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LTTP: Super Mario 3D Land

Had an awesome time, replayed it last week as I am on holiday in Italy. Stage 5-5 is just awesome. The level of depth is just fantastic ( Mario uses his propeller ). Anyway...this game makes me smile.
 
By the way, I don't remember every single end boss but is there a Mario game that has a better end boss fight than this game???

Not many of them I would guess.
 
I actually avoided the thing like the plague. Stages are a little harder when you aren't using the Tanooki suit just to float everywhere.

There's a real spectrum of opinion about the difficulty even without the suit.

I'll still get it when I get a 3DS, should be enough fun there.
 
I'm thinking about buying this game soon.

What mario games do you guys compare it too?

Its kind of like Mario Galaxy's more linear levels if you removed the gravity gimmicks. Sort of. The other way to look at it is that its a translation of 2D Mario design into 3D space.

Eh, its really hard to describe. Check out this video of 1-1:
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/11/04/super-mario-3d-land-world-1-1

That should give you a general feel for it. Some levels like this one trend more towards the "really inspired by Mario 3" side of the spectrum, others are very very Galaxy feeling, a lot hit the kind of hybrid shown off in that video.
 
There's a real spectrum of opinion about the difficulty even without the suit.

I'll still get it when I get a 3DS, should be enough fun there.

Very, very true. We have a lot of cats here who can eat this type of title for breakfast. But yeah, you should have a good time with it. Super fun beating friend's times.
 
Very nice game! I got it a few weeks back and played through it for the first time. Very easy game IMO, my activity log is currently at 8:55, including an hour or so of going back post-beating it to grind for some more flagpole touches. Gotta get those profile stars!

To get a slight challenge boost, avoid the tanooki suit (I use it now in the grinding phase for 100% completion though), it really makes the game a complete cakewalk otherwise.

My biggest issue with it is the controls, Mario feels slightly lazy in this compared to other 3d-Mario's. No triple jump is a shame and it takes juuust too long to get to full speed when sprinting which makes it really hard to do some jumps the way I want. This is especially evident when running for a flagpole finish, I can never "feel" whether I'm going to hit it or not before making the jump, each time I just have to hope for the best and see what happens.

With that being said, it's a must play for 3DS, even though it's far from Galaxy levels for me.
 
^ someone mentioned doing a little circular run up can help?

Very, very true. We have a lot of cats here who can eat this type of title for breakfast. But yeah, you should have a good time with it. Super fun beating friend's times.

Watching those IGN videos Technomancer linked to, it looks better than what I had seen of it before. It's linear but still decent.
Hopefully more cool level designs as well and friend times could be fun to beat, or at least added replay value. Thanks

-==-
3D Land, DKCR, OoT, Starfox, Pilot Wings, Smash Bros, Luigis Mansion,

Maybe (so far): KI, MK7, Zelda, Yoshi, Pokemon, RE:R, NSMB2

I'd have to go digital too, might set me back a bit. Thinking that second Vita may have been a mistake :P
 
^ someone mentioned doing a little circular run up can help?



Watching those IGN videos Technomancer linked to, it looks better than what I had seen of it before. It's linear but still decent.
Hopefully more cool level designs as well and friend times could be fun to beat, or at least added replay value. Thanks

-==-
3D Land, DKCR, OoT, Starfox, Pilot Wings, Smash Bros, Luigis Mansion,

Maybe (so far): KI, MK7, Zelda, Yoshi, Pokemon, RE:R, NSMB2

I'd have to go digital too, might set me back a bit. Thinking that second Vita may have been a mistake :P
what would you need a second Vita for? Other one break?
 
what would need a second Vita for? Other one break?

The screen had some weird issues with the touch sensor on the left side but it seems to have sorted itself out :S
I ran out space on the 32GB card and having another Vita ready to go with full battery and maybe different games was pretty attractive. Also came with CoD, sort of saving me for paying for it. [also I'd be able to do local co-op, have a digital copy on each].
The screen has a yellow tint so should be able to return and look for a good 3DSXL deal here.
 
fantastic mario game, especially for a portable, and some of the best use of 3D, next to Luigis Mansion. Still need to beat the last few special levels.

I really liked the more open mario 64 esque levels. But there were only a small few. Would be awesome If they could expand upon that.
 
i was bummed we didn't get a 3DS galaxy, the system is perfect for that. but 3D Land ended up a classic, so all is well i guess. i remember there were some doubts before its release (8 directional control, you have to press b to run, ect) and it paved the way to LttP2

but still, nintendo, i want my galaxy 3DS. grrr.....
 
I love the 3D in the game. The ability to see depth let's me jump around the level and on enemies' heads with pin point precision.
 
As the OP noted SM3DL is an easy Mario game, but really fun regardless. Like most 3D Mario titles the game sort of plateaus somewhere in the middle and never really gets more challenging. In defending that aspect of the game I think people often exaggerate the challenge of the back half. Not only is it still fairly easy, but the majority of levels are straightforward rehashes with some extra condition tacked on. Shadow Mario might as well be blue coins in this instance. Sure, there's one bonus stage that's actually challenging, but a single difficult level does not a difficulty curve make. Not to mention they make you trudge through every single stage again to unlock that one level, which turns an otherwise fun experience into tedious filler. The compounded annoyance of so many levels in the second half being retreads mixed with having to replay them all a second (fourth?) time to unlock a measly stand alone bonus stage hurt my overall perception of the game. C'mon EAD, you're better than that.

