Super Mario 3D Land review

You can read this review in full in our print edition.

Issue 234, which is out now, features full reviews and Post Script articles on the season's biggest games, including The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Batman: Arkham City, Dark Souls and Rage.

You can subscribe to Edge in print, on iOS via Newsstand and on Android, PC and Mac via Zinio.

--

It may have been developed by EAD Tokyo, but Super Mario 3D Land isn’t a 3DS spin on Super Mario Galaxy. And it might have that familiar raccoon tail wagging at the end of its logo, but 3D Land isn’t really a sequel to Super Mario Bros 3, either. What 3D Land is, then, is Mario, not quite as you know him today, but perhaps as you faintly remember him from days gone by.

He feels different. The supple gymnastics of the Galaxy games have been toned down by the removal of that exuberant triple jump, and the addition of a small charge time at the start of his backflip. These tweaks, together with a frankly plodding default walking speed (you’ll spend the most of the game with the run button held down), make for a plumber who comes as close to his NES incarnation as any 3D Mario so far, and one you can’t fling around with quite the same abandon as in recent years.

Levels often hang in Galaxy-like voids, but whereas the Wii games built their challenges around those signature spheres of fun, 3D Land’s timed courses are defined by the straighter edges of the cubes, blocks and tiles from which they are constructed. They’re no less tightly designed, however – the early levels are relatively spacious, easing your acquaintance with this new Mario’s abilities, before giving way to the pure, uncluttered platforming found in the later stages.

And these levels are enhanced by some of best, most subtle use of 3D on the system so far. The effect is pervasive, but never distracting, combining with the usually sidescrolling camera to make the game feel like a toybox diorama brought to fizzling life. Does the 3D effect aid players in judging the gap between platforms when making tricky jumps, as has been claimed? Well, it certainly doesn’t hurt, although we still relied on Mario’s shadow when it came to judging landings. But falling slowly with the aid of a new propeller power-up through hundreds of feet of sky, aiming for a lone platform suspended in the air, with 3D turned up to maximum, is a vertigo-inducing thrill. And playing through a level viewed via a top-down camera – meaning that every jump sends Mario leaping up to meet you – is a gimmicky delight. Even more gimmicky are the optical-illusion rooms – isometric platforming challenges that hide the gaps between platforms with a fixed camera angle, forcing you to rely on the 3D effect to judge their relative position. These elements come as close as possible to breaking Nintendo’s own rule about not making 3D essential to progress – or at least they would if players weren’t given the option of glimpsing the challenges from the side before making their attempt from memory.