The first game which I used my Nintendo 3Ds with, was Super Mario 3D Land, I had my doubts on the game and the console as well and I will explain you why. As some of you know, I am a Switch user, I thought owning a Nintendo 3Ds would be kind of redundant, I mean, I have Nintendo exclusives already on the Switch, plus I can play them on the go like on Switch, so why would I buy a Nintendo 3Ds in the first place?
A close friend of mine told me that a Nintendo 3Ds is an unique console by itself, that owning both consoles are actually different experiences, the things which I enjoy on the Switch, I would not be able to play them on 3Ds, or that is what he told me. Besides, the whole internet recommends you owning a Nintendo 3Ds, it was impossible to me finding negative reviews on the Nintendo 3Ds. So, I decided to give the little one a chance, managed to buy one at a cheap price, and well, I decided my first game on this console would be Super Mario 3D Land, lets talk about the game.
Let me tell you I already completed Super Mario 3D world on the Wii U with a friend, so I was really expecting more of the same, not that I wanted to hate it or something but, you know, wasnt expecting too much either. In the end, I loved the game, silly me thinking that it would be more of the same, even after playing 3D World, the game feels like its own thing, with its own charm.
The Nintendo 3Ds is a handled console as a whole, meaning you can not play it on TV or something, thing that fits so good with the game's design, the levels on the game are considerably short, you can complete them in no time, if it was another case, I would probably complain on this fact, but it is perfect, you can just play one, two, maybe three levels which are really short and that's it, do another thing that is not gaming related and when you feel like it, coming back and playing more levels.
Like I said, this is complemented with the game's design and the console itself, you can play while you are waiting something or someone for shorts amounts of time and that is cool, I am not lying when I say I played this game from time to time, taking my time and just enjoying without pressure, of course I am not a person of hanging out, but sometimes I had to wait a download, or maybe just something else, maybe I just wanted to lie on the bed while I played a short level, I am not sure if I am explaining in the best way, but it was a cool experience overall.
The level's design is amazing and surprisingly fun, I say surprisingly because this game it is way too easy, not complaining, just the facts, not a negative thing for everything I just mentioned in the previous paragraph though. Cool thing is like in 3D world, there is a whole post-game where you can find more challenging levels. Take into account that the game's difficulty raises up when you have to find every Star Coin, there are three Star Coins for every level, it is an odyssey to find them, some of them can be tricky or hard.
The way you use 3D in some levels is actually cool, I wish they made you use it more, but it is just there, cool gimmick that they did not use too much, talking a little about the 3D thing, well, I did not find too much difference playing it in the normal way or in the 3D way, not gonna lie, most of the times the 3D thing felt annoying, but when the game forced you to use it to solve some puzzles, it was actually cool.
Not everything is cute about this game, I will talk about the thing which I found to be the most annoying part of the game, the whole protocol you have to do in order to unlock the last level, which is the hardest one of the whole game. Look, to unlock this level, you have to colect every Star Coin on every single level,
and getting to the all of the flagpoles too, that is okay actually, the issue is, you have to complete every single level again but with Luigi.
Well, Luigi is kind of my favorite character in the whole Super Mario franchise, that should be cool... right? No, it is not, and why, you would ask, easy, there is no replay value, I mean, yeah, you get to unlock a secret level at the end but, playing every single level again, man, it sucks and it is a really pathetic way to enlarge a game which is not supposed to be like that, nothing changes about the levels, nothing at all.
Well, maybe I am exaggerating, at least Luigi feels like his own character in the game, right? No, it does not, you know, in Super Mario 3D World, Luigi had its own way of jumping, running and moving through the whole scenarios, you play as him and you actually feel like you are playing Luigi, another character, in 3D Land he is not like that, he jumps just like Mario, runs like Mario, moves like Mario, he is literally the Green Mario meme and that is sad, so good he got some respect on 3D World.
I am going to be frank with you, when I was playing as Luigi, I just wanted to kill myself, to put a gun in my head and just bang, to end my suffering.
And here I am, a grown up adult complaining about a Mario game, I know what you are a thinking, why is this guy complaining about a Mario game which is supposed to be for kids, like, are you OK man, do you need a hug? Well, yeah, you are actually right lol, don't even know why I am even complaining about a game which is supposed to be for children, but in my defense, I do not think a kid will enjoy that game's design, completing a whole game again with another character that it is the same with the same move set as Mario, with 0 changes for the worlds, I don't know, just my feeling.
Okay, I got all salty but did I actually got to the last level? Yess sir, I did it, but I did not feel cool for that, by that time, I was just worn out, I was sick of the game, I was sick of Luigi, I got to the last level and that's it and that's pretty sad. I will play it again sometime to complete that level, but not now, I just want to rest, I do not want to know anything more about this game for now.
Well, I know about the negative things I said before but do not get me wrong, I love this game, if it wasn't by the fact of that horrible post game, It would be higher in my list, trust me, I enjoyed this game as a little kid...until Luigi showed up. Cool graphics, lovely level's design and decent difficulty.
Didn't know handheld gaming would be that fun, I mean, I usually play dock mode on the Switch, owning a 3DS and playing this game has actually changed my mind, because I used to think handheld consoles were not my thing.
Both the screenshots and the photo were taken by me