This game is great! I'm on World 6 right now. It's actually quite amazing how well they combined the aspects of the 2D Mario Platforms with the 3D Mario Platforms.
The level designs are great and it's back to that linear design from the 2D games, but with 3D platforming shenanigans.
The physics of both game types are somewhat merged as well! Though it is a 3D game, you have a run button, and your character starts off at a slow speed and picks up speed the longer you run. This affects the distance you jump, and some jumps are hard to clear without a running start! So in addition to having the challenge of jumping platforms in a 3D space, you now have the momentum factor that makes the 2D Mario games so thrilling.
You have almost all the special jumps from the 3D Mario games. The Sideways Somersault, the Long Jump, Wall Jump, and even the Spin Jump makes a return from Super Mario Sunshine! The Backwards Somersault has been combined with the super crouch jump from Super Mario Bros 2. You must hold the crouch to charge it, and when you release it, your character does the somersault. Triple jump is actually missing from this game, and there is no spin attack from the Galaxy Games, so get back int he habit of preparing your jumps. You don't have much room to correct again!
It amazes me that all the jumps are surprisingly balanced. That is, there is not a jump that overshadows all the other jumps in functionality:
-The max speed -> jump is the best jump technically, but it requires you to reach top running speed first which makes it not always feasible.
-The Sideways Somersault grants you a little more height than a normal jump, but you lose distance.
-Backwards Somersault is better than Sideways but now has to be charged SMB2 style.
-The Long Jump gives you the same distance as the max speed jump, but has even less height than a Normal Jump.
-The Spin Jump is the Highest Jump and you float on the way down! However, to set up the spin jump, you have to rotate the joystick 720 degrees, so it takes some time and you have to have some wiggle room, and like the Somersaults, you lose distance which you can cover.
Even the characters are pretty well balanced:
-Peach isn't stupid OP like in SMB2. Her float's duration is too short now. I mostly used it to correct my jumps, kind of comparable to using the spin attack mid-air in SMG, but slightly better. Since Peach has a low acceleration in this game, she kind of needs that float to cross some jumps anyways.
-Mario is the most well rounded character. Playing him will let you feel the full force or "true intentions" of each level. While each character has clear advantages over certain challenges and weaknesses to other level designs. Mario kind of has to deal with all of them equally.
-I've played Luigi the least. Surprisingly, his sliding isn't as prominent as in the Galaxy games. He feels very similar to Mario except he jumps higher. He might even be a better character to choose instead of Mario, but I need to play him some more.
-And Toad is definitely going to be the character of choice for speed runners and players who like to zip through stages. He has amazing acceleration, and that actually helps him with leaping across gaps. But still, Toad has the shortest jump. It's vertical platforming that really kills Toad.
The Difficulty has been tweaked well from previous games too:
-Extra Lives aren't stupidly easy to get anymore (though they're still very easy) as in the New SMB series. Everyone on the team now shares the same life count, preventing the exclusion that happens when the lesser player is getting dragged about in the final levels. If the better player(s) doesn't take care of the weaker, the whole team will suffer.
-They also fixed bubbling so that it's not super cheap/OP/basically CHEAT button! YOU CANNOT BUBBLE IN THE AIR (thank god!) If you make a mistake and plummet to your death, you have to accept it! Meanwhile, the bubble is still useful if your being left behind by your friends.
-Reaching the top of a flag pole no longer automatically awards you with a 1-up. If you are playing with 2 or more, when EVERYONE happens to reach the top, then the team gets a single 1-up! In 1-player mode though, you're out of luck!
-If you get a power-up while already at full power, you store the item for later Super Mario World style and access it by pressing the (-) button. If you are playing multi-player, you get a power-up slot for each player you have and every player can access all the power-up slots. This actually makes the game a little easier than I would like, but because most of our deaths have been falling, it doesn't really make the game that easy. Mostly, we use this to prevent jerks from robbing everyone of power-ups.
The downsides to the game:
-You pick up players with the run button. This sucks because it is easy to accidentally pick up another player by running past them. It's also particularly dangerous because you can no longer bubble in the air. If you get tossed off, well... you're gonna die...
-This is more of a critique on the theme of the game; a critique of the game artistically. I understand that Mario is a series meant for all ages, but I hate hearing the characters yell "Meow!". Makes me very aware that I'm a 23 year old playing a game targeted towards children first, then "family and veterans etc." second.
That's really it for my critiques. The game is really good! There are several nods to veteran players that are great, but I won't spoil them here. This should be a staple for all Wii U owners.
