Your Favorite 3D Mario Game?

[S.Peelman]

Mario 64.

Pretty much a perfect game. Nintendo really knocked it out of the park with that one. A greatly crafted world with big open levels, the tightest of tight control and gameplay, and it became an iconic, groundbreaking game to boot that set the standard for every 3D game that followed. Galaxy isn’t that far behind though. I guess it’s up to personal opinion if you prefer 1 or 2 in that case; personally I’d say 1 because of the hidden Rosalina backstory, the observatory versus the Mario head spaceship and the music that comes with it and the novelty of it. After those three it becomes more blurry. I liked 3D Land on 3DS a lot, one of the best 3DS games, and I was more impressed with it than I was with 3D World. There is the caveat that the 3D.. games are a different series though; main mechanics are quite different from the ‘adventure-style’ 3D Mario games; there’s a single goal instead of multiple collectables and instead of freeroam movement it’s 8-direction based with the leveldesign encouraging you to only move in one direction. I have a bit of a mixed feeling about Odyssey, it’s great on one hand (the gameplay) but rubs me the wrong way on the other (the overal ‘feel’ including the style and graphics). Still haven’t finished it though. Still I’d pit it higher than Sunshine, my least favorite. I’ve always found that FLUDD breaks the game, or better yet, breaks what Mario platforming is all about; instead of cool and clever walljumps and whatnot, you just float to somewhere. Anyway it’s been a very long time, 15+ years, since I last played it, so I’m giving it another chance with the upcoming 3D All Stars.

64 > Galaxy > Galaxy 2 > 3D Land > 3D World > Odyssey > Sunshine