You play the game as one of four protagonists - Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad, harkening back to Super Mario Bros. On that count, too, Super Mario 3D World is a resounding success. Tight controls and level design are a given with Super Mario, though the series' most successful games are the ones that best apply new, recurring elements to the existing template. And that’s without spoiling some of the crazier stages in store. You’ll ride white-water rapids atop a friendly dinosaur, learn to match your jumps to shifting platforms that appear in time with a disco-funk soundtrack, and guide Mario around a Super Mario Kart-inspired track that plays like nothing as much as an early Sonic the Hedgehog game. As with the head-spinning Super Mario Galaxy games, Nintendo is more than happy to introduce a completely new gameplay concept only to discard it after a single level, and it's this momentum that ensures Super Mario 3D World is never predictable and never boring. Even if the overarching design is something we've seen before, almost every individual stage is bursting with invention. While the formula is proven, some will certainly feel slightly disappointed that the Wii U isn't seeing an all-new blueprint.īut Super Mario 3D World blows that notion away within minutes of its opening sequence. Both games share the same isometric perspective and simple eight-way directional control by limiting camera and player movement, the two come off as an accessible hybrid between previous 2D and 3D Super Mario releases. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, it draws most of its influence from 2011's Super Mario 3D Land, a fantastic 3DS title that took many by surprise.

Nintendo typically uses its 3D Super Mario titles as a showcase for new hardware, so the design of Super Mario 3D World could have been cause for concern. It's Nintendo at its creative, playful, unhinged best. It sees Nintendo finally firing on all cylinders again, at a time when it's needed the most. Super Mario 3D World is the best game on the Wii U by far, and arguably the best game to come out this holiday season on any platform. In fact, it’s been easy to forget about the Wii U in general Nintendo's console has sold poorly since its release last November, and truly exciting software has been all but non-existent. It’s been easy to forget about the Wii U lately, with this month's high-profile launches of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

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