There have been tons of great Mario games but I think this is one of the more influential 3D entries. At this point, 3D entries like Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy, etc. created gameplay systems that strayed from the 2D formula; this game is a literal translation of the 2D mechanics into the third dimension. The concept is the best thing going for this game: it's fun to experience Mario in this new way. This game has since been eclipsed by 3D World but it's still worth playing if you're a fan of the franchise.

After the weird half-step toward course clear Mario in 3D we got in the Galaxy games, this goes all the way without actually fixing the slippery mismatched moveset that plagued Galaxy. Where Galaxy at least has its wonderful atmosphere and lively level design to lean on, 3D Land carries over that plasticky New Super Mario Bros. art style at a point in time when goodwill toward games styled like that was wearing thin. It's got the same old Galaxy problems with none of the Galaxy charm.

The change in gameplay is much more explicit than the previous two games...this is NSMB but in 3D, plain and simple. That's fine with me conceptually (though the dry visuals bug me), and I adore this game's followup which does the same thing, I just don't think they thought through how Mario should look and move in 3D if pure platforming in a 3D space is the goal. Doing intense platforming challenges is really hard to get right in 3D, and that's a large part of why Mario 64 and its ilk were so creatively successful: de-emphasizing platforming and introducing exploration and collectables in its place means you don't really have to tackle the problem head-on. This sort of makes an attempt, but I think Nintendo's primary answer to the problem is stereoscopic 3D and its potential to give players additional depth information that is hard to gather quickly without the effect. I don't think that's enough.

Look, I'm not sure if it's something wrong with the 3D implementation or if it just doesn't work quite right for my eyes, but I made a lot of confident but completely wrong jumps due to it. I adjusted over time to kind of tolerate it, but at the very least it does not help 3D platforming like I assumed it would. The bigger problem, though, is that Nintendo seemed to think that it would make such a massive difference that they could stop caring about camera alignment and just put it wherever they want. This is such a loose feeling game partially because of the controls but mostly due to truly awful camera placement that seems to have no Idea a person was actually supposed to play this. This was Nintendo's solution to the difficulty of 3D platforming, and it didn't really work. I suspect they realized this, and that's why the platforming challenges (even in the special stages) are so modest compared to the sequel or even the more involved areas in collectathon Mario games.

Even if the stereoscopic 3D did fix the depth perception issues, I don't think they would have been able to go all that far with the platforming, because the controls just feel like they're built for another kind of game entirely. The game doesn't nudge your analog movements into matching 8 directions nearly as aggressively as 3D World and the perspective is so much closer to the player that it means the camera must whip around constantly and as a result the meaning of pressing a direction is always changing. The 3DS circlepad also has a circular gate unlike the consoles previous releases were on, which means there's no physical barrier helping you line things up, either. None of this makes sense for an entry that is far more about simply running and jumping than the 3D games had ever been before, yknow?

I sound like I hate this more than I do. It's frustrating but ultimately mostly okay. I enjoy the baseline of what a Mario game is and this is a breezy enough game that kinda sorta approaches that baseline. Kinda.