Let me preface this impression/preview by saying that I did recently purchase a 3DS once the price of the handheld dropped to $169.99. Having replayed Super Mario World and New Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo DS, I bought Super Mario Land 3D with high expectations.
Platforming is a lost art in gaming these days. With the top selling games in 2011 being a shooter and an open world western RPG, there is very little writing space for top of the line platform games in most gaming media outlets. Enter Mario 3D Land.
As with any Mario game, after booting up the game and getting past the tried and true "Princess Peach in trouble" scenario, it's time for true platforming. Platforming involves jumping, climbing, swimming, and spinning your tail to float in the air? Yes, spinning your tail is a critical element in this game for not only floating but also as an attacking mechanic. Mario 3D land takes aspects of the previous Mario games before it. Take for example jumping on a wire, which is from Mario Sunshine. Even though the Tanooki Suit is from Super Mario Brothers 3, the float mechanics are similar to using the FLUDD in Mario Sunshine. Nintendo has done a wonderful job of bring many past ideas to the table coupled with a few new ones in this 3DS adventure.
Despite the feeling that this game is relatively simple for most Mario veterans there is a sense of progression from World 1 to World 4. Each world has five levels capping off with a boss battle at the end. Although there is a some progression of difficulty between World 2 to World 3, the levels do not progress within the world. World 2-1 can be more difficult than World 2-3. In addition, there have been levels in World 4 or 5 that I feel are more simple than World 1 or 2. I prefer increasing difficulty for a platforming game but the variety all but makes up for it. There are special levels after you finish World 8 with more difficult enemies added to the mix. This does crank up the difficulty a bit but Mario veterans will have no problem. The boss and mini boss battles are incredibly easy and if you die five times in a row, you get a special Toonaki suit that is virtually indestructible (unless you fall in lava). There should also have been some variety in defeating Bowser and I believe Nintendo got a bit lazy on this. Overall, despite my qualms on difficulty and boss battle approach, you will still enjoy it's progression.
Mario 3D Land is extremely satisfying as a 3D platformer. I was originally skeptical at the premise of a 3D platformer with some 2D platforming mechanics. Miyamoto has once again proved the skeptics wrong as he did with Mario 64 on the N64. The graphics, platforming, music, and charm that you'd expect to see in a 3D Mario title is all there. This is a must have title for 3DS owners as it's not only a great game but one that uses the 3D effects well.
