Month: December 2013

Super Mario 3D World – World 4

After playing only as Mario through the first three worlds of Super Mario 3D World, I decided to try out the other characters in World 4. I started out World 4-1 as Luigi.

sm3dw-4-1Luigi has the ability to jump higher than Mario, but that makes him have a bit of a floaty feel that I don’t particularly care for. I’ve never been fond of playing as Luigi in Mario games for that reason. After one level of that, I switched to Princess Peach for World 4-2.

sm3dw-4-2Peach has the ability to briefly hover in mid-air, much like she did in Super Mario Bros. 2. I found this to be very helpful, especially in levels that involve a lot of platform-hopping. Unlike Luigi’s jump, this feels easier to control. I stuck with the Princess for most of World 4. Her hover jump is a life-saver in World 4-3: Beep Block Skyway, where blocks appear and disappear at regular intervals. When pink blocks disappear, blue blocks appear, and vice versa.

sm3dw-4-3I then gave Toad a try for World 4-5: Spike’s Lost City. Toad moves around quick, but he doesn’t jump very high at all. He might be okay for relatively flat levels, but you don’t want to use him for levels that have a lot of jumping.

sm3dw-4-5After that, I switched back to Peach for the rest of World 4. Going forward, I think I’m only going to be using Mario and Peach for the rest of the game. World 4 was fun, but it wasn’t quite the ball of excitement that World 3 was. It also wasn’t very challenging at all. But next time, I’ll head into World 5, which appears to be a water level. See you then!

Zelda: Link Between Worlds – Eastern Palace

I resumed my game and headed off for the first dungeon, the Eastern Palace. Once I got there, I saw a symbol that showed a bow and arrow on it. A sign told me I had to go to an “item shop” where Ravio would let me rent one! Rent? Don’t you know who I am?

z-rentThe item shop was actually at my own house, and Ravio is a rabbit that I let stay there last time. But he agreed to lend me the bow for free, at least this time. The interesting thing is that the bow doesn’t use regular arrows that you would buy or pick up. Instead, it uses an energy gauge. Shooting an arrow will lower your energy gauge, and you can shoot until it’s empty. However, the gauge refills itself, so you won’t have to be without arrows for long.

With my bow and infinite magical arrows in hand, I returned to the Eastern Palace, where I was able to unlock a door to progress further. Once I reached the palace, some old guy with a ponytail named Osfala was there. Link told him what was going on (wait, how does Link tell people things if he doesn’t talk?) and he revealed he’s one of the original seven sages. He went inside the palace, and I followed behind. I soon reached an area I recognized from A Link to the Past: Bowling balls!

z-bowlingThis room was an awful lot like A Link to the Past, but to be fair, the dungeon overall is not identical. There are new puzzles, new rooms, and new traps all around. Once I made it to the boss room, the bad guy Yuga was making Osfala hover in the air in apparent discomfort. Yuga then turned Osfala into a painting. It was time for me to fight Yuga!

z-galleryI fought him and beat him, but then he did something unthinkable: He turned ME into a painting. Oh no you didn’t!

z-paintingWell, at least this is one way to slim down after eating big holiday meals. But then, a bracelet I was wearing (from Ravio) saved me somehow. I popped out of the wall and felt human…err…elfy again! I now have the ability to merge into walls by turning into a painting. I can then fit through cracks in the wall to reach new places. But this ability uses the energy gauge, so I can only use it for a limited time before allowing it to recharge. Even though I collected the heart container from beating the boss, I wasn’t done with the dungeon.

I was in a new area on the outer walls of the palace. I got a bit lost for a few minutes, but I eventually found my way back out of the dungeon. Sahasrahla met me there, and I filled him in on the details. After hearing a loud crash, we automatically made our way to Hyrule Castle, which had a mysterious barrier around it. He told me I needed to get the two other pendants, one in the House of Gales and the other in the Tower of Hera. So I’ll be headed to one of those locations next time. But for now, I saved my game and quit. See you next time!

Super Mario 3D World – World 3

I’ve resumed my adventure in Super Mario 3D World for Wii U, this time heading off to World 3. It appears to be an ice world as it starts out with an awesome first level filled with surprises, Snowball Park. The snow-covered trees lose their snow when you climb them, and snowmen pop out of the ground. Knock the snowmen apart, and you can pick up their…uh…snowballs and roll them at other enemies. There are also propeller blocks which you can pick up to soar high into the air.

But my favorite part of the level is the ice-skating Goombas. Stomp them and you can hop into the big ice skate and skate around! It reminds me of Kuribo’s shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3, although this isn’t quite as useful since it doesn’t work very well once you leave the ice. It’s a whole lot of fun while it lasts, though. Another cool feature of this level is the return of the tanooki suit! Even though it doesn’t let you turn into a statue this time around, it’s awesome to hop into a tanooki suit once again.

World 3-2: Chain-Link Charge ramps up the challenge. This is the first level I’ve really had some trouble with. It’s a forced-scrolling obstacle course with lots of hazards such as moving gates that block your path and donut blocks that start falling after you land on them. The cat suit comes in very handy, thanks to Cat Mario’s ability to climb walls. But even as a cat, some of the jumps are quite tricky. I had trouble with the depth perception; it can be difficult to see where your character is at when you’re in mid-air. I lost a number of lives here that I felt were cheap deaths. World 3-1 may have been my favorite level of the game so far, but World 3-2 is my least favorite level.

sm3dw-32World 3-3: Shifty Boo Mansion is the first ghost house. There are branching paths and plenty of ghosts. Things aren’t as they seem here, with some fake items and even a fake exit. But this level is really cool; there’s even a part where you go outdoors in the rain on a balcony. This is quite an enjoyable stage.

sm3dw-ghostEven though World 3 first appeared to be an ice world, it’s really not. World 3 is surprisingly diverse and enjoyable. Aside from the levels I talked about above, there’s also a level with a short 100-tick time limit, a train level called the Bullet Bill Express, a Mario Kart themed level (complete with the Mario Circuit music), and a very cool beach/underwater level. Super Mario 3D World seems to get better and better as it goes along. I’m looking forward to see what kind of surprises lie ahead in World 4. Join me next time as I continue my adventure.

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