So yeah, great game, but not the most balanced. A few niggling control issues aside though I think the 2D/3D hybrid is a great template for the series, and unlike most of gaf I'm psyched to see what they do with SM3DW. Even though SM64 is one of my all time favorites one of my first reactions upon finishing it (aside from holy shit wow) was that it had lost something of the tightness and vitality of the 2D games (although I came to realize it made up for it with a different set of strengths), so it's refreshing to see the 3D games finally recapture some of the density of activity and old school feel. I know a lot of people felt the Galaxy games achieved this, but in spite of their relative linearity I didn't think the planetoid thing necessarily recreated the pacing or level structure of the 2D games. For that I deeply appreciate SM3DL. Feels like combining the old with the new on a gameplay level and not just as a thematic callback has been a long time in the coming, and imo it works great.
 
fantastic mario game, especially for a portable, and some of the best use of 3D, next to Luigis Mansion. Still need to beat the last few special levels.

Oh that's right, the 3D in this game is phenomenal! First game I played through completely with the slider fully up at all times!
 
I'm going to agree that the game is a touch on the easy side, even though I'll also agree that it ramps up in the later levels of the "second quest". I don't think that's a flaw, just an aspect.

3D Land is absolutely fantastic, and I'm dying to play 3D World.
 
I just beat the first 8 worlds, all star medals. Sitting pretty on ~150 lives and I really hope what everyone here is saying is true and that I'll need them for the Special stages. This game is amazing so far but the first half is laughably easy.
 
I hate that this game has a run button and he moves so incredibly slow when walking. It kind of makes me wonder why the hell they included an analogue stick on the system if they cant get even use it. It was my first 3ds game but it is going back to GameStop tomorrow. I guess I will never get a good 3d Mario game on a portable.

Not trying to be some kind of hipster contrarian, but I dislike the game the more I play it (stopped at world 5 or 6). It is hard to explain, but the controls feel off. Mario's movement feels sluggish and almost delayed in a sense.

Maybe a few parts I would consider tricky, but the game is definitely on the easy side. I have been playing Mario games forever, and this one does not feel like an advancement or evolution of the series. Not looking forward to Super Mario 3D World currently, but I am willing to let the game speak for itself and change my mind.

Its the way they handled movement with the run button.
 
Not trying to be some kind of hipster contrarian, but I dislike the game the more I play it (stopped at world 5 or 6). It is hard to explain, but the controls feel off. Mario's movement feels sluggish and almost delayed in a sense.

Maybe a few parts I would consider tricky, but the game is definitely on the easy side. I have been playing Mario games forever, and this one does not feel like an advancement or evolution of the series. Not looking forward to Super Mario 3D World currently, but I am willing to let the game speak for itself and change my mind.
 
I hate that this game has a run button and he moves so incredibly slow when walking. It kind of makes me wonder why the hell they included an analogue stick on the system if they cant get even use it. It was my first 3ds game but it is going back to GameStop tomorrow. I guess I will never get a good 3d Mario game on a portable.
Oh, come on. I agree the way they handled running was flawed (takes too long to build speed, which in turn fucks up your jumping height and momentum), but it doesn't stop it from being a good Mario game. Sounds like you're taking EAD's godly talent for granted. SM3DL isn't perfect, but it's pretty amazing for a handheld platformer, and would easily give 90% of console platformers a run for their money.
 
This is my third favorite 3D Mario ( my favorite is Super Mario Galaxy 2, followed by Galaxy 1). HOWEVER, I do feel the game is a bit under cooked! The concept its self is great, having a 3D Mario that plays more like a 2D Mario (complete with the same power up system). The controls aren't as tight as a 2D Mario of course, and I feel like the level design could use some work. As most people have already probably noted, the difficulty curve is really light.

The game doesn't really start getting somwhat challenging challenging until
The 8 Special Worlds after Bowser. This is also one of my big problems: A lot of the tougher stages are just remixes of past levels. Some of these should have been the orginal levels in the first place tbh! I know most 3D Mario games have some from of filler, but I feel like the only other Mario game that is more blatant about it is Super Mario Sunshine with it's Blue Coins
.

If it means much, I also have beaten the game by beating every level as small Mario and small Luigi, only using power ups to get star coins and certain gold flags. The challenge is a lot more reasonable this way imo, there is actually some fear of death here!

I'm pretty excited for Super Mario 3D World though. Just from what I've seen, I'm hopefully that this will be the New Super Mario Bros Wii of the series: aka, a massively improved console sequel that does the original game's concept justice! I guess part of my excitement is also because I think Mario is best when it's refining too, as I prefer Lost Levels, New Super Mario Bros U, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 to their prequels!
 
