I’ve taken a very long break from playing Super Mario 3D World, but in the past month or so, I’ve returned to it to finish collecting the stars, stamps, and flagpoles in the eight standard worlds. Once I did that, I opened up a bonus world: World Star. And yes, I’ve been playing primarily as Peach lately. Her SMB2 style hover jump is very helpful for levels with tricky jumps. It also helps for reaching the tops of flagpoles.
I’ll be giving my impressions and opinions of each level in this world.
World Star-1: Rainbow Run is bound to bring back memories of Rainbow Road in the Mario Kart games. The first and third sections of the level feature some tricky jumps on spinning rainbow-colored cylinders.
The second star challenge actually involves a cool Legend of Zelda reference, and the Zelda theme song even plays for a short time! This level also has a Plessie swimming segment that takes place over rainbow-colored tiles. This section is very short, but it’s a fun (and colorful) diversion from the platforming sections.
World Star-2: Super Galaxy is a Super Mario Galaxy themed level with lots of rotating platforms and some peaceful Galaxy music. The background features the northern lights and Rosalina’s ship, the Comet Observatory. Completing this level unlocks Rosalina as a playable character! She has a spin-attack move, although I decided to stick with Peach.
World Star-3: Rolling Ride Run is probably my second least favorite level from this world. It involves running on giant rolling pins–which in itself is quite tricky–while navigating through a maze of blocks and avoiding enemies and other obstacles. Needless to say, it’s a challenging level.
World Star-4: The Great Goal Pole is basically a practical joke on everyone who plays the game. You’re only given 100 seconds to complete the level, but it appears to be no problem since the goal pole is only a few feet away from the starting point. However, once you try to jump on the goal pole, it suddenly sprouts wings and flies away from you! It’s hard not to laugh the first time it happens. You then have to chase down the pole over a series of clouds and falling donut block bridges, while avoiding enemies of course. You have to be quick to clear this level!
World Star-5: Super Block Land features giant brick blocks and some hefty Chargin’ Chucks. You just know there’s going to be something hidden inside some of those giant blocks. Fortunately, there are bombs to throw at them and blow them up. There’s also a tanooki suit here, which gives you a helpful tail attack. It’s a pretty fun level.
World Star-6: Honeycomb Starway is played from a fixed, top-down viewpoint (except for the flagpole section at the very end). Some futuristic, sci-fi hexagonal platforms fly out of nowhere to assemble the path ahead of you. Some of them are covered in fire (lava) or ice, making for some hazards to avoid. And there are flying enemies (including bees and anti-gravity piranha plants) that will try to defeat you, but this level is short and fairly easy. Especially since there’s a helpful boomerang suit right at the beginning of the level.
World Star-Toad is a Captain Toad level located in a cube. Captain Toad can’t jump of course, but there are P-switches that change the gravity within the cube to let you rotate the entire playfield. Like most other Captain Toad levels, it’s a nice change of pace that’s pretty fun.
World Star-7: Gargantuan Grotto features some enormous Goombas, but also some mega mushrooms that can make you just as big. This level is very easy, and being a giant is quite enjoyable. I’m just disappointed that we only get one “giant” level as opposed to whole Giant World like in Super Mario Bros. 3. Oh well, it’s fun while it lasts.
World Star-8: Peepa’s Fog Bog combines a large, open haunted graveyard with a winter wonderland. You’ll be fighting (or avoiding) ghots and snowmen alike as you collect the five key coins to proceed to the next section. There you’ll ride a raft on a poison river, leading to the final section with a sinking/rising bridge through fog. It’s a pretty cool, unique level.
World Star-9: Cosmic Cannon Cluster is my least favorite level in this world. It’s also the hardest level in the world (and one of the hardest in the whole game). Most of the level involves jumping on switchboards–directional platforms on rails. You’ll be wearing a cannon box power-up for most/all of the level, and you’ll need to shoot switches to change the paths–while you’re moving, avoiding enemies, and trying not to let your platform fall off the rails. But the hardest part of the level is a section where you have to scale a wall by jumping on cannonballs, one after another, before they hit the wall and explode. I lost quite a few lives here. There’s also an underwater segment, but it’s actually quite a bit easier than the rest of the level.
That wraps up this world, but there’s still more to come. Completing World Star-9 unlocks another bonus world, World Mushroom! The Super Mario 3D World coverage here on JVGS is far from over! Stay tuned!