Super Mario 3D World (Switch)

The best 2D Mario Nintendo ever made was actually a 3D Mario. (And it's also probably the best Mario game in general)

3D World on Wii U was already extremely good but there were certainly some annoyances throughout the adventure which while small issues on their own, definitely dragged down the experience slightly. While I never thought of the running speed to be a huge issue, that was kinda because I quickly learnt all the speedrun tech and faster moves so I could basically avoid doing normal running as much as possible. Not ideal. The downtime between levels was always an issue and seeing as I played the Wii U version in my childhood, I was playing this game a lot and I definitely felt the downtime. As the person on the Wii U gamepad usually, I personally didn't care a whole lot at the time, but me being the only one to do gamepad stuff wasn't fair especially for things like the Captain Toad levels.

This Switch remaster then comes in and fixes all of these issues and then also throws some extra stuff on top you didn't even know you wanted but fit in so well and it all comes together to create an almost perfect Mario game. The new running speed might honestly be a little bit too fast now, but I will happily take this over what we had before. Running and even walking now feel like actually viable things in the moveset, and this makes the game genuinely easier for people playing this for the first time as they won't be left behind as much. The moveset in general is cleaned up really. Ground pound jumps now feel natural and most importantly, a dive move was added and it's beautiful. Being able to save yourself or just get that little extra distance feels amazing while not being massively game breaking. In general I was surprised how the level design fares basically the same as the Wii U version even though most of it is unchanged and the movement is so enhanced. You can certainly "break" levels a bit more now, but you still need to know what you're doing and you need skill in order to do anything like that, which is exactly how it should be. Microphone stuff has all been removed, and this is not really a loss (however I think it would've been funny if they restored it in the Switch 2 update for the game or something), and in fact the level design is overall improved since they had to swap out all the mic gizmos for normal things. All players can now use a gyro pointer to do previously Wii-U-Gamepad-only things, and Captain Toad levels are now multiplayer. Plus in handheld mode the touch screen works exactly like the Wii U gamepad used to. Best of both worlds! (Most) cutscenes can be skipped and there isn't a stupid save prompt after beating every level, which is huge. I wish they went a bit further if anything but this is leagues better than what we had before and more than playable. Screenshot tool was added! I never used it but it's neat that it exists. Stamps are now coloured as a result! Also neat! UI has been overhauled to be more minimalist. I will forever miss the 'x' next to the live and coin counts but the game does look better and is more functional now. 4 Save Files instead of 3? I never asked for this but it's very appreciated. Green Stars and Stamps saving after collecting them once was something I thought I'd be against but it does actually improve the pacing of the game and makes things a bit more manageable if you're struggling on a level. I actually ended up liking it despite this game not really needing it.

My main faults of this game are miniscule. The depth perception in this game can be wonky sometimes but it almost never matters to be completely honest and you can kinda get used to it (This was also a thing in the Wii U version but I guess you felt it less just cause you... were slower there). And it is unfortunate that you can no longer move using the d-pad since they mapped other actions to it. 3D World already tries to push you into 8-way movement (which is a good thing for this game, by the way), but occasionally using the d-pad when I wanted to be really slow and precise was slightly missed (but not that much).

Masterful remaster overall, well played Nintendo.

Review taken from my Backloggd page.