Nothing in this game is all that groundbreaking. I love them despite their clear and present flaws. The only actual end result was that Super Mario 3D World ended up being one of my favorite Mario games. I felt like the end result would otherwise feel flat compared to the 3DS game. I recall when Super Mario 3D World was announced for the WiiU, I remember wondering if it was going to somehow be in 3D. When you flatten it out, you’re left with following your shadow to make sure you land where you intended. You truly get a better sense of where to jump, and where platforms are in 3D mode. To play the game without the 3D is jarring. I admit to getting a few headaches, a bout of motion sickness playing the game at first, but now I’m fine playing it for hours on end.
The 3DS needs to be held away from you at a specific distance, and they don’t recommend looking away from the screen as the immersive 3D suddenly turns the level into “teary-eyed” mode, where everything is just a blur. The 3D technology adds to the game visually, but it is not without it’s flaws. Even the previous game’s simplistic level selection screen returns, this time improved via touch screen integration. This game has a very strong Mario Galaxy vibe, and that comes from the game’s director, Koichi Hayashida, who directed Super Mario Galaxy 2. was seemingly churning out indistinguishable “new” 2D adventures, Mario had last been seen traversing galaxies in his 3D adventures on the Wii.
Super Mario 3D Land is a merging of the identity split the Mario series was in the midst of. Few games incorporated the 3D in an organic way, and none did it in a more creative or visually arresting way than Mario.
You get a sense, if only briefly, of slowly drifting down from the sky. An early level has Mario dropping down through clouds winding up cascading down the side of a waterfall, the tranquil sound of mist rising up slowly until it envelopes your earbuds. Much like those games, Mario uses the technology to show depth, scope, and scale. Games like Star Fox 64 DS and Kid Icarus Uprising are other prime examples of 3DS games done right. I don’t want to say the 3D gimmick never worked on the handheld, but it was often superficial in nature. Think to yourself, ‘If the camera and the action is leading me this way…what’s the other way?’ While they remain 3D in nature, the camera is often fixed, and finding secrets involves thinking like a level designer, much like you would while trying to find hidden chests in the early God of War games. Lava and fire take on a new dimension, as do the levels themselves. Breaking bricks cause the shattered bits to pop up every so slightly. In this game, the 3D is essential to the game-playing experience. It is used mostly to give backgrounds and foregrounds some depth. Outside of a few exceptions, the 3D doesn’t enhance the gameplay or environment all that much. So everyone knows the 3DS has a slider on the side that you can use to turn on the third dimension, and most everyone that has played a 3DS for long enough knows that the novelty wears off pretty quick. No interplanetary mischief no Toads freaking out no Princess crying out your name because she’s got all this cake and it’s gonna go to waste. You run off screen to the right and into the level select screen. You know this because he sends you a 3D postcard of him in the act of kidnapping her. You see, all the leaves blew off the Tanooki Tree, and Bowser has kidnapped the Princess. The story for this game is pretty simple. The sense of distance, scope, and depth that was achieved using the new technology is noticeable as early as the second and third levels of the game. Super Mario 3D Land released in the last quarter of the 3DS’s launch year, and was the immersive “tech-demo” style game the system needed at launch. The plot is relegated to a single postcard image between worlds. Yet, I can probably name on one hand the games that actually used the technology effectively. My bigger point is that back when the 3DS made games with 3D in the title, the supposed draw was that you could play games in the third dimension without wearing paper glasses or staring into a red abyss filled with virtual tennis balls coming at you. So basically, the 3DS was the DS2, and the 2DS is like the DS3. Matter of fact, the only 3DS model that isn’t discontinued on the market is the “New”, XL, 2DS. My 3DS, despite being relatively new, is a relic.