I’m quite partial to a good computer game and I’m not old enough to play all of the Call of Dutys and Assasins creed I have played World at War but the majority of them I haven’t played but one of the most consistent game series out is the Super Mario Bros series after one of my favourite games ever on a DS Super Mario Bros so I had high hopes for this one. Some people don’t like Mario but I just like it for the pure fun.

Plot

Princess Peach is captured by the Koopalings Mario and Luigi have to go rescue her.

Review

This is the standard Mario platform game like Super Mario Bros Wii and DS with Mario having to jump across levels avoiding and jumping on enemies and using items to get to the end. I wanted to see how Nintendo used the 3D to give this two dimensional game a 3D look and I wanted to see what the graphics were like. I also wanted to see if they introduced anything drastically different to what we’ve seen in previous game in terms of items and the designs of levels.

What sets this apart from the other ones is the focus on Coins I haven’t managed to get a million coins which is what you’re meant to get to complete part of the game it’s normally collect the star coins and complete the levels but with this you get more ups that will earn you coins. This is a nice change from the rest of the Mario games and it makes the game more interesting as you will have to go and complete levels again to earn coins.

The plot for this game is a normal Mario plot that has been used thousands of times we know it’s going to be the standard one so I generally don’t bother with it as I’m more interested in playing the game we have had these plots for years so you should never really complain about it as it will always be repeated.

Items

There are only three new addition to the items inventory in this game we get the standard Fire flower, Mushroom, Star and giant mushroom these are always fun to use especially fire flower which is the most common item in the game as well as P-wing(don’t count mushroom because it just makes you bigger).

The P-wing is basically the same as the Tankooki suit we saw in Super Mario 3D land (which you should all get) but without the suit and if you run far enough you can fly for a short time. This is a useful item mainly because it lets you float slowly down after jumping the air and you miss you can’t simply float down it helps a lot with this game as you often have to jump over large gaps that can only be done with this. You also get the ability to hit people with your tail this helps with small enemies but won’t help with rocks and boulders but it can be helpful because you can hit blocks that block the way to pipes that lead you to other places in the game and sometimes to hidden flags.

We also see the introduction of a new item which is the coin block which when you ever you start running coins will slowly start to appear and when you are running at full speed coins spurt out rapidly this helps with the game in many ways as you earn a lot of coins very quickly and you earn one ups quickly but you will lose it the moment you collide with an enemy as you have to be careful and you automatically lose it after collecting a large amount of coins. The only way you get one of these is by hitting a block quickly getting 10 coins until it eventually goes gold and then you run around with it on your head it’s a bit ridiculous with it on your head but the item fits in well with the coin theme of the game.

The best item of this game is the gold flower it gives you so much insane power it is incredibly rare so if you find one hold onto it but you spray a ball out that when it collides with something sends out a shockwave that turns blocks into coins and if you hit an enemy you automatically get 5 coins you are nigh on invincible you can be hit but with the amount of damage you do you’re not likely to get hit you can even hit a koopaling and knock him into a shell with one hit so use them on boss battles a lot. I suppose with the amount of power you get you can’t use it for several levels in a row as at the end of a level it turns into a fire flower as you could likely destroy everything in the next level easily.

The only standout item in this game is the gold flower as the other two new ones are a bit similar to other ones I hoped for more new items like in the (classic) super mario Galaxy 2.

Levels

This game features the standard Super Mario bros game design with you hopping from block to block this is always fun to do and some of the new levels are quite impressive. Yet the worlds are similar to ones we’ve seen before with have a snow, sky, forest and tropical worlds they are always lots of fun but I personally would like to see new worlds like in Super Mario Galaxy 2 (sorry I just love that game it’s my favourite Mario game ever) as that had lots of different worlds and while we did have similar ones they used the environment differently. The levels are still fun but a little too similar to levels we have seen before. We do on this game get secret worlds there are at least 3 two you get from unlocking cannons on worlds 1 and 3 and the other from completing the 6 world these secret worlds are interesting with the new levels and enjoyable. What was a real surprise was the introduction of canon levels which after you unlock the canon you have to complete a level after being launched out of it and are running very fast to the next level this is a nice addition to the game and the levels do test your skills.

3D

I wanted to see the use of 3D in this game as I think the 3D could make this game look even better. The foreground when you turn on the 3D does look good as it adds depth to the images and makes the enemies look even better but the backgrounds are a different matter when you turn the 3D on it simply blurs it this doesn’t work and seems if Nintendo couldn’t be bothered to put it in it could look great and make this game even more attractive than it already is but it just blurs it and it doesn’t look great. Keep this game in 2D while the foregrounds in 3D look really good the backgrounds look bad and don’t make it look 3D.

Enemies

We don’t see a lot of new enemies in this game just variation on old ones as in castles we get bone piranha plants and bone goombas the bone goombas are basically the same as the original ones are easily beaten by being hit on the heard but bone piranha plants are invincible to anything but invincibility as the original ones can be beaten by fire flower these can’t which does make it interesting on castle levels as you sometimes are stuck on moving platforms and because you can’t move it makes it very hard. On the whole the enemies are the same as other games but the new ones we do get are good.

Verdict

This is a good game we get the normal fun levels, fun items and the change to coins were very interesting it just could have been more creative with items and worlds and also the use of 3D isn’t great.

81% of out of 100.