Super Mario 3D Land Review

Mario’s status in gaming has long surpassed legendary and iconic.  In essence – despite what some Call of Duty faithful might attest to – Mario and friends have become synonymous with video games as a whole; which is why nearly every major Mario game raises the bar for interactive entertainment and enthralls more and more new comers and die-hard fans alike with each passing year.

Despite arriving on a handheld platform, the new Super Mario 3D Land shares many trappings of its predecessors that have endeared fans to the venerable series.  That said, the generally excellent game lacks some of the finer touches to detail and refreshing innovation found in its older console brethren, reminding us that this is still a mobile game: and in that respect, it’s the one of the best the 3DS currently has to offer.

Nintendo is not one for nuanced story lines – and gamers are generally alright with that.  Princess Peach gets kidnapped by Bower and Mario must once again be the stoic and unrelenting hero, rushing headlong (or feet first!) into countless dangers.  3D Land sheds the little exposition which could be found in Super Mario Galaxy in exchange for quick and linear gameplay that many will probably feel is suited for a handheld.  You progress along a series of levels that are broken up into 8 different worlds, each of which tries to keep some semblance of a theme – however loose and abstract as it may be.  Certain worlds have forest-like levels with grass and flowers, others take Mario to a desert oasis, some take him to islands and underwater caverns. Some of the levels within these worlds stick to the overlapping theme while others are simply a series of rotating platforms or gears that wouldn’t be out of place in some abstract dream.

Many of Mario’s familiar adversaries return, goombas, koopa troopas, boo’s, bumble bees, and a plethora of others are thrown at Mario at every possible opportunity.  Luckily for Mario, he’s got a new set of tools, or should I say suits, to help him beat the baddies.

The tanooki raccoon suit, first introduced in Super Mario Brothers 3, is back as one of the central power ups in 3D Land.  Donning the furry tailed costume – which animal rights group PETA recently slammed as being pro animal abuse – Mario can float mid air and spin his fluffy tail to knock out baddies.  Less substantial, and often less useful, are the fire flower and koopa boomerang power ups.  The former lets the chubby plumber shoot bouncing fireballs, while the latter drapes him in a turtle shell complete with a returning boomerang.

Instead of collecting three different stars in each level, Mario must hunt for star medallions to unlock certain levels, and eventually complete the game and defeat Bowser.  Each level has three medallions which can be collected as Mario runs through –some are conspicuous and can be grabbed easily while others lay in subterfuge, waiting to be discovered.

Jumping around the levels is incredibly fun and intuitive – like it should in a Mario game.  There are only three buttons used to control Mario: jump, run, and crouch.  The camera can be slightly rotated with the touch screen but never really needs to be due to the tight, fixed perspective camera.  .  Though simple, the controls still need to be mastered to pass some of the game’s more difficult later levels.

3D Land, of course, wouldn’t have its name were not it taking advantage of the Nintendo 3DS’ 3D capabilities, which it does quite well.  The depth may not be as prominent as what’s used in the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, but it certainly aids in gauging distances between platforms, allowing jumps to be more precise.

3D depth alone isn’t enough to impress if the actual 3D graphics disappoint.  Fortunately 3D Land does a great job of imitating the stunning Super Mario Galaxy in visuals. While it’s certainly not as impressive, with a much smaller scale and less visual dazzle, it stands out as one of the 3DS’ better visual outings.

The first time through the game can take players a truly disheartening 4 to 5 hours depending on skill and mastery of the controls.  Upon completion, the game unlocks an additional 8 special worlds that ramp up the difficulty and give the game’s console bigger and betters a run for their money, as well as letting players tackle all of the levels with Mario’s brother, Luigi.

Unfortunately, the majority of the special stages aren’t entirely new, but rather are remixed versions with alternate level design and enemy placement.  Some are exactly the same, albeit with a stricter time limit or a deadly doppelganger chasing Mario.

As Mario’s first 3DS adventure, 3D Land pieces together the best that Mario has had to offer in a sort of greatest hits compilation. Most of the levels feature some great platforming segments though a few are over just as you hit your stride. Additionally, with the exception of the seminal boss battles against Bowser, the rest of the big honchos, including an angry spinning turtle and his boomerang slinging sister, unfortunately leave something to be desired.

