Super Mario 3D Land Catch-All

I want this game, but am trying to hold off until after Christmas.

Shantae has been scratching my platforming itch for the last little while, but all bets are off once I finish it.

My GF picked this up yesterday. It's going to be a long wait for the holiday season...

I really like it so far, a nice mix of Galaxy and SMB3. And the 3D is great here.

Sadly, I won't be getting this until the first of the month. Finances dictated that I had to choose either Mario or Zelda this month, and my wife wanted to watch me play Zelda.

Slumberland wrote:

I really like it so far, a nice mix of Galaxy and SMB3. And the 3D is great here.

I got my hands on it yesterday and I really like it as well. Thankfully my friend is just going to loan me the game + system so I don't need to spend a ton of money to play it. The top-down levels are really cool.

It's a really, really good game. It also shows the huge gulf between PSP/DS games and anything on iOS. If I were an app developer, I'd be praying every night that Nintendo never releases their content on iOS because they'd suck out all the oxygen.

Yeah, one thing the 3DS does well, obviously, is communicate height. It worked well in some of the Ocarina dungeons, and here they could really take advantage, creating something new (finally!).

This game is sold out all over Toronto. This is really killing me about 3DS games: nothing to play for ages, and then when something does come out, supply can't keep up with demand.

I bought this on a whim because I had a $15 gaming credit with Kmart that I absolutely had to use. It hadn't been on my radar since the somewhat tepid press response at E3.

I'm at the beginning of World 4 and pretty surprised to report that the game is certifiably awesome. Hurrah for the first great 3DS game!

Great indeed. I beat it and am working on finding all the star coins I missed last time. I believe worlds 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 are complete.

I'm really enjoying this game as well, but the levels make me wish for something with a bit more depth. We need a proper galaxy or 3D Mario platformer for this system.

I love it. Classic Mario with a Galaxy twist.

Honestly, I kind of feel the lack of depth is part of the charm, though I honestly kind of want more as well. I miss the "proper" map system of Super Mario World. However, considering the ratings and such of Super Mario 3D Land, I wouldn't be surprised to see another game.

What I'd really love is to see this sort of care taken to do a Wario game closer to the original one.

I have this waiting until Thanksgiving travel. Until the. I'm trying to finish Kirby Mass Attack. Still my favorite game of the year.

Picking this up tomorrow for my Thanksgiving travels. Glad to hear good impressions.

DSGamer wrote:

I have this waiting until Thanksgiving travel. Until the. I'm trying to finish Kirby Mass Attack. Still my favorite game of the year.

Bold words. I've been meaning to check that one out.

Made it to World 7 over the holiday break. Undoubtedly the first real must own title (assuming you've already played OoT) for the system. The 3D is fantastic. It's a bit easy for a Mario game, at least compared to the Galaxy games, but I've read that a big difficulty jump is available after the main game has been beaten, so there should be plenty there to appease platformer newbies and pros alike.

Yeah, I'm dying a lot more in some of the Special World levels. It's still a lot of fun, but oddly enough, I actually enjoyed the game more when it was easier.

ccesarano wrote:

Yeah, I'm dying a lot more in some of the Special World levels. It's still a lot of fun, but oddly enough, I actually enjoyed the game more when it was easier.

Funny thing is, this prompted me to go back to Super Mario Galaxy. Now I'm seeing some connections I didn't actually make in SM3DL. I need to find a grip that makes the 3DS more comfortable. Or import the Frankenstick when it comes out.

This game is quickly slipping down my list of favorite mario games. Currently behind SMB3, Yoshi's Island, SMW, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 64. At first I thought it's nature as a 3D-space mario would vault it to the top and the polish is top notch. However, I'm at the end of world 5 now and I have to say that the 3D feels like a gimmick to me. I know, the G word with Nintendo products is like troll bait, but bear with me. It's hard not to wonder what would have happened if they had developed simply a portable Super Mario Galaxy. Seems to me that would have been infinitely doable and much more interesting than the current game. The current game changes perspectives so frequently and often the difficulty is slowly based on the camera. If the camera were to your side or behind you it seems like many of the levels would become pretty standard and boring.

In other words, the camera playing tricks on you is what necessitates 3D. I don't know. It just feels off in that respect. Putting aside that the levels have no connection to each other whatsover. That they're literally paintings into which Mario jumps that are often quit different from one another... it seems like the only thing holding the game together is nostalgia. Otherwise this would be a bunch of random levels created to show off 3D. I know that sounds cynical and a tad depressing, but it's really hard not to think that Super Mario 64 2 or SMG DS would have been better than this.

