Calling this Mastered because I beat Champion's Road. Only a true Super Mario Psychopath would aim for the 100% file in this game (beating each of the 82 levels with every character!!).
My girlfriend discovered Super Mario via last year's 3D All-Stars, and has since voraciously consumed pretty much any plumber-based video game I've put in front of her. To see her go from "so if I hold the button in longer, he jumps higher?" in the castle grounds of SM64 to the end of Champion's Road in the space of 6 months is what I think it would probably feel like to see your child winning the 100m sprint at the Olympics.
3D World essentially has two distinct difficulty modes: solo and co-op, each with its own unique challenges. Having to return to the start of the level every time you die in solo play makes it arguably harder than co-op, where fallen players return in bubbles after five seconds, but solo players don't have to contend with the multiplayer-exclusive enemy types - bloodthirsty versions of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach who relentlessly chase you across the entire course and attempt to throw you into pits at any convenient opportunity. Terrifying!
In all seriousness - who the hell at Nintendo decided that [Run], [Use Powerup], [Throw] and [Pick Up Player] should all be mapped to the same button?! By trying to simplify the control scheme as far as possible, 3D World's designers have inadvertently made the game harder to play with friends... B-but I also kinda like the chaos that ensues when someone's accidentally picked up? Hmmm...
The pick-up button dilemma is emblematic of the bold design dichotomy at the heart of this game - it wants to be a friendly-family romp that everyone can enjoy, but it also has a fairly obvious desire to return to the days when Mario games were breathless challenges that required talent and nerve - perhaps partly as a response to all those people who complained that 3D Land gate-kept its good shit behind eight worlds of relatively mindless, toothless platforming.
I read in Iwata Asks many years ago that this game's Captain Toad sections were an attempt to wean casual New Super Mario Bros. fans onto the concept of a 3D camera that's controlled by an analog stick - a new take on the castle grounds for people who weren't around for the Nintendo 64. I think 3D World's secret agenda was to sell Mario Luddites on the Triple Jump Era...
For the most part, 3D World succeeds in its aim to bridge casual and hardcore mindsets - the placement of green stars in the early worlds feel almost tailor-made to cater to multiplayer setups where one person is still trying to grasp the idea of running and jumping while their partner is side-flipping, wall-kicking and dive-rolling all over the space. Unfortunately, around the time of World 6, auto-scrollers and slidey platforms and boost pads begin to run riot and gaps in skill become much more pronounced and frustrating. The bubble-up mechanic is a best-of-a-bad solution to the co-op camera problem, but it can sometimes feel like certain levels were never meant to be played multiplayer. The final showdown with Cat Bowser in particular is a complete fucking nightmare - I remember hating it as a single man and player back in 2013, but trying to get me and my girlfriend up that stupid auto-scrolling tower together in 2021 was nigh-on impossible, with us both randomly disappearing off-screen and becoming bubbles at seemingly random intervals! Ugh!! It's really annoying, because the idea of Bowser getting into Mario's big bag of tricks for a final boss battle is really fun and cool - it deserved better execution!
Funnily enough, we had far less problems with the post-game levels, which in many cases felt specifically designed for ridiculous Mario Party-style fun. The rolling block level in particular is almost a game unto itself, a true test of co-operative spirit and patience that could probably stand alone as its own fun little indie game! Oh how we laughed!! And the shmup-homage level? Wonderful! I like when Nintendo's designers are allowed to crib from boxes of toys outside their own corporate playpen.
I'm gonna go ahead and give the 3D World + Bowser's Fury package a whole-assed 5 stars because even though Bowser's Fury and 3D World are probably worth four stars each when packed apart, together they form this really joyous, heartfelt whole that encompasses almost the entire Super Mario experience - there's homage to just about every mainline game here and then a whole lot more! The ideal jumping-on point for anyone who has somehow managed to miss out on the Mario phenomenon in the last 35 years.
My girlfriend discovered Super Mario via last year's 3D All-Stars, and has since voraciously consumed pretty much any plumber-based video game I've put in front of her. To see her go from "so if I hold the button in longer, he jumps higher?" in the castle grounds of SM64 to the end of Champion's Road in the space of 6 months is what I think it would probably feel like to see your child winning the 100m sprint at the Olympics.
3D World essentially has two distinct difficulty modes: solo and co-op, each with its own unique challenges. Having to return to the start of the level every time you die in solo play makes it arguably harder than co-op, where fallen players return in bubbles after five seconds, but solo players don't have to contend with the multiplayer-exclusive enemy types - bloodthirsty versions of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach who relentlessly chase you across the entire course and attempt to throw you into pits at any convenient opportunity. Terrifying!
In all seriousness - who the hell at Nintendo decided that [Run], [Use Powerup], [Throw] and [Pick Up Player] should all be mapped to the same button?! By trying to simplify the control scheme as far as possible, 3D World's designers have inadvertently made the game harder to play with friends... B-but I also kinda like the chaos that ensues when someone's accidentally picked up? Hmmm...
The pick-up button dilemma is emblematic of the bold design dichotomy at the heart of this game - it wants to be a friendly-family romp that everyone can enjoy, but it also has a fairly obvious desire to return to the days when Mario games were breathless challenges that required talent and nerve - perhaps partly as a response to all those people who complained that 3D Land gate-kept its good shit behind eight worlds of relatively mindless, toothless platforming.
I read in Iwata Asks many years ago that this game's Captain Toad sections were an attempt to wean casual New Super Mario Bros. fans onto the concept of a 3D camera that's controlled by an analog stick - a new take on the castle grounds for people who weren't around for the Nintendo 64. I think 3D World's secret agenda was to sell Mario Luddites on the Triple Jump Era...
For the most part, 3D World succeeds in its aim to bridge casual and hardcore mindsets - the placement of green stars in the early worlds feel almost tailor-made to cater to multiplayer setups where one person is still trying to grasp the idea of running and jumping while their partner is side-flipping, wall-kicking and dive-rolling all over the space. Unfortunately, around the time of World 6, auto-scrollers and slidey platforms and boost pads begin to run riot and gaps in skill become much more pronounced and frustrating. The bubble-up mechanic is a best-of-a-bad solution to the co-op camera problem, but it can sometimes feel like certain levels were never meant to be played multiplayer. The final showdown with Cat Bowser in particular is a complete fucking nightmare - I remember hating it as a single man and player back in 2013, but trying to get me and my girlfriend up that stupid auto-scrolling tower together in 2021 was nigh-on impossible, with us both randomly disappearing off-screen and becoming bubbles at seemingly random intervals! Ugh!! It's really annoying, because the idea of Bowser getting into Mario's big bag of tricks for a final boss battle is really fun and cool - it deserved better execution!
Funnily enough, we had far less problems with the post-game levels, which in many cases felt specifically designed for ridiculous Mario Party-style fun. The rolling block level in particular is almost a game unto itself, a true test of co-operative spirit and patience that could probably stand alone as its own fun little indie game! Oh how we laughed!! And the shmup-homage level? Wonderful! I like when Nintendo's designers are allowed to crib from boxes of toys outside their own corporate playpen.
I'm gonna go ahead and give the 3D World + Bowser's Fury package a whole-assed 5 stars because even though Bowser's Fury and 3D World are probably worth four stars each when packed apart, together they form this really joyous, heartfelt whole that encompasses almost the entire Super Mario experience - there's homage to just about every mainline game here and then a whole lot more! The ideal jumping-on point for anyone who has somehow managed to miss out on the Mario phenomenon in the last 35 years.