While being exceptionally well crafted and designed, the somewhat anemic 3D Land doesn’t offer enough content to all but the most ardent completionists – who will likely search every nook and cranny for each of the star medallions – to justify the $40 price tag.  It’s a lot of fun while it lasts, especially as a handheld game, but I just can’t help but wish that there was more original content in the otherwise excellent package.

8.5/10

Capcom’s “war on horror” has eradicated nearly everything to do with survival horror in Resident Evil the Mercenaries 3D: The only horrifying thing about Resident Evil on the 3DS is how bare and shallow the package is.

From the get go Capcom announced that RE:TM3D would be a stand-alone entry of the Mercenaries mini-game first introduced in RE:3 and popularized and refined in RE:5.  The premise of the original and 3ds versions is the same: take out as many creatures as possible in the time provided.  I say ‘creatures’ because unless you are familiar with RE:4 or RE:5, it’s pretty difficult to figure out what the heck they all are: zombies, parasitic aliens, psychotic lunatics amped up on painkillers, all of the above!?

Even Street Fighter IV included a little exposition through cut-scenes for each of the characters.

Resident Evil has always been like a big, juicy, rare steak; frightening to look at yet satisfying if you make it all the way through to appreciate the subtle nuances of the game’s ‘meat’.  The caveat with the Mercenaries mini games in RE:4 and RE:5 was that they were complimentary to a fully fledged out, traditional story mode that was really the meat and bones of the package – the Mercenaries mode was simply the dessert.

On the 3ds, unless you are familiar with the Resident evil ‘menu’, you may not entirely be sure what you are digesting. At $40, and with several issues to boot, this ‘desert’ doesn’t taste as sweet as it did when it came with a ‘main course’ on the consoles, regardless of the extra dimension the 3ds hardware offers.

The game is broken up into 30 missions – each can be played single-player or CO-OP over local wireless or the internet. Each mission has a time-limit under which objectives must be completed and you receive a grade based on how quick and accurate you were in finishing them, along with skill points to level up the various unlocked abilities that each of the playable characters have.

In essence, game progression is more akin to Capcom’s fighting games than past RE games.  Running each character through the various missions both online and offline to best your previous time and achieve a high score is the name of the game here – and in that respect the game is almost successful.

I say almost, because the less than ideal controls and poor animation mar what little fun gamers can have.  The over the shoulder aiming and slow turns made resident evil 4 a standard for survival horror games back in 2004.  The problem is, once you take that urgency and fear out of the equation, the controls simply don’t support a quick paced arcade shooter like RE:TM3D.

The PS vita may have better hardware and a much bigger screen than the 3DS, but Capcom sure did ‘wow’ gamers with footage of the upcoming RE: Revelations, and later RE:TM3D.  Standing still the game engine looks fantastic; Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Jack Krauser and the several other playable characters all look great – as do the enemies. At first glance you might even mistake it for a low-res version of RE:5 on the consoles.

The problem comes when it’s all in motion.  Enemies further than about 15 feet away animate at very low and jerky frame-rate, something akin to early claymation.  It’s simply horrid to look at and really detracts from the already less than stellar game-play experience.

On the other hand at least the 3D in the game is well done and worth enabling. Unfortunately this game needs a lot more than 3D effects to justify its repetitive single-player campaign that will last less than two hours in your first play-through.  If you can tolerate the game-play and look past the graphical hitches then the online or local wireless play with a friend may redeem some of the game’s inadequacies. Of course a much lower price tag certainly couldn’t hurt either.

Hopefully RE: Revelations will provide the juicy main course survival horror fans have been waiting for on the 3DS; unfortunately, unless you are a diehard Mercenaries fan with 40 bones to pick, this 3DS arcade shooter is most definitely not the Resident Evil game you were looking for.

+ detailed graphics

+ short levels are easy to play on a commute

– not scary in the least bit

– terrible animation

– way overpriced for the amount of content included

It’s worth noting that the game does not allow the save file to be deleted for some odd reason.  Fortunately this doesn’t matter much since all 30 missions can be re-played anyways. And unless you absolutely need to unlock all of the characters and weapons again, it shouldn’t make much of a difference during subsequent play-throughs.