I love 3D Land and it's one of my favorites in the series, but that second set of worlds is not that hard either until near the end when every level is giant shadow Mario and a 30 second timer. That shouldn't and doesn't detract from the game, but it definitely doesn't come anywhere close to the difficulty of Galaxy 2 (which honestly isn't that hard either) and NSLU, or even NSMBW and NSMBU, so don't get fooled into thinking it's hard

I think what most impresses me about the game is that for as much as I love it, it's not even in my top three favorite 3DS games, and Mario is my favorite series. Dat 3DS library
 
I love the soundtrack to this game...I thought it was really nice. The game itself was very fun, I loved most of the levels for it, the only ones I couldn't stand were with Shadow Mario but that's about it. Bring on the Wii U iteration!
 
I've finally gotten around to digging deep into this game...man, 3D World might just make me bite on a Wii U finally, this shit is that good. Gotta hope for a price drop sometime though...
 
I've finally gotten around to digging deep into this game...man, 3D World might just make me bite on a Wii U finally, this shit is that good. Gotta hope for a price drop sometime though...

I'm in the same place as you. Infect I went to a GameStop to pick a White WiiU up and for some reason all the white WiiUs have been recalled or at least that's what the dude told me.
 
I will never understand the overflowing praise for this game.

Just stop.
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I loved pretty much everything about this game except the controls. I can never get a good grip on the circle pad with my thumb, and it made for a lot of silly deaths and an overall very uncomfortable experience... A damn shame. One of the reasons I stopped playing after getting 4 stars on my save file.

On the other hand, I 100% DKCR and I still go back to it from time to time. It's a joy to play and the controls feel much more perfect. I know they are different beasts but still...
 
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Nintendo sent me the game when it came out. It was later part of a 3DS XL digital games promotion, so codes were getting pretty cheap on eBay. Bought the game digitally to support it with my money. I love it.
 
I loved pretty much everything about this game except the controls. I can never get a good grip on the circle pad with my thumb, and it made for a lot of silly deaths and an overall very uncomfortable experience... A damn shame.

Circle pad control was very normal for me TBH.
 
Great game. Really fun.

My biggest issue with this game were some of the special levels. IMO there are too many Shadow Mario levels. I feel like they overused that mechanic. It doesn't even work on some of the levels without being a giant pain in the ass.

Also, 3D Land has the best use of 3D by far.
 
So yeah, great game, but not the most balanced. A few niggling control issues aside though I think the 2D/3D hybrid is a great template for the series, and unlike most of gaf I'm psyched to see what they do with SM3DW. Even though SM64 is one of my all time favorites one of my first reactions upon finishing it (aside from holy shit wow) was that it had lost something of the tightness and vitality of the 2D games (although I came to realize it made up for it with a different set of strengths), so it's refreshing to see the 3D games finally recapture some of the density of activity and old school feel. I know a lot of people felt the Galaxy games achieved this, but in spite of their relative linearity I didn't think the planetoid thing necessarily recreated the pacing or level structure of the 2D games. For that I deeply appreciate SM3DL. Feels like combining the old with the new on a gameplay level and not just as a thematic callback has been a long time in the coming, and imo it works great.

Great write-up and great analysis of how 3D Land / World combines the tight 2D gameplay with a more open 3D world! So don't fret: at least one other Gaffer shares your enthusiasm for 3D World: good 'ol junior me.
 
I hate that you can't get the shiny stars on your save file if the invincibility leaf ever showed up (after dying 5 times on a level), even if you didn't use it. I tried to get all 3 star coins on my first run through a level and some are actually fairly tricky to get which caused me to die 5 times in a row on one level.
 
I don't get the praise either.

I mean, ten minutes ago I finished Super Mario Galaxy 2 and I don't know whether I'll be able to come back to Super Mario 3D Land because SM3DL is missing scope and ambition. (Yeah, I know it's a handheld game, but I felt that something was missing, it's hard to describe)

I also don't know why I have to finish every level with Luigi to unlock the last level, that's ridiculous.

Nevertheless, I had a good time with SM3DL, this game only failed to meet my high expectations.
 
I don't get the praise either.

I mean, ten minutes ago I finished Super Mario Galaxy 2 and I don't know whether I'll be able to come back to Super Mario 3D Land because SM3DL is missing scope and ambition. (Yeah, I know it's a handheld game, but I felt that something was missing, it's hard to describe)

I also don't know why I have to finish every level with Luigi to unlock the last level, that's ridiculous.

Nevertheless, I had a good time with SM3DL, this game only failed to meet my high expectations.
Yeah I hate it when a game rewards me with extra content for going the extra mile.
 
I had to try the game out on my friend's 3DS; got around to playing a few stages. It was...nice. But for w/e reason I just could not adjust to the thumb slider on the 3DS and that made the game artificially harder for me. I'm just too used to real analog control when it comes to 3D Mario games, and the thumb slider wasn't cutting it.

Also from what I remember the levels felt a bit empty. But I can understand them being that way since it's a portable game, the scope has to be a bit smaller.

Might have a change of opinion if I pick up the game (and a 3DS) in the future, tho.
 
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