The Mario series has recently got repetitive and unimaginative. I was worried this would be the point where it stopped being the perfect example of game design it once was, but Super Mario 3D World proved me wrong. Super Mario 3D World is the best Mario game since Galaxy 2, and in many ways it’s almost like a new Mario Galaxy game. It’s full of playful ideas, creative power-ups and pitch-perfect design.
The graphics look beautiful. They’re crisp and sharp, and 3D World revels in telling you that. From visually stunning cutscenes to camera angles that show you the world’s beauty, Super Mario 3D World uses graphics to generate an atmosphere that’s unrivalled by other games. This is the best Mario games have ever looked, in glorious, colourful HD. Lots of new environments help make it look so good. Tiny details aren’t overlooked- small droplets of water trickle down the screen in rainy levels. There is a level set in the African Savannah, in which the sun casts a lovely spell on the land. Even environments from previous Marios are updated to look fantastic: the water sparkles beautifully in the beach levels and the lava in volcano levels has never looked more alive.
The fantastic music sets the atmosphere, ranging from the haunting ghost house theme to the many jazzy tunes in the game. The recordings are of excellent quality, too.
But while the presentation of the game firmly pushes it into the next-gen, it’s the groundbreaking gameplay that makes it one of the best Mario games. Multiplayer is a riot, with chaotic gameplay that’s full of calamity, and yet fun. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses, for example, Peach is one for inexperienced players as she can glide and runs slower. It’s one of the best additions to a Mario game since he went to space. It is annoying, however, that players share lives, so an expert player may find all their lives drained if they’re playing with a novice. This isn’t a huge problem, though, as getting a game over only takes you back to the start of the level. Local multiplayer is a blast, but it’s a shame there’s no online.
There are loads of new power-ups and items. As well as returning ones, the cat suit allows Mario to climb walls and scratch enemies, but the double cherry was my favourite. Every time you collect one, it creates a clone of you that you control at the same time. Soon I had five clones of myself and combined with fire Mario, I could shoot five fireballs at a time! It allows for fun, chaotic gameplay.
Of course the power-ups would be useless without the level design, and 3D World succeeds on that area too. Levels are brimming with creativity. Each one is wildly different from the other. Some of my favourites were an underground level in which you could only see the shadows of everything. In another, there were platforms that appeared and disappeared in time with the rhythm of the music. Mario 3D World juggles tonnes of new ideas but never lets any of them outstay their welcome. I constantly complete a level (which usually take about 5 minutes) to be faced with yet another idea which turns everything on its head. Sadly, the Gamepad is integrated very little into the game. That second screen’s capabilities are not utilised nearly as much as they should be. This doesn’t remove the creativity in the game at all though, and 3D World has some of the best bosses in the series, with hugely inventive battles, despite there not being enough of them.
Levels are at their most challenging in this entry in the series, as well. Prepare to die a lot, especially in the later stages. Some of the levels in the Bowser world seriously challenged me, with one in particular killing me over fifteen times. Overall, the game took me about 10 hours from the beginning to the end credits, which is an underwhelming length when compared to its predecessors. It’s got a lot of content, but the fact levels are short bursts of energy rather than the long challenges they were in games in the Galaxy series means 3D World is a lot shorter. There are however 3 green stars and a stamp to collect in each level, which are hidden in hard-to-find areas or put in precarious positions that are extremely hard to reach and survive. There are also extra levels available after you beat the game, but fewer than in past Mario games. Altogether, though, 3D World does add up to a longer experience than 10 hours, particularly if you aim to complete it 100%. It’s an excellent Mario game, one that’s constantly throwing in something new. It has better graphics and framerate than the majority of PS4 and Xbox One launch games and, best of all, it’s huge fun to play. It can easily claim the prize of being an outstanding platformer, and it proves that even now, Nintendo can still create an inventive, fresh and well-designed Mario game as much as they could 25 years ago.