With these simultaneous goals, 3D World plays like such a pure, successful synthesis of a classic side-scrolling Mario title and a classic 3D Mario title it’s Super Mario Bros. In colorful, imaginative, and delightfully gimmick-oriented levels, a crew of up to four simultaneous characters - your choices being Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and eventually Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy (though why not include her from the jump, like other rereleases do?) - platforms their way around 3D spaces with the eventual end goal of jumping on that classic Mario flagpole, and optional goals of collecting hidden stars and stamps throughout. This version of Super Mario 3D World is, simply, a faithful port, for better and for worse.Īs for the better, there’s plenty of it.

Heck, it’s not even a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which boosted and balanced and tweaked the original Wii U version with plainly noticeable improvements. For those who have already played it, I have slightly less great news: It’s the same game, but now on Switch! It comes with a new side game, Bowser’s Fury, that’s a bit more “interesting experiment” than “instant classic.' And the overall package is less Final Fantasy VII Remake and more Scott Pilgrim Vs.

It was an unbelievably entertaining entry to the long-running video game franchise, a perfect blend between its classic 2D and contemporary 3D modes of gameplay, a formula-scrambling emphasis on multiplayer chaos over single-player precision, an introduction to “the kitty cat suit” that we can and should never walk away from.įor those who missed this game in its original state on the low-selling Wii U, I have great news: You can now play it in all its glory on the Nintendo Switch, and boy howdy are you in for a treat. In 2013, Super Mario 3D World was released for the Nintendo Wii U, and I devoured it.

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