Super Mario 3D LandSuper Mario 3D Land
Year: 2011
Rating: E
Time Played: 676 minutes / 11.27 hours

There are few certainties in this life, but one of them is that Nintendo usually releases a Mario game to show off their new hardware. It might not be right at the launch, but it’s usually within the first few years—like Super Mario Odyssey. The Mario game that rolled out alongside the Nintendo 3DS was none other than Super Mario 3D Land. While it showed off the capabilities of the 3D screen that doesn’t need special glasses, its levels rehashed a lot of what had already been done in Mario games before.

Sure, the 3D effect in this game is quite striking. For handheld hardware, the game looks gorgeous. The thing is, it added nothing to the gameplay other than a third dimension to the visuals. And it’s not like its predecessor, the Nintendo DS, couldn’t also handle some level of 3D Mario platformer since it had Super Mario 64 DS. Still, having a 3D Mario platformer that had this level of visual polish was a nice introduction to what the 3DS could do. Not needing 3D glasses to get this effect is still an amazing feat in my book.

The thing is, most of the levels in this game felt like I had already played them before. There were the old standards like haunted houses and Koopa castles alongside other platforming challenges that looked like they were 3D versions of Super Mario World levels. Still, the portability of the 3DS made Super Mario 3D Land an easy pick-up-and-play game, as each level would only take a few minutes if I didn’t get stuck on a part where I kept dying (ironically enough, because of the added depth of field).

A Mario game with great polish for the 3DS, but lacking in new level design, I give Super Mario 3D Land 3.5 stars out of 5.

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