DSGamer wrote:

In other words, the camera playing tricks on you is what necessitates 3D. I don't know. It just feels off in that respect. Putting aside that the levels have no connection to each other whatsover. That they're literally paintings into which Mario jumps that are often quit different from one another... it seems like the only thing holding the game together is nostalgia. Otherwise this would be a bunch of random levels created to show off 3D. I know that sounds cynical and a tad depressing, but it's really hard not to think that Super Mario 64 2 or SMG DS would have been better than this.

Isn't that exactly what Super Mario 64 is?

Mario 64 levels had themes. SM3DL will switch between the style of the world you're in between 4-2 and 4-3. It's hard to explain unless you've seen it. That's not my main beef, though. My main beef is the abuse of the fixed camera to create artificial difficulty.

DSGamer wrote:

Mario 64 levels had themes. SM3DL will switch between the style of the world you're in between 4-2 and 4-3. It's hard to explain unless you've seen it. That's not my main beef, though. My main beef is the abuse of the fixed camera to create artificial difficulty.

Ah ok, that makes sense.

Good thing I'm digging Phantom Hourglass so much. I can finally afford this, but it's backordered everywhere I've looked.

gregrampage wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Mario 64 levels had themes. SM3DL will switch between the style of the world you're in between 4-2 and 4-3. It's hard to explain unless you've seen it. That's not my main beef, though. My main beef is the abuse of the fixed camera to create artificial difficulty.

Ah ok, that makes sense.

Eh.

You can in fact rotate the camera temporarily to see around the level, so I don't really know what to tell you. The NSMB series had a fixed camera too. This one just has more diverse fixed camera angles. I play it almost exclusively in 2D and can count on one hand the number of times I've had to go to 3D -- and usually, that was to make something that you're always doing in videogames anyway (swimming, for example) way easier.

I sort of agree that some world-based theming would be nice, though. Really contributes to the levels' sense of place. I couldn't have told you I'd miss it, but I do.

DSGamer wrote:

My main beef is the abuse of the fixed camera to create artificial difficulty.

Do you have any levels that stood out to you as doing this? I'm not far in (just started World 2 after nabbing all the star coins in World 1), but I didn't see anything I'd describe as being artificially difficult because of the camera angles.

I sort of agree that some world-based theming would be nice, though. Really contributes to the levels' sense of place. I couldn't have told you I'd miss it, but I do.

It's weird, because Mario Galaxy 2 didn't have any theme to the levels in its worlds, and I didn't even notice. I'm not sure I would have noticed here, either, unless it was pointed out to me, but I do miss the Mario World-style themes for each world.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

It's weird, because Mario Galaxy 2 didn't have any theme to the levels in its worlds, and I didn't even notice. I'm not sure I would have noticed here, either, unless it was pointed out to me, but I do miss the Mario World-style themes for each world.

You're right, of course, that there was no consistency within a given solar system, but there were multiple goals within a given planet that sort of amounted to multiple levels.

(This is based solely on Galaxy 1. I have not played 2.)

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Do you have any levels that stood out to you as doing this? I'm not far in (just started World 2 after nabbing all the star coins in World 1), but I didn't see anything I'd describe as being artificially difficult because of the camera angles.

Thinking back on it, the ghost houses did this a bit. But.....they're ghost houses, you know?

necroyeti wrote:

You're right, of course, that there was no consistency within a given solar system, but there were multiple goals within a given planet that sort of amounted to multiple levels.

(This is based solely on Galaxy 1. I have not played 2.)

You should get yourself a copy of Galaxy 2 post-haste.

In Galaxy 2, most of the planets in a world/galaxy were just a level and then a challenge mode version of that level. There wasn't as much repetition as there was in Galaxy 1 where you'd revisit a planet multiple times with slightly different courses across it.

Worlds 1 through 7 cleared with all star coins. Looking forward to the post game and maybe a bit more challenge.

Edit: All done now with all the star coins, although I haven't dived into the special zones at all yet. Freaking brilliant game.

I just started world 4 of the special zones. I started S 1-1 with 160+ lives. I'm now at 150+.

It may not sound like much, but yes, the special zones are more difficult.

Wait, so the special zones not only have rejiggered levels and difficulty, but there are also tweaked power-ups? Game of the Freakin' Year.

Spoiler:

Poison mushrooms!

Edit: And a question:

Spoiler:

Why would Luigi in a tanuki suit look like a fox? Is there precedent for this in other games that I'm not aware of?

Also, Luigi!