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While Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 were fast and precise, Super Mario 3D Land had a slower, lackadaisical feel to it. Unfortunately, my time with the Wii U game has led me to realize how much I treasure the Mario Galaxy games. Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS was one of the better Mario titles of the past few years, so upon seeing the trailers, I was elated at the possibility of Super Mario 3D Land HD. It's familiar, sure, but it's different, interesting, and most of all fun. In short, while I'm not sold on Nintendo's timid, unadventurous approach to its current slate of sequels, this isn't one of the games I have misgivings about. The new Cat Suit allows all-new level navigation options, like climbing poles, and stealing valuable treasures from museums in the dead of night. In a rare case of Mario borrowing from Sonic (instead of the other way around: See also Sonic Lost World), the Cat Suit changes the rules of Mario in the same way Knuckles threw a twist into Sonic's style. You can even cheese a level-ending flagpole by hopping midway up and scurrying to the peak for a 1UP. In fitting with 3D World's emphasis on vertical ascension, the Cat Suit's biggest perk is the way it allows players to scramble up walls. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Nintendo finally remembered that these characters really ought to play differently from one another and that, oh yes, Princess Peach is perfectly capable of holding her own.Īnd I'd be remiss not to mention the new power-up, the Cat Suit. U: More like scuffling in a playground than competing in a race. Certainly playing with three other people in 3D World's towering spaces feels distinct from the left-to-right movement of New Super Mario Bros. It may seem a small thing, but it really does create a clear distinction between these different splinters, forcing players to take on Mario's familiar controls and enemies in different ways. And the Mario 3D games, it seems, prioritize vertical traversal. The New Mario titles emphasize horizontal advancement. The Galaxy games - fingers crossed we'll eventually see another - gives players the luxury of roaming freely in 3D spaces.
#Super mario 64 ds multiplayer adventure series
The Mario series has essentially split into three different interpretations of world navigation. Knocking other players into Goombas is the great equalizer, as it turns out. Four-player games are so chaotic and fast-paced that there's no time to look down at the tablet, and the precision afforded by an analog stick has no time to come into play.
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After all, Player One gets not only a screen but also analog controls, while the other participants are relegated to using mere Wii Remotes. The Wii U's weird lop-sidedness in terms of controllers - we still haven't seen a game that supports more than one tablet-style Game Pad - might seem to give the first player an unfair advantage. New to the Mushroom Kingdom: Old-school PVC pipes have been replaced with clear acrylic. Your friends are as much a hindrance as a help most of the time, and in fact 3D World promotes backstabbing and infighting by scoring players' performance at the end of a stage, not unlike The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. Four people can play together to complete goals, with the most impatient player dragging everyone else along get left behind and you'll find yourself floating back to the action in a bubble, though this time you can pop your own bubble to escape. If you've played the console-based New Mario titles, you should have a pretty good sense of how multiplayer works here. And with a shared screen comes multiplayer. With greater processing power comes larger, more intricate level design. With higher resolution comes broader vistas. Much as with the New Mario games, 3D World may have its roots on portables, yet it feels more complete - more at home - on a console. Yes, it is basically an upscaled take on 3D Land, but. Just be glad they didn't foist yet another New Super Mario title on us.Īs soon as I played 3D World, though, my cynicism melted away. Alas, Nintendo's strategy this year consists of being as safe and conservative as possible, and the sad reality is that the Galaxy games haven't sold nearly as well as Mario's more downsized adventures. Instead, we have a game that basically looks like an upscaled version of 2011's Super Mario 3D Land - a good game, no question about it, but nothing to turn your world upside-down.
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I think most of us expected EAD Tokyo's next project to follow in the footsteps of their Super Mario Galaxy games, upholding the grand, sweeping tradition of Super Mario 64. Like a lot of people, I found myself a bit underwhelmed at my first glance of Super Mario 3D World.
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