Game Review : Super Mario 3D Land

Super Mario is back. Our favorite little plumber from the 1985 classic, has once again come back to save Princess Peach from the clutches of his arch nemesis and antagonist, Bowser. Before the games begins, we see in a cut scene that on a stormy night a Tail Tree’s Super Leaves are being blown away and scattered across the Mushroom Kingdom and if anyone comes in contact with them they are given the Tanooki Tail. In the middle of all of this we hear Bowser laughing and the screen goes black. The next morning we see Mario and the toadstools running to the tree just as the last leaf falls. One of the toadstools notice an envelope floating to the ground, inside we see a picture of Princess Peach in the clutches of Bowser. This sets Mario off on a mission to defeat Bowser and save Peach.

  As in the previous games, Mario has to go through each level and reach the flagpole. But there are other goals as well, finding the 3 gold star coins and landing directly on top of the flagpole to get a gold flag. All of those goals can be done in every stage. Mario has 8 worlds to go through initially with 6 stages in every world. After Mario saves Princess Peach in the final Bowser stage he finds another picture, this time Luigi’s been kidnapped. Once you save Luigi in the first special world he becomes a playable character that you can choose to play as in the rest of the game. At first the game was too easy and there wasn’t much of a challenge. But once you get to the special worlds it gets a lot harder. I was glad to see that in the special worlds they took the Golden Tanooki Suit, which makes you invincible, and the P-Wing, which takes you straight to the flagpole, completely out. They also added the Poison Mushroom, which hurts Mario, and the Grey Super Leaf, which still gives Mario the Tanooki Suit but instead of the butt stomp he jumps in the air and turns into a statue, in the special worlds. The new suit to the game is the Boomerang Suit, which you get in world 5. With the Boomerang Suit Mario gets a blue shell and helmet and can throw boomerangs at enemies. There are a number of secrets in the game that you can find along your quest to save Peach, like infinite lives, secret levels, secret theme songs, world warps, and alternate title screens. And don't let me forget to say how amazing some of the 3D effects were. Especially when there were fire and magic balls thrown at the screen.

I really enjoyed playing Super Mario 3D Land and I thought they did Mario just. I would recommend it for kids and adults alike. If you are a big Mario fan then you will really enjoy it as well. I can’t wait for the sequel!

Pros:  Amazing 3D effects/ Well designed levels/ More than one goal to achieve in every stage

Cons: Not challenging in the first few worlds/ No multiplayer/ Stages seem too short/ No minigames

Final Verdict: 9.5/10

-Tiffany