5/10

As of September 2011 the 3DS is slowly gaining traction due to the recent price cut.  The problem still is of course: there aren’t too many great games to play, especially if you’re not looking for standard Nintendo-fare like Zelda or Star Fox.  For better or for worse, 3DS owners finally have themselves a ‘console caliber’ action game in the way of the Nintendo Wii port of Thor: God of Thunder.  Derivative to a fault – and lacking any kind of subtlety showing it – Thor: God of Wa -err.. Thunder is a semi-appetizing bone thrown to game-starved 3DS gamers.

T:GoT is an exact port of the Wii game of the same name released last march – albeit with 3D and some downgraded graphics.  Though a tie-in with the namesake Marvel film released over the summer, T:GoT has its own plot that has nothing to do with the film.  Told through an admittedly cool animated comic style it’s unfortunate that everything is entirely forgettable; sufficed to say, Thor lets his hatred for the frost giants snowball one fight into a all out war that affects his world of Asgard and several others, all the while sounding so much a block-head that it makes Kratos look like a poindexter in comparison.   Expect to be confused if you aren’t a fan of the comic book series or have seen the film.

If you’ve ever wanted to play God of War on a Nintendo handheld… then you should buy a psp. T:GoT tries to emulate the style of GoW in every which way – some of it works, though most unfortunately doesn’t.  The face buttons are mapped to weak and strong attacks, jump, and a hammer dash in which Thor lunges forward with his hammer extended.  L trigger blocks and R trigger revs up your hammer to be thrown.  Other special attacks can be performed through the combination of trigger and button presses.

The formula is simple: charge anything you see and hammer the attack buttons (and sometimes block!) till they are dead and you can move on. To break up the fighting, T:GoT includes some on-rails flying sequences that can be somewhat fun and do well change up game-play for a few minutes; think along the lines of Panzer Dragoon or Sin and Punishment.

Throughout the game Thor will unlock new special powers that consume his energy bar when performed.  These are activated through the bottom touch screen.  Some of attacks are pretty awesome, such as the lightning storm that damages all nearby enemies; others, like the maneuverable lightning bolt are awkward to use due to having to continuously press down on the touch screen while aiming with the slide-pad.

As Thor receives upgrade tokens for racking up kills, you can spend them to improve your health and energy bars, damage output, and add additional combos and special attacks. Throughout the short adventure you can also find equipable runes that augment Thor’s already formidable abilities.  Unlock-able costumes can further customize Thor and are fairly easy to find in the very straight forward and linear levels.  The upgrades and collectable runes can be allot of fun to purchase and find, yet the very easy nature of the game makes them somewhat unnecessary in all but the highest difficulty.

The mid and end level boss-fights are the only things with any semblance of a challenge; both rely on a mixture of normal fighting and timed button press mini-games.  While the gigantic end level bosses can be pretty satisfying to take on the smaller mid-level ones are all essentially the same and just become repetitive fairly quickly.

The graphics weren’t anything spectacular on the Wii and things on the 3DS are no different. To compensate for the weaker hardware the developers understandably had to cut back on the particle effects and remove all of the shadows.  What isn’t understandable is the overall lack of polish on the graphics, including clipping and frame-rate issues that plague the title throughout. Thor’s feet frequently blend with the environment and it’s common to see him standing knee deep in a piece of concrete.  These issues don’t affect the playability of the game much but do make it look quite sloppy at times. That said some of the large environments can be fairly impressive.

The 3D itself is adequately implemented, if not a bit on the underwhelming.  Even with the 3D set to maximum, the depth isn’t all that great, although objects do pop out on occasion.

If you’re starving for an action game to play on your 3DS then T:GoT may be worth checking out as it can be fun and entertaining at times – especially during boss fights; just don’t look for God of War quality here, the technical issues and uninspired game-play hold this 5-6 hour romp back from giving 3DS owners a great handheld action experience.

+ Some badass looking attack combos

+ Large environments

+ Entertaining on rails flying sequences.

