Super Mario 3D world

Game'scover

About the Game

Game: Super Mario 3D World
Genre: Platforming game
Consoles: Nintendo Switch 2021, WiiU -2013
Published: Nintendo
Developers: Nintendo
Released: February 2021 (Og-2013)

Super Mario 3D world was an older platform game developed by Nintendo's inside developers and was also published by themselves, originally in 2013 for the Nintendo WiiU. The game was praised alot during it's time as it was a great addition to all the super Mario games that came prior to it. Moreover the game was released in the WiiU and not the Gameboy Ds or any other handheld that used to be the release platform of preference. The game at the time was also heavily praised as in the years 2013 and 2014 the game was constantly beeing nominated for various awards and also succesfully win a few. As of now (Mid 2022) Super Mario 3D world is consider the second highest selling game of the WiiU residing behind none other than Super Mario Kart 8. In 2021 (8 years after it's initial release) the game was remaster by none other than Nintendo for their newest platform the Nintendo Switch. The remaster version also included brand new content in the form of Super Mario 3D World Bowser's Furry which feels quite different from the original one but also similar in a way. Last but not least the game also include an old game by the name of Luigi bros. A classic game mode that have the players phasing againts monsters by first having to spin them around. The remaster version of the game once again sold pretty well and was once again praised for the same reasons as before these being:

Level Design
Gameplay
Music
Simple Story Telling
Multiplayer Experience
Challenging Experience (Mainly Bonus Worlds)

Super Mario 3D world for the Nintendo Switch also had it sales boosted as plenty of streamers found it very pleasant and shared it online whilst playing with their group of friends. As mentioned the Co-op experience is something that the game does right as some levels require teamwork in order to be completed with ease. Furthermore, the game is not simply work together and beat the stage, but also offers some competition in the form of the crown, which will be rewarded to the player who succesfully finished first on a level and obtained the most points.

Story Mode

The game has a very simple yet effective plot. Somewhere in the Mushroom kingdom, princess Peach, Mario, Luigi and Toad were having a fun together. While running around they come across a broken tube. The Mario bros decide to fix it and out of it comes a small fairy. The little fairy asks for help as she explains she and her sisters were hanging out when Bowser showed up and captured them. Before completing her tale, Bowser pops out of the pipe and captures the small fairy as well. He instantly left before the heroes had time to react and thus he escapes. The heroes could have not let that act go unnoticed and thus they jumped in the pipe in pursuit of Bowser. The heroes find themselves away from the Mushroom kingdom and into the Sprixie Kingdom- the kingdom were the fairy/Sprixie comes from. Once they made their way in the heroes will have to travel through out the land in order to release every single Sprixie and take down Bowser.

Thoughts on the Story

Honestly the game has a simple story which suprisingly works 100%. Super Mario 3D world does not have alot of cutscenes other than the oppening cutscene and the ending cutscene. There is no inbetween. Very similar to past entries, the game doesn not have dialogue and also does not have enough of speech bubbles with once again the exception of the first and final cutscene.

Gameplay

Hub World

Once the first cutscene is over the player/players are placed in the hub world. This is a small open area with plenty of roads leading into different levels. The levels cannot be accessed though unless the player unlocks them. Each level is connected with each other through a path. Each time a player clears a level the path will slowly turn yellow indicating that the player can safely select the level as the path is now cleared. In some ocasions clearing one level may unlock a cross road that unlocks two levels instead of one. Sometimes it may be required to clear both paths to continue but also there are times that the players can select one of the two paths and clear their way to the final level without playing the other level. In order to proceed to a new a world, the players will have to clear their path all the way to castle located at the end of the world. Once the castle of the world is cleared, a pipe will appear that will unlock the next world. Most of the hub worlds also include a miniboss encounters. These are creatures that block the way between levels. When defeated they reward the players with one star. Moreover, the worlds consist of three types of bonus houses. These houses are not connected to the main ones through any type of path and they appear in random everytime the player clears a level. The first type of bonus house is the gift selection. The players are given the option to pick one of two gifts(Big/Small). One of the two gifts has more than one power up whilst the other has a simple mushroom. Either way the player gets a power-up for free. The second type of "fun-house" is a gacha machine for 1 ups. Four boxes spin different icons. The player is task to hit them in order to stop them with the goal of matching them.The rewards are:

0 Match - 10 coins
1 match - 1 1Up
2 Matches - 2 1Ups
3 matches - 3 1Ups
4 Matches - 7 Ups and +77 coins

The third house consist of a free stamp (type of collectable) of the Sprixie that was found in the previous world. Furthermore, each world consist of a Toad Level. Toad levels are very different than all the other games in the essence that the players all control Toads and they are placed in a giant Square. The players cannot jump and they cannot use power up abilities. In these levels, the players are tasked to collect all the stars of the level by spinning the camera around to reveal the path ahead. Usually there's only one or two paths that can only be taken. Last but not least the final playable level of the hub world is the Bonus Mystery Box . This purple see through cube has the player at the edge of their seat, as it usually has a single task(Platforming/power up based task etc) with a small amount of time for it's completion were usually one mistake can lead to failure. These houses reward the player with a green star each time a task is complete. Overall the hub World is where the playable levels are with a few secrets of their own such as secret tubes and secret coins/1ups.

