Super Mario 3D Land Review: An Absolute Must Own 3DS Title

Super Mario 3D Land Review

Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS is absolutely a must own title and a big reason to own a 3DS. Just to let you know, I haven’t been the biggest Mario fan since the SNES days with Super Mario World. But when I got my hands on Super Mario 3D Land all of those great memories of old came rushing back and I was given many great new memories. This is easily one of my favorite Mario titles as it is just addicting and a blast to play in 3D.

The creators did an incredible job with the level design and how it views in 3D. It is a truly wonderful experience playing this in 3D due to it being so well designed. You can get through each level fairly quick, but you will want to take your time through each one to find the hidden areas and stars. Each level has a total of 3 stars for you to collect as well that become important later on. Collecting the stars or other items doesn’t come off as tedious or difficult work either. It’ll be a good additional challenge for yourself to collect every single star in every level and once again you will have fun doing it.

It’s also great to explore each world thoroughly and see what each one has to offer. Even more so you will have a lot of fun going back and playing previous levels, making the replayability factor for this title great. There is a good amount of variety in each level as well and I even found some levels where I wished there were actually more level designs similar to that in other levels. However, each level is still so much fun to go through and experience. As you play through the levels you will have multiple suits to use for Mario which are all wonderful to use in their own way. Some help more in completing certain areas of each level though.

Super Mario 3D Land plays out very smoothly and handles wonderfully. Of course we all will still have our difficult times and even our frustrating times at miss timing our jumps. However, the gameplay is still so much fun to play that it won’t keep you down at all. There really isn’t much to the difficulty though as at first it is more on you than it is the stage. However, difficulty does increase heavily as you progress yourself deep into the game. Throughout the beginning of the game, for the most part, the difficulty doesn’t really rise too much, but like I said you will have your moments. However, if you have too many of those moments where you keep dying you will get a special item to make things a lot easier on you and in my opinion it becomes too easy. The further you get in the game there will be some much more difficult moments that will provide you with a fun challenge. I do wish the boss battles were a little more difficult though as each one was very easy and not that exciting. That’s probably the only negative comment I have for Super Mario 3D Land since the rest is just so much fun.

As I mentioned previously the visuals of the game look fantastic and even more so in 3D. This is now my favorite title in terms of how a game looks in 3D. There are a few level designs that are just awesome and it makes Mario really pop out at you. This was easily the best moment I have had with the 3D effects. But again, it isn’t just those few levels that look amazing. It was the entire game that just comes off looking wonderful in 3D. This is absolutely a 3D treat for the eyes and one that you won’t be able to stop playing. There are also some nice short cutscenes that look good in 3D as well. Throughout the game you will also enjoy the familiar tunes that Mario has to offer and it completes this great Mario experience.

To simply put it, this is a Mario game and it is everything you would expect it to be in terms of story and gameplay. However, this is much more than just another Mario title as it is a fantastic version built wonderfully well for the 3DS. It’s surely a must own title and it is easily worth picking up or even buying yourself a 3DS just to play this game. It’s also so much fun to play that I wouldn’t understand how anyone could be disappointed with it. I couldn’t put it down for the longest time as I just wanted to keep playing. That’s how addictive it is and how much I enjoyed it. Again, I haven’t had this much fun with a Mario title since Super Mario World on the SNES. This really is a grand experience and you shouldn’t wait on purchasing your copy of this title.

Score: 5/5