Rating: ★★★⯪☆
Playtime: 12 Hours 58 Minutes
Played on: Nintendo 3DS
Duration: 3/14/2025 - 6/2/2025
REVIEW
Super Mario 3D land feels like what would happen if an AI was to generate a Mario game. Knowledge of the legacy that the 3D titles have had on the gaming landscape, but without knowing the keys to what made them really unique, and the with the knowledge of the traditional 2D 'Mario game' structure, thinking this is how all Mario games are structured.
I want to say that above all, this game is solid in pretty much every aspect, it just fails to excel in any key ways that take it above that 'good' threshold. From a technical perspective, this feels like a Mario game should in pretty much every way, the way the character moves and interacts with the world is polished to a mirror shine. There isn't much to it, granted, the moveset in this game is rather limited compared to other 3D entries, but it all feels good for the most part, with only some minor struggles with the system's circle pad being wonky - but that's on the system not the game. I encountered no noticeable bugs or glitches for the entire duration of my 100% playthrough, which is commendable, especially on such a weak system. The level design is also rock solid - as to be expected - introducing mechanics in understandable ways, and introducing a handful of new enemies and mechanics unique to this game that mesh perfectly with the identity and gameplay of Mario as a series.
IDENTITY
Super Mario 3D Land | Nintendo
I think a lot of the unique identity that this game *does* have is in relation to how it was designed for the 3DS itself. I can imagine the designers crafting this game to have short bit-sized levels for pick-up and play portable gaming, pulling on the strengths of the New Super Mario Bros. series and its portable origins to make a game that fills its role better than the likes of Super Mario 64 DS did for the DS. The stages meet this goal, but almost too well. It feels like the ideas these stages have struggle to be fully explored in any way due to how short they are, some stages ending at what feels like should be the halfway point. In some cases, this is appreciated, but it just feels so limited in scope most of the time which can be a bit of a letdown.
Limited scope is a bit of a theme here across the whole game. The art style is *very* minimal, with simple backgrounds and terrain, a majority of levels consisting of floating platforms in the middle of a colorful abyss without consistent ideas to tie them together. Worlds lack consistent themes - and the world map itself is a literal straight line with no extra sauce at all. I can't think of another Mario game to put in this... little effort in terms of world-building. The story is minimal as well, of course, but that isn't too surprising for a game like this. I do think it is one of the *most* minimal stories in the modern history of this series though, it doesn't really put much effort into presentation with just a few still images shown throughout the entire game, but still it's serviceable.
The game has a slight amount of character through its implementation of the 3D mechanics in a handful of bonus rooms, but they amount to nothing more than a few fun optical illusions and don't ever break out of that tier as gimmicks. I will say it may be slightly beneficial to play the entire game with the 3D turned on, because this game does have some issues with depth perception across the board, but anyone who's used the 3D on this system knows it's hard to keep on for more than 15 or so minutes without getting eye strain or a headache.
Super Mario 3D Land | Nintendo
The game also lacks a lot in original ideas. The bosses here include:
- Bowser
- Boom Boom
- Pom Pom
- That's it :)
POSTGAME
Super Mario 3D Land | Nintendo
The post game content unfortunately here isn't some of this series' finest offerings. You might see that there are an entire 8 worlds in the post game and get excited, but those worlds consist almost entirely of reused level design with either more enemies, a stricter time limit, or very slightly modified geometry. I don't mind these as an inclusion, but having such a lack of unique content to these is a bit drab, and having to collect all three star coins in each of these after doing it already for the main stages is such a drag. This combos with the fact that each stage must be beaten twice for 100% (once as Mario and once as Luigi) to make a game that feels like it's really padding its runtime. There are ultimately close to only 40 real, unique stages in this game, and each is only one to three minutes long a piece, and yet the game takes around 10 hours to finish. It isn't a total slog, since you can go through the stages much quicker on your repeat playthrough, but I'd argue it's fully unnecessary.
I've done a lot of griping and complaining in this review, but I promise that isn't reflective of how your experience with the game will likely be. It's a perfectly serviceable, and really well polished Super Mario game, arguably the best platformer of his on the 3DS, and it's worth your time if you're a fan, but it doesn't come anywhere close to touching any of the other 3D entries in the series, including 3D World, and is beaten out by a majority of the 2D ones as well in my opinion. Still worth it if you are looking for a fun, simple time, though.
Wahoo! - Mikey