Main Levels/ Boss Levels

Once the game begins and a selection of level is played, the players are placed within the level of choice with the purpose of going from the start of the level all the way to the end. These lever are giant 3D spaces with plenty of hazzards, enemies, secrets and collectables. To sum up, The goal of the player is to reach the end of the round, collect 3 green stars, collect a stamp and caprute the top of the flag placed at the end of the level. These collectables are necessary as some levels may require the player to have collected a certain ammount of green stars in order for them to become available and in general bonus worlds require the player to have collected most/all of them. The location of the stars and stamps sometimes are visibly obvious while some other require a sharp eye and the use of thought. For example each time a star is collected it is placed in a spot between 1-3. If the first star collected is placed in spot 2, it means that the player already missed a star which was located somewhere behind the location of the star just collected. The stamp on the other hand is usually placed somewhere within the level and all it needs is to be discovered and collect. Very rare, is the discovery of a stamp that requires a certain hero to unlock it. The maps will have a single button of a heroes symbol and color, indicating that, the hero who is depiction is required to press that button. Around the levels there's various enemies with their attack patterns that the heroes should avoid or take down by attacking them. The heroes can take 3 to 1 hits based on their apppearance. For example, if the hero has a special power up(NOT Mushroom) and receives a hit they ll lose that power up and remain tall (Mashroom power up), once again if they receive a hit they remain small which will cause their death upon the next hit. falling of a cliff, or falling into lava and toxic waters is an intant KO. If the players have extra lives, they ll lose one and spawn back at the start of the level, unless they reached the midlle checkpoint flag. When the players run out of lives, they re beeing kicked outside of the level and they receive a new set of 5 lives(They receive another set of 5 based on how many players are in the party ). Some levels have unique designs, unique power ups and unique mechanicks making each level unique and different than the others. For example, one level may have moving platforms that move based on the directional arrows that the heroes re stepping on, walls that require the player to use the touch screen or the joycon in order to interact with it and plenty of others. There's approximately 110+ levels, so it goes without saying that if they were all the same then the game would ve not been fun. Furthermore, certain powerups are only obtain whilst on a level and they cannot be transfered to a different one when clearing a level. These are the cannon head, where the players shoot cannon balls, ice skates that can help the player manuver on ice, torch to burn away ghosts and others. Last but not least it should also be mentioned that there are plenty of Plessie levels, where the heroes Ride on Plessie to move around water and sand levels. These are quick and fun levels.

The game has a total of eight playable worlds which act as the main plot of the game. By completing the eight world, a bonus world becomes available. These bonus worlds are very similar to the normal worlds however they re not placed in the Pixies world but instead elsewhere. These worlds are more challenging as they do not offer as many power ups as others and they have more mechanicks that others. Moreover these "Bonus Worlds" do not have castles in order to unlock a new one but instead once the path is made to the last world a new one will open. The second bonus world once again puts the player to the test by giving them a very small time limit for them to complete the level but also places plenty of time extentions in order for the player to collect. There is a total of 4 bonus worlds with the last one only be accessible when the player collects all the stamps, all the green stars and all the tops of the flags.

Power Ups

Game'power ups
Power ups are items in the game that that re used in order to defeat enemies, solve puzzles and uncover secrets and collectables. When collecting a power up whilst in possesion of another, the new power or the old one will be stored as an extra bonus. When the hero needs to use a new power up ( for example if they lost the one currently equiped) the players can tap a button in order to access the one they already stored. Almost all of the power ups stay with the player during and after the game with the exception of a few that re only playable during certain levels.
These Power Ups Are:

Mushroom: The mushroom power up makes the hero tall and vonurable to atleast one hit.
Fire Flower): Allows the heroes to throw fire balls to hit enemies and light up torches. Once lost the player goes back to the Mushroom state..
Super Bell: New to the game, it transform the player into a cat capable of scratching enemies and climbing surfaces.
Super Leaf: Allows the heroes to hit enemies with their tail as well as extend their jump by flying for a bit..
Boomerang flower: The heroes throw a boomerang that hit enemies when thrown and upon it's return. The boomerang can also be used to retrieve items in long distance .
Double Cherry: Doublicates the hero. Max up to 5.
Jingle bell: The Jingle bell turns the hero into a cat. However each time the hero ground bounces they earn coins.
Mega Mushroom: Transforms the heroes into giants who can destroy everything on their way.
Star Power: Makes the heroes invonurable to any hits and kills anyone who they touch. This power up doesnt last long once its collected.
Baby Leaf: This power up appears when the player keeps dying in a certain part. What it does is that it combines the leaf power with a permanent star power.
Cannon: This power up only appears in certain levels and allows the heroes to carry a cannon on their head hitting anyone friend or for who is in their way.
Torch: This power up only becomes available in Boo/ghost levels and its used to kill the ghosts.
Helicopter box: This power up appears in random levels and allows the heroes to elevate up in the air..

