Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

It has become some sort of starting ritual for all of Nintendo's platforms. Whenever a new system comes out packed with a groundbreaking feature, Nintendo shows right off the bat how to take advantage of what the system has to offer in the way to building a successful game. Super Mario 64 did it for the tridimensional visuals of the Nintendo 64, Kirby's Canvas Curse defined the blueprint of how the touch screen could be used on the Nintendo DS and, more recently, Wii Sports displayed the different motions that could be captured by the Wii's remote control. Unfortunately, upon its release, Nintendo did not have any game of the sort ready to hit the Nintendo 3DS, and so, the system struggled for most of its first months of life. However, the time has come for Mario to once again pave the way to a large number of soon-to-be-released games that will put the 3DS' amazing visual effects to productive use; Nintendo has done it once more, Super Mario 3D Land shows developers how it is done, and does so quite masterfully.

Following in the footsteps of its sidescrolling predecessors, Super Mario 3D Land puts you in control of the game within 30 seconds of its beginning, right after you once again witness as Princess Peach is quickly kidnapped by Bowser, this time the crime occurs when she goes out to check one of the trees in her castle's yard after a stormy windy night. From that moment on, players will have over ten hours of glorious platforming waiting for them as Super Mario 3D Land feels like the spiritual 3D successor of the early Mario games. While Super Mario 64 gave depth and turned the Mushroom Kingdom into one huge explorable land, Super Mario Sunshine did pretty much the same, only in a tropical setting, and Super Mario Galaxy turned the world upside down; Super Mario 3D Land is the perfect translation of old-school Mario platforming onto the 3D realm.

The game's levels are as linear, short and straightforward as they could possibly be, and even though the game happens in a 3D environment, it is not hard to see that all of its levels could be seamlessly ported to a 2D plane without losing any of its value. If there is one complaint to be made regarding how the levels are designed, it is that it takes a while for them to pick up a good pace. Even though they are occasionally filled with interesting platforming mechanics, the early portion of the game feels a bit too effortless and by the time players reach the third world, a significant difference will be noticed regarding the game's pace and how everything gets much more thrilling as the title progresses.

One thing that stands out in terms of game design is that developers did not get restricted to a theme within each world. Sure, Mario will go through the conventional desert, some slippery plains, lakes, caves, haunted houses and so on, but developers were given a freedom to go wild with settings and – in a fashion that is similar to what can be found in Super Mario Galaxy – it is possible to, within the same world, play in a fiery pit just to be thrown in a snowy peak in the next level. It is a delightful kind of freedom that adds a lot of variety to an already varied game and that ends up resulting in some rather wacky scenarios where all platforming action takes place.

The first eight worlds are generally easy to go by, and its stages can be cleared quite quickly if players do not go out of their way looking for the three star coins hidden in each level, but Super Mario 3D Land holds another eight special worlds as a reward to those who made it through the game's first half. The special worlds are a challenging combination of new levels that require a ridiculous level of timing and old levels that are revisited either via speed runs where Mario has to collect clocks to avoid the time from running out before he reaches the flag, or through the appearance of Mario's cosmic clone that will follow the plumber for the entire level, not allowing players to even stop to take a breath. Those two twists will add unbelievable amounts of challenge to stages that did not seem to be that complicated on the first half of the game, it is clear that Nintendo chose wisely what levels would be revisited, because the returning stages are more than perfect for the added complications of speed running and the cosmic clone.

Mario games would not be Mario games if they did not feature a good amount of power-ups that turn an average fat plumber with an odd fashion sense into a superhero of sorts with mesmerizing powers. The celebrated return of the Tanooki Suit is more than justified, because it will make things a whole lot easier to certain players, and the game will also occasionally challenge you to get to certain parts of the level with the suit on – meaning, without ever getting a hit – so that Mario can snatch star coins or reach the top of the flagpole. However, the big star of the power-up sideshow is definitely the Boomerang Suit, which is incredibly useful to hit distant annoying enemies and even reach a few hard-to-get items. Once more, the power-ups add a lot of balance and challenge to an already fantastic game.

Super Mario 3D Land marks the first time on the system's lifespan where the 3D effects created by Nintendo's hardware are used for something other than making the game look prettier to the eyes. In some occasions, Mario will be put in a situation where a play on perspective by the developers makes certain platforms impossible to reach without the use of the 3D effects. You have got to literally see it to believe it. Unfortunately, those occurrences are way too rare, but they give players a glimpse of what the system's future might hold. 3D effects aside, the game's visual are absolutely stellar as all character models are extremely round and fluid with beautiful animations and the colors chosen to give life to the beautiful scenarios are just perfect. The system's hardware holds on its own quite well even as the game is displaying some frantic scene with bullet bills flying all around the screen while Mario jumps and gets attacked by a horde of enemies, Super Mario 3D Land is a sight to behold and its traditional tunes are pleasant to the ears.

It is hard to say whether or not Super Mario 3D Land is the ultimate platforming experience in the system. In fact, chances are, it will be surpassed down the line, but Mario comes to show the world what Nintendo's latest system can do and how its features can be positively used to affect gameplay, instead of restricted to the graphics department. The message has been sent, and the blueprint has been laid out, now all we have got to do is sit down and hope that developers not named Nintendo will use this masterpiece as a source of inspiration for games to come. Once more, Mario has gone above and beyond in doing his job.