Jeff's Gaming Blog

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.

World 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.

Even 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.

I continued my adventure in Super Mario 3D World, this time heading off to World 2. This is the desert world…it seems like World 2 is always the desert world in Mario games, doesn’t it? Anyway, after clearing the first level of this world, I was given the option to enable the Miiverse features of the game, as well as ghost Mii characters. I didn’t look into how the ghost Mii characters work just yet, but the Miiverse features became apparent immediately. On my world map were some Miis belonging to people on my Wii U friend roster, with some posts they made about the game. The first one I saw was this drawing of Mario “pooting” on a Goomba Cat.

World 2-3: Shadow-Play Alley is an interesting level that makes use of shadows. They may help you find a secret or they may distract you into making a mistake. In some parts of the level, you’ll see both your character and your shadow; in other parts, you can only see the shadows. It’s a fun level.

Just another note about the Miiverse features. After completing a level, various Miiverse posts about that level will scroll across the top of the screen. These aren’t limited to people on your friend roster. Here are some of the posts that scrolled by after I completed World 2-3:

I then headed off to World 2-2: Puffprod Peaks. (Yes, I played 2-3 before 2-2). This level introduced some new gameplay mechanics that involved using the touch screen on the Wii U GamePad (much like Rayman Legends) or blowing into the microphone near the home button. It was a bit gimmicky, sure, but it worked well (in this level at least). It remains to be seen if later levels go overboard with the gimmicks.

The most interesting level in the desert world is World 2-5: Double Cherry Pass. It introduces the cherry power-up, which makes a duplicate of yourself. So if you’re Cat Mario and you grab a cherry, you’ll now control two Cat Marios. Find another cherry and you’ll have three Marios. I managed to get FIVE Marios in this level, and it’s all sorts of crazy fun. I can’t wait to see how these multiple Marios are used in later stages. But for now, here’s a video of this level:

The desert world comes to a close with World 2-Tank: Bowser’s Bullet Bill Brigade. You have to make your way past an army of tanks armed with Bullet Bills, spikes, and of course some enemies too. It reminded me of the tank and airship levels in World 8 of Super Mario Bros. 3, but in 3D of course. This level wasn’t as challenging as those levels in SMB3, but this is only the second world and the levels are still pretty easy. It’s still quite a fun level to play through, though!

Next time, I’ll be off to World 3, which appears to be an ice or crystal world. I’m sure it’s going to be fun!