throw boomerangs. Nothing noteworthy outside of the tanooki suit.

To be fair, Mario's movement was made this way so it would fit the with level design perfectly. In that regard, I would say these movement options are fine. The level design present here is very linear. You need to get from the start to the flagpole, while collecting star coins along the way. You can really tell that this is just a 2D game brought over to 3D, because there's almost nothing special here that's noteworthy. Generic looking platforms on a generic looking background for every single level. There are almost no interesting gimmicks or design choices in general that caught my attention or made me think. The levels would enter my mind the moment I started them, and leave the instant I touched the flagpole. That's not to say that the level design is bad, far from it, but it lacks its own personality and identity. It doesn't help that the game directly after this, 3D World, adopted this exact same approach but with better level design.

There's nothing here that stands out to make this Mario title a unique experience. Everything that's present in 3D Land, you can find in 3D World with interest. The level design is boring and uninspiring, literally just taking 2D level themes and putting them in 3D. The movement is weirdly limiting and standardized. Say what you want about any of the other 3D titles, but when I pick one of those games up, there are differences aplenty. Each title gives Mario different movement options to help him traverse through the levels. No two games feel similar in the slightest. 3D Land takes the most standard movement options and does nothing new with them. The movement here feels like a 2D game at best and a more barren version of any other 3D game at worst. It fits the level design, sure, but it's definitely the most "Mario feeling" Mario game out there. This kind of standardization is even seen in the soundtrack. I can't recall a single original theme off the top of my head, every track is either a remix from Mario 3 or straight up recycled from the Galaxy games.

Something else to note is that this game is really easy. Like, Kirby levels of easy. The only times I found myself dying were because I was being impatient and trying to speed through the levels as fast as I could with no regard for my lives. Even the final level, which is supposed to be a super difficult gauntlet filled with obstacles seen throughout the whole game, is a joke compared to other gauntlet levels. Combine this with the tanooki suit, which lets you fly your way out of many dangers, and the whole game becomes a cake walk.

With all of that being said, I want to make it clear that this is far from a bad game, but it definitely is a very disappointing game. Mario 3D games are possibly the biggest game releases in the entire gaming industry, so to see a 3D title come out with nothing new to add to the table and nothing to say for itself is certainly sad to see. What's here is enjoyable, nothing more, nothing less. It fits the nature of many 3DS games of being easy to pick up for a couple of minutes and then put down again. If you want a very standardized game that's good fun the whole way through, then this fits the bill nicely. However, if you want a game that actually stands out, for better or for worse, then any of the other 3D titles will offer a much more memorable experience.