I'm one of many people who just found this game to be a complete waste of time at launch. It felt bland, uninspired and worst of all, representative of everything wrong with the Mario franchise and Nintendo as a whole in the Wii U era, and since then I've been first in line to criticize 3D World whenever it comes up. But after the internet insisted that 3D World has aged much better now that we have a new true Mario 3D platformer in Odyssey, I fired it up on Switch and investigated.
It took until the end of World 2, but something in my head finally clicked and I saw this game as the hidden gem it truly was. I think once I stopped comparing it to Galaxy and instead started viewing it as the next evolution of 2D Mario sidescrollers I finally realized what Nintendo was trying to do with this one. In the end, 3D World was the wrong game at the wrong time for the franchise, but nowadays it can truly be respected as one of Mario's best.
If the levels in Galaxy were built like small versions of the worlds from 64 and Sunshine, the levels in 3D World are built like small versions of the levels in Galaxy. Each is a more or less self contained platforming challenge with a clear beginning, middle and end. They aren't super memorable but all are well-designed and a blast to play through. The real fun part comes from searching for the three green stars in each stage, which can be used to open up certain levels. Searching for them was my favourite part of the game, which is funny considering I remember having levels being locked behind green star counters being one of my least favourite parts of it when I played it back at release. It's just such a satisfying feeling finding the green stars, especially if you can nab all three in one go.
There are still a few things that bug me, though. Not having the ability to switch characters after you die is a pain, especially since you really have no idea what's coming in a level beyond a title and a small 3D image on the world map. If you enter a level as Mario and find it'd probably be easier playing as Peach, you have to quit the level and start from the beginning. Depth perception was also an issue, there were many times I was sure I was gonna make a jump only to fall just short. It was frustrating to lose so many lives just because I couldn't figure out where I was in relation to the camera and the rest of the stage.
3D World is no masterpiece, but I loved it anyway. If you're like me and you didn't like it when it came out but loved Odyssey, I implore you to give 3D World another chance, it really has aged gracefully under the lens of the next evolution of 2D Mario instead of as the replacement for a true next-gen 3D Mario.
It took until the end of World 2, but something in my head finally clicked and I saw this game as the hidden gem it truly was. I think once I stopped comparing it to Galaxy and instead started viewing it as the next evolution of 2D Mario sidescrollers I finally realized what Nintendo was trying to do with this one. In the end, 3D World was the wrong game at the wrong time for the franchise, but nowadays it can truly be respected as one of Mario's best.
If the levels in Galaxy were built like small versions of the worlds from 64 and Sunshine, the levels in 3D World are built like small versions of the levels in Galaxy. Each is a more or less self contained platforming challenge with a clear beginning, middle and end. They aren't super memorable but all are well-designed and a blast to play through. The real fun part comes from searching for the three green stars in each stage, which can be used to open up certain levels. Searching for them was my favourite part of the game, which is funny considering I remember having levels being locked behind green star counters being one of my least favourite parts of it when I played it back at release. It's just such a satisfying feeling finding the green stars, especially if you can nab all three in one go.
There are still a few things that bug me, though. Not having the ability to switch characters after you die is a pain, especially since you really have no idea what's coming in a level beyond a title and a small 3D image on the world map. If you enter a level as Mario and find it'd probably be easier playing as Peach, you have to quit the level and start from the beginning. Depth perception was also an issue, there were many times I was sure I was gonna make a jump only to fall just short. It was frustrating to lose so many lives just because I couldn't figure out where I was in relation to the camera and the rest of the stage.
3D World is no masterpiece, but I loved it anyway. If you're like me and you didn't like it when it came out but loved Odyssey, I implore you to give 3D World another chance, it really has aged gracefully under the lens of the next evolution of 2D Mario instead of as the replacement for a true next-gen 3D Mario.