3D Land had great controls and was very interesting, it just felt mildly uninspired when compared to Galaxy. That is why there was some disdain for 3D World, but luckily nintendo really did all they could to make that game awesome!

Ohh, I also got Super Mario World. Forgot that one!

3D Land was good, but I don't think It's as good as the Galaxies. 3D World is a close 2nd to Galaxy.

I loved Galaxy and I think it is one of the best games of all time. However, there were many times when playing it that I longed for the style, tight controls, power ups and classic gameplay of the original SMB titles. I think SM3DW May blend all of my favorite Mario things together in one game, very excited. Nintendo killed some hype for the game with a bland intro title and a boring name, but I think the game may be more fun to play than Galaxy from what I've seen.

I laid down my Vita, got out of bed which I just laid myself down in and started my computer just because Galaxy is so important to me. In my opinion both 3D Land and 3D World is extremely overrated. They has around 90-95 on gamerankings and gamefaqs, and I can't believe how. While 3D Land's general progression and set up was well fitted on the 3DS, I was still really bored with it  when it launched, and there were not many games (that I was interested in) on the 3DS at that time. Luckily MK7 launched just a few weeks later and the sales went up so I didn't write off the 3DS.

The most important thing is that 3D Land had no soul at all. The game was really rushed, on top of that there was the hurricane in Japan, locking out developers mid-development. The world map was outright horribly boring, nothing compared to SMB3 which came out like a quarter of a century earlier, from the same folks who did 3D Land. I still can't comprehend how boring the map is, and the map in a Mario game is important to me.

The levels were somewhat fun though, until they began to be remixed and reused. And I felt that began well before the bonus worlds, contrary to popular belief. I also think the developers should sacrifice some visual aspects if there were any, and rather make it 60 fps, because that's important in a game like this with the controls and all.

The only thing I felt had soul in the game, that means the developers made it feel alive, were the Toad houses. Fun to just run around it and relax to the soothing music. And no time limit!  I can understand the levels which the time limit had a real meaning, that means the levels that starts with 30 sec and requires that you pick up clocks, because the timer limit add something to it. But the rest of the stages like the long ones with 500 sec should rather just cut it, because it adds a fake tension that really shouldn't be there, especially when you can easily run through them and get all three star coins within 40-80 secs. It takes up screen space on the HUD, and since it's moving (the timer goes down) it can distract you. This feature was even removed in 3D World. The absolutely last stage which is the hardest in the game, is not hard at all, only a little if you try to do it in one run without checkpoints to get a time record. Every other stage was way too easy.

Now onto 3D World. The game is a whole lot better, and I feel like I'm having fun. The bonus worlds in this one is much cooler than 3D Land, I still haven't completed everything though. Have only collected everything in W1-5, plus completed every stage in the bonus worlds and collected 95% of things there. I heard that you have to do every stage with every character to get stamps, which will be utterly boring and a bad design choice by Nintendo who said they designed the game with single player first in mind.

Although it has better stages than 3D Land, all stages feel like nothing compared to the big stages in Galaxy. Every little thing in the game feels like I've seen it all before, with nothing feeling new like the Mario series is known for. Innovation. Every time I saw something that I hadn't seen in a Mario game before, I had seen it in Crash, Spyro and Ape Escape for 15 years ago. Of course I haven't seen the absolutely final stage(s) yet, but I'm absolutely certain it will not make up for the whole game. Luckily the execution in 3D World is good, the games feel much more varied than 3D Land. The world map still don't feel like a fun experience compared to real hub worlds.

The controls in 3D World are horribly executed though. It has nearly digital controls in 8 directions, even if you play with sticks. Some will say that's to make it fair for Wiimote only players, but with sticks you can still move in other directions if you move it just a little bit around the 45 degrees edge! So nobody can tell me that 8 directions were necessary. The gamepad and pro controllers don't have those 8 edges around the stick, so for those it should be fine. But for the nunchuk I really missed the absolutely exceptional controls in Galaxy.

Now, I may sound like I hate the games, but I really don't. I just think Nintendo could do it so much better. My scores for 3D Land would be like a 6,5 and for 3D World an 8. Galaxys? Both tens.

I understand all of your complaints, but I have some things to say (about the sentences with underlines and bolded).

1. 3D Lands soul is based on the fun of it, it wasn't trying to be an epic adventure. It's secrets, rewards, and level design (designed to not get bored of the game, not innovate) were great.

2. That is not true! In my 3rd playthrough I payed attention to all the levels, and they start rehashing levels (except boss levels) AFTER the main 8 worlds.

3. Levels being easy isn't a problem to me.

4. The 8 direction movement it's actually a better option! It makes the game more precise. Of course being free to every movement possible wouldn't be bad.

Now, about innovation... I don't really know about that. Innovation is awesome, but now I don't when it's done correctly. 

Thanks for the answer! Each to their own I guess. I said that I didn't hate the games, but the things that I pointed out really bothers me.

1. Most levels were fun yeah. And they really fitted on the 3DS. I didn't think the world map was any fun, though it was easy and motivating to see what to do next. And secrets in the game? Next to none. The Zelda easter egg they even went to point out very clearly in a video around the time the game released, and then there was the warps. That's luckily much harder in 3D World since green stars and stamps are mostly harder to find.

2. Many stages share the same backgrounds which I'm fine with, but assets too gets reused too much. And often in similar ways to a previous stage... That's what I meant.

3. Not really a problem with me either when I think about it, if it was too hard I wouldn't feel like playing it again I guess.

4. 8 directions are very well fitted for the gamepad and pro controllers, but I still missed the Galaxy controls when I tried out nunchuk to see if it was anything like Galaxy. But 8 directions is also fitting for the stages too, since they're more squarely formed than the planetoids and hills of Galaxy. So I can see that.

I do like 3D Land now much more than when it came out. It has grown on me, there must be a reason to why I completed everything two times :P Probably to get five shiny stars to show to streetpassers.

Hopefully 3D World will also grow on me with time.

I found 3D land to be OK. I LOVED 3D world. It's miles better then 3dland in my opinion and it's just as good as the galaxy games.

3D Land is one of those games that I complete once and never touch again. 3D World will end with the same fate. There, I said it.....

Ahh, by secrets I meant the ways to get the Star Coins, but only a few are cool to get. Like the ones hiding at the beginning of a level, or when you look through the binoculars. Everything else, fine by me!