Hardly following the lineage of 3D Mario and pulling much more heavily from the 2D course clear originals, 3D World is an oddball among the console Marios. While the Galaxy games gently pulled away from the calmer freedom and exploration of 64 and Sunshine in favor of an entirely linear sequence of heavily scripted setpieces, this one goes all out, almost seeming to come from a universe where there never was a 3D Mario.
In fact, I'd say that's the question at the heart of 3D World: "What if we start over?" Super Mario 64 was a game built from the ground up to address the new difficulties of navigating a 3D space, and as such it didn't really care much to be a platformer. The sequels (and the entire 3D platformer genre) built on that foundation. Platforming was present, but more of a style of presentation than its own end. 3D World is built from going back in time to the mid 90s and asking what a Mario game in 3D would be like, but this time with modern controls and a modern audience that doesn't need to be gently pulled into 3 dimensions, targeting generations that practically had analog sticks in the womb.
The answer they land on is an incredibly literal translation of the course clear games, to a point that's almost surreal. In your hands, it feels just like 2D Mario always has, down to the familiar position of holding run on Y and shifting your thumb to hit jump on B. After a bit of figuring out what works like 2D and what works like 3D (Can I stand on whomps? Can I hold shells, and when I let them go, what will they do? etc), you get the idea and feel right at home. Still, it's a slippery and awkward result, with most of my deaths being accidental slips or dives, but it can also be intensely satisfying and hypnotic in a way I've never felt in a 3D platformer before. That magical flow-state zen I get from the best levels in SMB3 and SMW is replicated here, and that's no small feat. It singlehandedly justifies the approach they took.
Yet, the game has flaws which run incredibly deep: it fails in ways 3D Mario never had before...and very similarly to the recent 2D games, actually. This is the most plastic Mario has ever looked, being basically identical to the NSMB designs. The series' look was already watered down decades earlier with Super Mario World, but this reached a new level of bland. I don't remember a single musical moment even having finished it minutes before writing this. The title itself feels like it was shit out from a name generator, and in general it just looks uninspired. When this game came out (despite having a Wii U I didn't actually play it until a few years later), it really felt like the series had lost its interest in being anything more than competent family-friendly filler. The 3D games on home consoles had outwardly retained their integrity beforehand, still presenting themselves as forwardthinking and adventurous, but this appeared to be as content with mediocrity as the already-overdone NSMB series. Of course, as I've already discussed, it's actually probably the most radical experiment they've ever taken, a fact that Nintendo seemed to be embarrassed to show off.
I'm not sure where exactly this entry sits in my head. Undoubtedly, I prefer the return to collectathon Mario that Odyssey followed 3D World up with. I still feel some lingering resentment over how this seemed to confirm at the time that the Mario I loved was dead. But at the same time, this is a fucking weird game that tried something new: making a 3D Mario that is a platformer first and foremost, where the core of the experience in jumping from platform to platform...and I can't deny that it works pretty well. I've learned to respect and enjoy 3D World quite a bit, but it can stay in the past as a fun strange direction they took once.
The thought experiment that Nintendo plays out with this game is so interesting, but the result is a reaffirmation of the new principles Super Mario 64 invented. We can be sure now that history went down the right path, that the direction gaming took was not just a compromise due to unfamiliarity with 3D, but was actually the optimal way to use that new dimension. In other words, here Nintendo proved that Mario 64 was correct.
In fact, I'd say that's the question at the heart of 3D World: "What if we start over?" Super Mario 64 was a game built from the ground up to address the new difficulties of navigating a 3D space, and as such it didn't really care much to be a platformer. The sequels (and the entire 3D platformer genre) built on that foundation. Platforming was present, but more of a style of presentation than its own end. 3D World is built from going back in time to the mid 90s and asking what a Mario game in 3D would be like, but this time with modern controls and a modern audience that doesn't need to be gently pulled into 3 dimensions, targeting generations that practically had analog sticks in the womb.
The answer they land on is an incredibly literal translation of the course clear games, to a point that's almost surreal. In your hands, it feels just like 2D Mario always has, down to the familiar position of holding run on Y and shifting your thumb to hit jump on B. After a bit of figuring out what works like 2D and what works like 3D (Can I stand on whomps? Can I hold shells, and when I let them go, what will they do? etc), you get the idea and feel right at home. Still, it's a slippery and awkward result, with most of my deaths being accidental slips or dives, but it can also be intensely satisfying and hypnotic in a way I've never felt in a 3D platformer before. That magical flow-state zen I get from the best levels in SMB3 and SMW is replicated here, and that's no small feat. It singlehandedly justifies the approach they took.
Yet, the game has flaws which run incredibly deep: it fails in ways 3D Mario never had before...and very similarly to the recent 2D games, actually. This is the most plastic Mario has ever looked, being basically identical to the NSMB designs. The series' look was already watered down decades earlier with Super Mario World, but this reached a new level of bland. I don't remember a single musical moment even having finished it minutes before writing this. The title itself feels like it was shit out from a name generator, and in general it just looks uninspired. When this game came out (despite having a Wii U I didn't actually play it until a few years later), it really felt like the series had lost its interest in being anything more than competent family-friendly filler. The 3D games on home consoles had outwardly retained their integrity beforehand, still presenting themselves as forwardthinking and adventurous, but this appeared to be as content with mediocrity as the already-overdone NSMB series. Of course, as I've already discussed, it's actually probably the most radical experiment they've ever taken, a fact that Nintendo seemed to be embarrassed to show off.
I'm not sure where exactly this entry sits in my head. Undoubtedly, I prefer the return to collectathon Mario that Odyssey followed 3D World up with. I still feel some lingering resentment over how this seemed to confirm at the time that the Mario I loved was dead. But at the same time, this is a fucking weird game that tried something new: making a 3D Mario that is a platformer first and foremost, where the core of the experience in jumping from platform to platform...and I can't deny that it works pretty well. I've learned to respect and enjoy 3D World quite a bit, but it can stay in the past as a fun strange direction they took once.
The thought experiment that Nintendo plays out with this game is so interesting, but the result is a reaffirmation of the new principles Super Mario 64 invented. We can be sure now that history went down the right path, that the direction gaming took was not just a compromise due to unfamiliarity with 3D, but was actually the optimal way to use that new dimension. In other words, here Nintendo proved that Mario 64 was correct.