4/5 ★ – WrathofBen's review of Super Mario 3D Land.

EDIT: I said I’d never 100% this game, but I totally did shortly after this review. Honestly, not that bad. That last level takes some SKILL!!! This one’s been a long time coming. I got this game with my 2DS XL back when it was all on clearance on Amazon in 2019. This was also the first Mario game I actually enjoyed playing, aside from Mario Kart. Back then, I beat the initial run of levels, but stopped before doing the “Special” levels with Luigi. Since the summer of 2019, I have not touched this game. Now, in 2024, I picked this game back up to get all the star coins, gold flags, and do the same for all of the Special levels. And after blistering my left thumb using the 2DS’s thumb stick to death, I finally beat this game ALMOST 100%. To unlock the final level, I have to beat EVERY level as Mario AND Luigi. And I’m sorry, I just don’t have time in my life to do that right now. All that being said, I fell back in love with this game and had a really great time! I was even having fun during the insanely difficult Special levels with 30 second time limits and Shadow Mario chasing me. The game plays like a 3D version of Super Mario Land on the GameBoy, but with all kinda of fun power ups from the franchise, like the Tanooki Suit, Boomerang Bro, Fire Flower, and your standard mushroom. You collect coins 3 star coins, and hit the top of the flagpole in each level to make the best progress through the game. The first 8 worlds sort of dip your toes into the game, where the next 8 test you limits. It’s literally the phrase “easy to learn, hard to master”. When finishing the first 8 worlds, I have over 150 lives. When I got done with the last 8, I had 43 lives left. But finishing the game again as Luigi was so rewarding. I just wish the game didn’t make Unlike the console counterpart, Super Mario 3D WORLD (get it?), the 3D perspective never threw me off. I had a good grasp of where I was in the level most of the time. Enemies also felt balanced, and never unfair. The closest thing to unfair was the Shadow Mario enemy that chases you in certain special levels. That legit game me the anger shakes at times. Still, I always understood why I died, and it was always my fault. I don’t have much else to say here. I really enjoyed the look back at this game, and I enjoyed the challenge. Even if that challenge almost had me snapping my DS in half at times. I wish a few more similarities between this game and its Wii U/Switch counterpart would’ve been present, and that there would’ve been more playable characters. AND the requirement to play all 80+ levels again as the opposite character is REALLY ridiculous. I’m gonna give this an easy 8/10. I wish 3D World were this fun. This is easily the most fun I’ve had playing a Mario game, as someone who is TERRIBLE at Mario.