Super Mario 3D Land, Part 1: A Brief History Lesson

Super Mario 3D Land is one of the best games available for the 3DS. Not since Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 has a Mario adventure really drawn me in. While I loved what Nintendo did with Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, I could never really get into them (mostly due to having other games on the go: see World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2) despite them being amazing games. Yet here I am, on my way to having a perfect save file for Mario’s latest adventure. This is something which I have not done in a game in years, and why is that? What has Nintendo done to make this game draw me in so much, and keep me hooked for so long?

I view Super Mario 3D Land as the next natural step in Mario’s never-ending evolution. Over the next couple of posts I will try and justify why I feel Super Mario 3D Land is the most refined Mario experience yet, using more evidence that just how I feel about the game. But before I jump into what makes 3D Land such a great experience, I think a very brief look at Mario’s history in the polygon age is worthwhile. This brief history lesson will be used to help justify my love for the 3D Land, and help show the evolutionary process I have seen unfold with regards to Super Mario and my time as a person interested in games.

1996s Super Mario 64 was the game that showed the world not only how a 3D camera should be done, but more importantly, that it could be done in the new age of the polygon. It was a landmark title, and one that is still remembered fondly; hearing that music from Bomb-omb Battlefield still fills me with childlike glee. His adventure through the game’s huge sandbox world was what led the game industry’s charge into our modern polygonal age, and would give rise to the school of game design based around the idea of the collectable.

2002s Super Mario Sunshine for the GameCube iterated heavily on the 64’s sandbox world design: we got a large open hub world with Isle Delfino; 120 “Shine Sprites” to replace the 120 “Power Stars” from Super Mario 64; and we saw the triumphant return of everyone’s favourite dinosaur, Yoshi. Sunshine also saw the inclusion of the FLUDD, a water pack that augmented Mario’s powers and abilities. While the FLUDD added to the game by really increasing the scope of what Mario could do (allowing him to jump higher, hover in mid-air, and attack enemies from a distance without the help of a fire flower), Sunshine was much the same as 64. That is not to say it is a bad game, far from it, Super Mario Sunshine is one of the best GameCube games around, and is one I would highly recommend.

The DS then gave us the retro throwback of New Super Mario Bros in 2006 as well as a remake of Super Mario 64 that launched with the system in 2004. Aside from the inclusion of 3 other playable characters in Super Mario 64 DS (Luigi, Yoshi, and Wario), the remake was much the same game as its Nintendo 64 predecessor. New Super Mario Bros on the other hand brought many of us back to the days of the NES and the SNES, and was a window into the mechanical origins of one of gaming’s most recognized characters: gone were the sandbox levels seen in Mario’s recent console outings, replaced with the classic approach of individual side scrolling levels. I also think for a lot of people, New Super Mario Bros was a breath of fresh air. By the mid 2000s, the idea of in game collectables had reached its peak and a lot of us were tired of it (it was the original Assassin’s Creed that really turned me off the whole idea of collecting pointless crap), and with New Super Mario Bros focusing more on gameplay rather than collecting everything in sight, Nintendo brought Mario back to his roots.

Come 2007, we have Nintendo releasing the amazing Super Mario Galaxy and following it up 2010 with Super Mario Galaxy 2. We also saw the sequel to New Super Mario Bros, New Super Mario Bros Wii, get released in 2009. While Galaxy continued Mario’s evolution seen in 64 and Sunshine (large levels, tons of collectables, and a neat hub world with the space station) Galaxy 2 reduced and refined many of those tropes. The Space Station from Galaxy was reduced to a single ship (that you can explore if you want) that goes from level to level. The levels in Galaxy 2 are not meant to house six or seven stars like those seen in the original; instead we see levels build to challenge the player and the design shifting away from housing stars, and back to solid platforming. But arguably the biggest shift seen in the Galaxy series was the rise of the Nintendo EAD Group 2’s (the team who made Galaxy 2 and 3D land) “abstract” level design. Galaxy saw Mario race through the stars, run around tiny planets, and traverse a universe full of coins, blocks, stars, koopas, and goombas; all very Mario, but presented with a very different visual style.

While the Galaxy series was experimenting with what a Mario game could be, New Super Mario Bros Wii was as by the books as you could get; and people loved it. Sometimes there really is a reason why the classics are so revered, and the fact that the simple game play of classic Mario is still enough of a draw for people is testament to the quality of the original design of the Mario games (Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3).

It was this refinement of the levels seen in Galaxy 2, combined with the huge success of New Super Mario Bros Wii fundamental values, and the rise of the Mario Team’s abstract level design that paved the way for what would come to be Super Mario 3D Land.