Heroes

The game has four playable heroes and five once the first bonus level is cleared. Each herp has a unique passive ability. these heroes are:

Super Mario: Mario is a perfectly balance hero in both his speed and jumping power
Luigi: Luigi is the hero with the highest jump, however his turns are a bit slippery
Princess Peach: Princess Peach is slower than the rest of the heroes but she is capable of hovering when jumping
Toad: Toad doesnt jump as far as other heroes, but he is the fastest hero available.
Princess Rosalina: Rosalina is capable of spin attack without the need of power up. Furthermore, this spin attack can also be used as double jump.

Despite of their passive abilities all heroes have the same mechanicks and can collect the same power ups. Each hero has the ability to sprint and jump. Jumping on wall allows the heroes to wall bounce allowing them to reach higher areas. whilst on air the players can use ground pound to instantly go vertically down crashing anything on their way. Ground pound is also the button used to travel down a pipe. Jumping imidietly after a ground pound will make for a ground pund jump. Furthermore the heroes are all capable of rolling in order to manuver faster. Rolling once again can also be used with jump to roll Jump, but can also be used mid jump to reach far areas or to collect collectables. Sprinting towards items such as shells, balls and teammates(in Coop) allows for the hero to pick them up. Once somehting is picked up the players can throw it away by using the attack button. Whilst in coop, if a player jumps of the cleaf, they can press the two buttons in the back of the controller/joycon in order to enter their safe bubble which will return them back to their teammate.

Multiplayer

The game offers a multiplayer between two to four players both localy and online. Each player can only play one hero out of the 5. the player can choose their hero both in the hub world and right before entering a level. In coop, the cois all count towards a common wallet. When hitting a box with powerup, the item will appear times 3. So instead of 1 fire flower three will appear instead. However the power up storage is once again the same as the coins, one for all. At the end of the level the players compete on who will grap the top part. At the end of the level, the game will show which hero collected the most points adding a small competition between friends. The top player will receive a crown which will allow them to continue with a crown in the next level. While playing the next level if the crowned player receives a hit the crown will drop for anyone to collect. At the end of each level the player with the crown will receive an enormous point boost for their score. Teammates can sabotage teammates by picking them up and throwing them off the map or towards enemies. As mentioned a player thrown off can bubble up to move towards a teammate. When a teammate dies, they can easily respawn as long as there are lives available. If theres 0 lives left then the dead player will remain dead until the playing player dies or reach the end of the level. Each time a player returns (from when completing the level or getting a game over) they ll spawn back with 5 lives free. Multiplayer offers tone of fun, great ammount of teamwork but also some "toxicity" when dealing with "troll players"

Music and Amiibo

in Game level
First things first the music of the game similar to every Mario game is really good. There's not much things to say other than the fact that each world has it's own unique OST that is really good and sets the mood. The sound effects during a level are also good, as they re not loud and their sound are distinctive. Maps from other worlds change the mood as bright colors is not the aspect of the map. For example running in a sunny area with beach has a relaxing sound as its main theme, where as running in a Boo stage has a more spooky soundtrack. The sound effects as mentioned re used in plenty of stages based on everything that is happening around the world. Whether these are swimming effects, mobs effects and others.
Amiibo
The player can scan their Amiibos to unlock certain items. If the player scans any amiibo outside of the Super Mario franchise they will unlock a 1-up. They can scan as many amiibo once per day. If the player has twenty amiibo, this means that they can get 20 1ups daily. However, if the amiibo scanned was from the super Mario series then the players are most likely gonna receive a random power-up from the ones mentioned prior.

Final Thoughts

Overall Super Mario 3D world for the Nintendo switch is a faithfull remaster of an old classic. The game has beautiful level designs and clever power ups. It is by far not short and has plenty of unique gameplay elements to keep everything fresh. The heroes differ among them offering different gameplay elements. The multiplayer experience offers a great teamwork experience, whilst still keeping a small competitive side that can make friends have a friendly fight. The collectables are fun to discover as they are essential for the bonus worlds and also some maps have other things hidden to reward players willing to explore the maps. This can be coins, skip pipes and others. Last but not least the switch version also includes the new episode Super Mario 3D world Bowsers Furrywhich on its own has a decent ammount of new content and as mentioned before there's also Luigi's bros which is a classic Super mario game mode.