I'm a couple of days into Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury now so it's time to drop some first impressions. As can be seen from my post history I am quite the Nintendo fanboy. I'll devour anything coming out of the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda franchises. Pokemon is also a big one but I've been struggling to keep up with the newer generations.
I've played pretty much all of the mainline Super Mario games since the Super Nintendo (SNES) released and up until the Gamecube. From then on I had a bit of a hiatus with Nintendo. Dabbling a bit with Xbox and Playstation and eventually landing on the PC as my main platform. In my late teenage years I guess I saw most of the Nintendo games as "childish" for some reason. This means I've skipped everything that was released on the Wii and Wii U.
Three years ago however I got back on the Nintendo train and got myself a Nintendo Switch. I don't regret that decision one bit. The first game I got for it was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and what a journey that was. Next in line was Super Mario Odyssey. What an amazing game. Extremely fun and creative. I was regretting ever leaving Nintendo behind after playing these two games.
Super Mario 3D World was one of the mainline Super Mario games for the Wii U, which means I missed it. I was quite excited to find out from the Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Nintendo Direct that they had announced a port of the game along with new content for the Nintendo Switch. Alongside several other announcement like Super Mario 3d All-Stars which I'm also currently playing.
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury released for the Nintendo Switch on the 12th of February so it's quite a fresh release. Learning that the game had a focus on co-op and multiplayer made me want it even more. That meant I could play it with my girlfriend who also loves Super Mario!
What is Super Mario 3D World?
As per usual with Super Mario games Super Mario 3D world is also a 3D platformer. It's a mix of the side-scrolling titles and the 3D titles. You roam between levels like in Super Mario World although in 3D and you can free roam instead of being tied to lines between each level. This can be seen in the image above.
The levels function quite like how the levels are in the sice-scrolling titles as well. They're small levels with a timer of 300-500 seconds where you need to get from the start to the finish. At the end we find the familiar flagpoles which we need to grab hold of to mark the end of the level.
Throughout the overworld and the levels you'll find hundreds of items to collect. The main collectibles are the well known stars and lesser known stamps. Each level has three stars and one stamp, with a few special levels having more or less stars.
Super Mario 3D World offer some great multiplayer options as well. In the main game Super Mario 3D World you can co-op alongside three friends. You can play as Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach who each offer something different in terms of movement. For instance Luigi has a higher jump while Peach can soar in the air for a while. New players can join and leave seamlessly almost with the touch of a button.
That's the facts laid down. Let's get some impressions.
General gameplay
General gameplay is great in my opinion. It's focused on fun and being available for everyone. The levels are abundantly diverse and come in a wide range of difficulties. While each level can be traversed and beat relatively easily, with emphasis on relatively, finding every collectible on each level is another story. Some collectibles might require a great deal of finesse while some might require you to carry an item from the start of the level to the end. Some might even require you to not take damage until a certain part. This gives each level a great deal of replayability if you want to master them and go for full completion.
I mentioned the abundantly diverse levels, and they really are. There's a total of 82 levels in the game. I've no idea how many we've played through so far but I would guess in the range of 40-50. So far not a single level has felt like any other. They've really gone all in on creativity and diversity in this one. When I think they can't possible come up with something new the next level we play is just so clever and innovative. Clearly my favorite part about the game.
The movement and move-sets are relatively basic but at the same time they add to the diversity. You can pick up power-up items, like we often can in Super Mario games, which alter the looks and move-sets of our characters. There's the well known Fire Flower which lets you throw fireballs and a new one in the Super Bell which turns you into a cat that let's you climb up walls and claw enemies. These play a huge role not only in defeating enemies but also exploration. You'll need them to access many of the secrets and collectibles that's spread out.
Multiplayer features
As I've already mentioned twice there's a large focus on multiplayer for this title. It's largely based on cooperation with a wee splash of competition as well. Getting through the levels are the main focus of the game and that's what we're cooperating for. Throughout the levels however we have the ability to collect coins, power-ups and other collectibles as well as defeating enemies for points. These points are tallied towards the end where the player who has collected the most points come out as the winner.
The winner is then given a crown which he or she will wear in the next level. The crown can be stolen by various means and whoever wears the crown at the end of the level is awarded extra points. I think this is a great way of bringing an extra dimension to the multiplayer. It's also completely voluntary to participate in this. The winner doesn't get anything else than the crown and glory so the feature can be completely ignored if you just want to relax and cooperate. Although it's always fun to point out to the losers that you've won even if you didn't go for it.
The multiplayer is however a little janky in terms of the camera. It's not split screen which means you share the same screen. The camera does its best to keep focus on both while favoring the one who's the furthest along in the level. If one of you move to far along the camera might shift fully and if someone is caught outside of the camera they will be placed in bubbles and transported to the foremost player. This can be quite frustrating as it can easily be done unintentionally. This is pretty much the only gripe I have with the game so far so it's easy to overlook.
A taste of Toad
A lovely and sneaky detail they've put in the game is the addition of the Toad-levels. These play out similarly to the levels throughout Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker which is a spin-off game from the Super Mario franchise for the Wii U and Nintendo Switch. In these we play as Captain Toad in small puzzle-based levels. Toad has a very limited move-set and close to no abilities. He can't even jump. We have to utilize the camera to look around for the way forward and have Toad alter the level in different ways to move on. Pushing and pulling on obstacles.
This gave me a taste for the Captain Toad game which I've completely slept on. I've downloaded the demo to check it out further. Gotta say that this was a power move from Nintendo. Great way of self-advertising!
Bowser's Fury
Isn't he just the coolest villain from any franchise ever? I just love the visual evolution that Bowser has had through the years. With every iteration they just make him cooler and cooler.
Bowser's Fury basically functions as a DLC to Super Mario 3D World. I haven't been able to touch on it yet due to still working my way through the base game. Apparently it features one big open level much like the worlds in Super Mario Odyssey instead of the smaller levels that we see in the rest of the game. The multiplayer mechanics also change a bit by lowering the player count to two. In addition the second player can only play as Bowser Jr. instead of the aforementioned cast of Peach, Luigi and Toad. I have no idea how this plays out but we'll have to see.
I intend to complete 100% of this game so I'll return with more on Bowser's Fury in a future blog post. Stay tuned!
The Verdict
Super Mario 3D World is a great game. I'm having a blast and so is my girlfriend. We're playing through all of it together and intend to stay with it until we've collected all of the stars and stamps. The game really is able to hold it's own and fully deserves it's place next to the all time greats of the Super Mario games.
My favorite part of the game is by far the diversity and creativity they're showing. It's quite astounding how well they've made the game. Even though the gameplay is the same from start to finish you never feel like you're doing the same thing twice. Every level is different both in terms of mechanics and design. It's quite impressive.
I can really recommend this game if you're looking for a cozy good time with your girlfriend, family or some friends. It's probably gonna be fantastic to play utterly alone to. Multiplayer really is nothing but an option in this one.
I'm so glad that Nintendo ported this game to the Nintendo Switch so that I got to experience it.
Nintendo never does sales on their own games so there's no need to wait for a sale on this one. Just go get it if you're into Super Mario and platformers!
All images in this post are in-game screenshots taken on the Nintendo Switch.