– Graphical glitches and frame-rate issues

– Repetitive and unoriginal game-play

–  Forgettable story

6.0/10

Perhaps the most ambitious and original of the LEGO games at it’s release, LEGO Batman is Traveler’s Tales first LEGO game not based on a particular set of films.  In fact, the game isn’t based off of any particular medium that Batman has appeared on.  You could say that it blends a little bit from the campy 60’s series, the films, the comic book, and the animated series. The PSP version of the game surprisingly has all of its console big brother’s content, and were it not for a few design choices and graphical hitches, would be a must have title.

Like the other LEGO games the tale is told emotively through gestures, laughs, and grunts,both in-game and rendered cut-scenes. The fairly generic story follows Batman and his trusty side-kick Robin as they try to stop a motley crew of super villains who’ve broken out of Arkham Asylum to make havoc for Gotham’s citizens. There’s some laughs here and there but the original material isn’t as funny as the famous scenes found in some of the other LEGO games.

Gameplay spans 30 levels – 15 for Batman, Robin, Bat Girl, and Night Wing and 15 for the various villains including the Riddler,  The Joker, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, Bane and others.  Batman and Robin both get different suits and upgrades to their tech which makes puzzles diverse.  The puzzles themselves are usually a matter of pressing a switch or building a necessary component out of LEGO blocks.  Many of the puzzles require your AI buddy to perform an action with you simultaneously. Usually it works as planned, though on a few occasions the AI will jump off a platform instead of pressing a particular switch. The puzzles are generally not too difficult and are simply a matter of smashing enough stuff to find the solution.

Unlike many other games ported to the PSP, LEGO batman controls very well thanks to the simple controls and the lack of a rotating camera all the the game’s commands are handled through the face buttons and either the analog sick or the d-pad can be used for movement.

Combat is fairly simple and involves mashing the attack button with a few sporadic grab moves thrown in for good measure.  Almost anything can be destroyed, including your trusty sidekick, who fortunately re-spawns with no hard feelings.  Destroying various objects and villains will net you LEGO studs, the game’s currency. The only consequence death in the game is the loss some studs Ala sonic the hedgehog.

Back at the Bat Cave you can spend the studs on new characters, upgrades and costumes. In addition to studs there are other collectables needed to unlock certain upgrades, many of which are inaccessible the first time you play through a level and need to be reached with a different costume through the level’s free-play mode- unlocked after having finished the level in story mode at least once.  This adds a tremendous amount of replay value if for those who like to collect everything available.

Between the platforming and brawling in the normal levels, the game places you in driving and flying missions.  With very little steering involved these missions devolve into something more akin to Metal Slug – shoot in every which way until nothing is left to shoot.  It’s pretty fun while it lasts and is a nice break from the rest of the game.

Graphically the PSP version of the game is both incredible and somewhat disappointing at the same time.  The levels are fairly large both in the amount of things to do and the scope of the action.  The camera is pulled back further than any of the other LEGO games and consequently shows a lot of action and detail on screen.  The downside to this is that Batman and any of the other characters you might be controlling are fairly small and sometimes it’s hard to see what’s going on on the PSP’s 4.2″ screen.  In addition, the frame-rate takes a dive whenever there is a lot of action on screen at once – which is in fact quite often.  The colors and aren’t as vibrant on the PSP as they are on the consoles and have a very grainy look to them. Still the feat of compressing an entire console experience into a handheld is pretty substantial in its own right and makes these small gripes easier to look past.

Danny Elfman’s excellent soundtrack from the original 1989 Tim Burton film further adds to the game’s atmosphere, though not always for the best.  There are unfortunately only a few tracks throughout the entire game and they do tend to get a little repetitive.  the grunts and laughs are serviceable to the franchise but like the music, can get a bit dull and repetitive.

The coop mode in the console versions is entirely absent from on the PSP.  Considering the game’s $30 price tag and the large amount of single player content, the coop is probably something most PSP owners can do without.

As a 15-20 hour adventure with reason to play over multiple times, LEGO Batman is a good addition to any Batman or LEGO PSP fan who is willing to look past some of the graphical hitches and the childish exterior.

OVERALL: 8.0/10

Pros:

 – Generally good graphics and big levels

 – Long campaign with lots of replay value

 – LEGO+Batman Universe = tons of charm

Cons

 – Poor frame rate and textures

 – somewhat easy combat