Before I begin, let me say that I know a "Which is the best Mario" thread was put up earlier in the week but this compares only 2 of the games. Both Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World are great titles and platformer fans should play both of them. There is no factual answer or reasearch that I can just shoot out to validate which game is better, this is opinion based and I just want to know what everone else thinks of the two, when compared side by side. The games are in the same "Sub IP" I guess you can call it so anything is fair game. But, my verdict is Super Mario 3D Land and here's why.
Super Mario 3D Land to me...was crack. I could not stop playing it. My brother couldn't stop playing it, my Sister couldn't stop playing it, and we're 18+. We racked up over 700 hours on the game trying to get everything but most of the playtime came from trying to beat each other's times. The levels in 3D Land were more compact and more akin to precise platforming than 3D World, which is a must for me. I have to have daring jumps and stuff in my Mario games. I loved the narrow level design as well. In 3D World, I felt that there was too much filler in the levels and that made me not want to return to many of the stages. I also enjoyed the special worlds in Land better than World. It had a couple of new stages that were welcomed. Overall, gameplay alone, I would choose 3D Land.
Now , I know what you're thinking, "Both basically have the same mechanics, so what's your reason to pit the two against eachother"? Well, 3D World, obviously was made to accomodate 4 player gameplay. Thus, stages would have to be enlarged to accomodate the 4 players. This greatly detracts from the speed running and potential platforming that could have been done in the game. Don't get me wrong, there are some great platforming segments in 3D World but even with the Special Worlds, I didn't find the jumps to be as challenging, nor was the platforming made more difficult. I dunno, it may be just me or something. I played 3D World for around, I dunno 10 hours before I finished everything. I just never saw a reason to go back to it.
I still play 3D Land avidly, and the playtime is well over 1000 Hours. So what do you think? Did you like one over the other? Place your reasons why below and discuss! (You can give any reason you want, it doesn't have to be gameplay related).
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