I should start this by saying that I am most likely going to
talk about the game in its entirety, so if you are one of those people who want
to know absolutely nothing about how Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach, or how
Mario saves her by defeating Bowser in a heated battle of macho manliness you
should most likely stop reading. Also, if you don’t want to know about the
special, post-world eight game bonus stuff, you should probably just go ahead
take off as well.
“So, how about that newish handheld Mario game for that
newish Nintendo handheld system that is held back from being a great portable
device by a terrible, less than three hour battery life?” you might ask.
It’s a lot of fun. It’s Mario, there are goombas and koopa
troopers and star coins to collect. It’s all the platforming you come to expect
from a Mario game, although it’s been slightly castrated by being far too easy
for far too much of the time. That is my only big complaint really, so let’s
get it out of the way now. The first half of the game (World 1 through 8) were
dead simple, with the Nintendo gods feeling the need to rain down 1-ups for
being marginally proficient at jumping atop flag poles and finding “hidden”
green mushrooms. And while they handed out psychedelic, life giving fungi, they
also decided to make the gauntlet of trials and tribulations Mario must
overcome to save his one true -though perhaps promiscuous- love about as
challenging as World 1-1 from the original Super Mario Bros. By the time I
reached the Final Bowser boss fight, I had well over 100 lives, and never
really felt threatened by anything the game threw at me. (Although, yes, I did
once have the game offer me an invincible Tanooki Suit, Nintendo’s way of
saying that it felt I might be incapable of completing the level because I had
failed to make one irksome jump a handful of times and was worried I might give
up and fall upon my Master Sword in shame and frustration). However, there are
two things that balance out this complaint. First off, the levels are fun, and
well designed. I liked seeing what the designers had thought up next, and it
kept me playing (though at first I was bothered by the fact that each world was
not a themed collection of levels, but a simple hodgepodge of gimmicks strung
along, though I eventually got over that). The second thing that
counterbalances the severe easiness of the first eight or so hours is that you
can almost view them as a (very) extended tutorial before the real game begins.
The last eight special worlds, unlocked after you defeat Bowser, feature a lot
of challenges. So if you can keep yourself playing through the first eight
hours, which feature well designed, easy levels, you will find a lot to like
from the last half (and one or two levels where you want to throw something in
anger, which is dangerous considering the streamlined, easily huckable shape of
the 3DS itself).
In all honesty, I could probably stop there, since I kind of
said all those little, nibbling things that I have been mulling over since
beating the game. However, I guess I could quickly discuss the 3D elements of
the game. First of all, the 3D effect in the game does add some depth, but
doesn’t really do anything for me either way. While the first time I handled
the 3DS, (at a kiosk in a Toys R Us), I was blown away by how cool the 3D was, (I
wasn’t wearing glasses! The screen wasn’t a darkened mess due to the glasses!
There was depth and my eyes were trippin’, man!), after playing a full game
with the feature, I like it, but if it didn’t exist I wouldn’t feel like I was
missing anything. The only time I really took notice of the feature and thought
it added a little something was with the two top-down levels where lava rose up
toward me, and Mario dropped down deep holes in the ground to collect coins
before hitting a springy block and popping back up at me. Those moments were
cool, but only really lasted a few short minutes. I went back and replayed
those levels a number of times because they were so cool. Sadly, Nintendo
didn’t feel like making more of those. What they did do instead was make a few
cloud sections were a little 3D notification floated in the bottom of the
screen letting you know you needed to see depth to make the jumps between clouds,
so turn on the 3D screen effect if you had turned it off. These sections were
boring and the 3D, while suggested by Nintendo, didn’t seem very wow to me, or
very necessary to beating the sections. The M.C. Escher-esque demo screen off
the start menu was more impressive. The reason for this lack of great 3D use
can be traced back to one thing, I feel. Nintendo wants to include everyone,
even at the expense of limiting fun for the majority, and this is one example:
there is a health and safety warning that says 3D effects should only be used
by those ages 7 and up. So, for that huge subset of kids ages 1 month to 6.99
years old who play video games, Nintendo has avoided doing anything where 3D is
required as a portion of game design. I do understand that not everyone will be
able to see 3D, and that there are lots of kindergarten aged kids that want to
play Nintendo, but when the ability to include a touted feature of your system
on a flagship brand is squandered you have to wonder why you felt it should be
a hardware design component at all. Was it just an excuse to sell me a new
handheld when the old one was treating me just fine? Regardless, I feel that
Mario could have used a bit more 3D pizzaz.
In general, I had fun with the game, collecting star coins,
hoping over lava pits, and trying out all the little gimmicks that Nintendo
inserted into the platforming formula. The game featured a number of levels that
have stuck in my mind and have enjoyed playing them over a few extra times for
fun, and will be going back to every once and a while for brief forays when I
start to miss Mario’s mustachioed mug.
No comments:
Post a Comment