Super Mario 3D Land Review
Image credit goes to Mario Wiki
The Nintendo 3DS didn't have a substantial amount of games during its release other than remakes of older games including; The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Star Fox 64 3D. The remakes weren't bad at all, but playing the same games altered to appear in 3D isn't much of a change, although people still buy the remake's either for casual gameplay or if he or she has never tried the original version of the games. As the 3DS slowly progressed in sales, so did the development of new games for the handheld itself, and finally a handful of new games began to pop up, most noticeably Super Mario 3D Land which had become a hit.
Super Mario 3D Land brings a whole new adventure, with all new enemies, Power-Ups, an in-depth 3D experience, and much more. Super Mario 3D Land is a single player 3D platformer and was released on the third of November for Japan and shortly arrived in North America, Europe, and Australia mid-November. Super Mario 3D land was developed by Nintendo EAD Tokyo and had been published by Nintendo. Super Mario 3D Land is rated E for everyone.
The beginning of almost every Mario game starts with an opening and in this case, the opening for Super Mario 3D Land starts off with leaves flying off of a Tanooki-Tailed tree in a stormy gloomy night, with the addition of an evil laugh enunciated by Bowser. Afterwards, the scene shows the Tanooki-Tailed tree with only one leaf left (which drifts into the wind randomly), and finally out of nowhere, Mario, and three Toads show up to find a letter, hovering over the landscape. Mario then picks up the letter and finds a picture (shown below) inside which leads to the assumption that Bowser has indeed kidnapped Peach (again). After the opening has ended, you are now able to play the actual game, starting at World 1-1.
Super Mario 3D Land is consisted of approximately 8 "Worlds", and about 8 special worlds. Each world is consisted of levels and in each level you must try to reach the flagpole before the time indicated at the top right corner of the screen. In between levels, players can pick up Power- Ups that assist Mario in attacking enemies and to reach the flagpole at the end of the level. Some familiar Power-Ups include; The Super Mushroom, Super Leaf, Super Star, Fire Flower, and finally, the P-Wing.
There are also new additions to the line-up of Power-Ups, these new additions include; The Invincibility Leaf; A Power-Up which makes Mario become invincible for the whole level that you're on, The Boomerang Flower; A Power-Up which allows Mario to throw boomerangs at enemies nearby, and finally the Statue Leaf; A Power-Up that helps Mario circumvent enemies.
In Super Mario 3D Land there are two playable characters in total; Mario and Luigi. Mario is the main character that you start out with, once you have defeated the game you’ll notice Luigi’s emblem at the bottom of the screen, you must click on the emblem and it will take you Special World 1 and finally, you must save Luigi to unlock him. Super Mario 3D land introduces three new villains, these include; Dry Bowser, Pom Pom, and Boom Boom.
The controls for Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS are quite easy to comprehend with, especially when you first get the game (I mean, who reads the instructions right?). Players must use the circle pad in order to navigate Mario on a flat gradient, the L and R buttons to crouch, The A and B buttons to Jump, and a combination of buttons to perform long jumps, or to crawl and roll. So basically, the controls are pretty simple in this game. The overall navigation between levels and especially the game menu is effortless and lively. The music in the game is very pleasant, although some of the tracks in the game seemed familiar to me.
Overall, Super Mario 3D land, in my opinion, is a tremendous game for the 3DS, but we have to take in the fact that the 3DS did in fact have a slow start with an insignificant amount of games to choose from, with the introduction of Super Mario 3D Land to the now growing inventory of 3DS games, Super Mario 3D Land a substantial indicator that the 3DS is achieving ample amounts of popularity.
Overall
- Gameplay: 10/10
- Story: 8/10
- Graphic's and Appearance: 9/10
- Overall: 9/10
