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Super Mario 3D Land review

Game: Super Mario 3D Land
Platform: 3DS
Genre: Action (Platformer)
Developer: Nintendo

Staff review by Jason Venter

November 09, 2011

Here’s a shocker: one day, Bowser kidnapped Princess Toadstool. He took his dainty captive to his castle and then he dispatched his minions to make sure that no mustached heroes would mount a rescue attempt. That’s the extent of the plot in Super Mario 3D Land. The simple and familiar story works yet again, though, because it’s not like anyone was looking for narrative excellence. What gamers really want--and what this newest title delivers so effortlessly--is the sort of gameplay magic that made everyone think so highly of Italian plumbers the first time the tale unfolded.

As Mario, you’ll journey through eight worlds in search of the blond-haired heroine and the delights that await discovery along the way. None of the regions feature any unifying elements of note. The fifth world doesn’t consist almost entirely of high-altitude challenges, for example, and you won’t run through a string of chocolate environments. The lack of thematic connections between stages is mildly disappointing after the interesting zones that players saw in the likes of Super Mario World and even New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but it’s not really a big deal. Besides, the developers made up for the potential shortcoming by providing models of each stage that you’re about to enter. Such visual cues are helpful if you decide to revisit a favorite stage but don’t automatically associate your old stomping grounds with an arbitrary number.

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While advancing through each world, you’ll sometimes take a helpful break by visiting a mushroom house or a bonus box where you can claim extra lives, star coins or power-ups. These brief respites are a one-time deal, and since you can only carry one extra item at a time (as in Super Mario World), you’ll want to delay entering Toad’s house until you actually need his assistance. You can tap along the top of the bottom screen to revisit a world you’ve already cleared, in case you need to stock up on extra lives (though that isn’t likely to prove necessary until late in the proceedings). If you enable StreetPass and find a trading partner, you can also share conquered bonus stages with friends who may not be as excellent as you.

At the end of each world, you’ll sometimes enter a dark and mysterious castle to do battle with Bowser. More often, you’ll face his offspring after navigating one of several flying airship stages that all feel as if they could have been ripped directly out of Super Mario Bros. 3. There’s no king in animal form waiting for you to zap him back to health by retrieving a magical wand, but the process still feels pleasingly familiar.

Super Mario 3D Land is clearly ready to have a love affair with your nostalgic side. You can make a game out of recognizing musical compositions, enemies and even platform types that you recall from elsewhere. Given the raccoon tail, the airships, the mushroom houses and a variety of other returning elements, it’s clear from the start that Super Mario Bros. 3 was the development team’s primary source of inspiration. Yet there are the flagpoles and underground areas and brick castles from the original Super Mario Bros. and there are the massive spiked columns and oversized Bullet Bill enemies that didn’t make a first appearance until Super Mario World, as well. Then there are varieties of Thwomp enemies that held out for Super Mario 64, and there are numerous surprises that can’t be described without spoiling one thing or another.

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Somehow, despite the fact that the game features elements from a number of distinct games spanning nearly three decades, everything fits. Past successes are plundered only as appropriate. You’ll want to explore every nook and cranny of the Mushroom Kingdom on this particular visit, just so you can see how everything works in three dimensions. The game effectively encourages such behavior by providing plenty of special star coins to collect. At key points throughout your adventure, you’ll need to have obtained a certain number of the trinkets before you can proceed through a given barrier. Each proper stage features three such coins. Some lie directly in harm’s way and you’ll perhaps choose to come back for them later. Others can be found only when you slow down and look around for a bit, reminding you yet again that it’s okay to relax.

In an effort to make a substantial experience available to everyone, the game provides multiple routes to nearly every goal flag. The developers did a nice job of rewarding the player who takes more risks, but there’s often an easier way around the more challenging gauntlets. In addition, players who have too much trouble (five deaths in the same stage ought to do the trick) will eventually prompt a magic block to appear. That block yields a glowing leaf that grants invincibility for the remainder of the current level. You don’t have to grab it if you don’t want to, of course. Real satisfaction comes only when you triumph over each obstacle using only the more standard special abilities.

There are three such abilities that you can find on your way to the showdown with Bowser at the end of the eighth world, if you exclude the short-lived invincibility star that appears in some stages and the blocks that you can carry to perform spinning jumps that carry you skyward. Mario can snag a fire flower that enables him to toss fireballs, or he can pick up the boomerang brother suit or the leaf. The developers robbed the raccoon tail of its flying ability, which perhaps ought to be disappointing, but the stages are built in such a way that the new limitation doesn’t matter. There’s no reason to fly if there’s nothing overhead but blue sky, after all, and the areas that you’ll explore still deliver plenty of altitude-based challenges when they’re needed.

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Super Mario 3D Land’s worst offense winds up being its control scheme. If you’ve played the classic NES titles for too many years, some habits die hard and Mario will pay the price. Specifically, it is difficult to build up the speed that is required to make some long jumps, and faltering mid-air while attempting some jumps will lead straight into a bottomless pit. That’s not an issue that will prevent you from reaching the closing credits, but cheap deaths do happen just the same (particularly if you take it upon yourself to find every last star coin, or if you try to clear the substantial and extremely demanding post-game content). Deaths can also feel extra cheap in those few rare cases where the camera obscures the path forward. Fortunately, such instances are rare and the game as a whole is polished enough that it’s easy to forgive the occasional misstep.

When Nintendo initially launched the 3DS hardware, the system didn’t feature must-have content even for the company’s most loyal fans. It took some time, but Super Mario 3D Land has changed that condition. Mario’s newest handheld romp features exemplary gameplay that nails all the right adjectives: robust, engaging, charming and challenging. It will surely leave most gamers hoping that Bowser stages a few more abductions in the near future.

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