oh, real quick; I was bored through the 1st world (till fighting bowser), the second world grabbed my interest and by world 4 I was hooked. Just to give you my own fun level timeline.

I'm on the last world. I really wanted to be blown away like everyone else, but what we've got here is a solid game that doesn't live up to its legacy. I absolutely loved 3D Land, because its simplicity worked so well on the handheld. This is a sequel that I would be loving on my 3DS and I'm mildly enjoying on my Wii U. I've played with people and without, and each are fun. Just not the amazing experience everyone says it is. In fact as far as console Marios go, it's extremely watered down and shallow.

So I'm with you, bud. This is a very "good" game. But it's not what I want on my shiny new HD Nintendo system. It's not even in the same league as Galaxy or Sunshine. I feel like Nintendo is just devolving now.

Here we go!

So who should we believe????

Metacritic? ???

Universally glowing reviews from the world's best gaming sites/publications????

Or some random Nobody on VGCHARTZ? ???

I have to say my 1st impression was bad, but overall I loved it.

The controls are great, I like the music and it has a ton of content.

None of it is really hard though IMO. Completing the basic game is not a big challenge. Some of the World Crown stages are more challenging.

What do you mean by "last world"?, because if you pick up everything before the final battle with Bowser you are at 65% of the game and there are a lot of things to explore

You're arguing with Anfebious, about a Nintendo product. What do you expect?

I bought the game the day it came out. And I had a blast. The game certainly becomes more difficult around the World 7 mark. And it gets really challenging after World 8. But prior to that, the game is just a pure charming fest of level design and creativity. Even if those levels aren't very challenging, they're still a blast to discover. There's hardly two levels alike in this game (except for a few ones in Flower World), and playing with friends is one heck of a blast!

My all time favourite Mario game is Super Mario Galaxy. And seriously, Super Mario 3D World is giving it a run for its money. In fact, I must say I'm not quite sure anymore which one of these two I prefer. It's that good. 

Honestly, I'm not familiar with the guy. Is he one of those guys like SubiyaCryolite and ninjablade who do nothing but spew negativity?

Just picking up a few things:
I am playing with people who are good at platformers so no blood bath there ;)
I don't see why judging a game after a "long" playtime is wrong and comparable to movies that are shorter. It's just like wasting time and developers should acknowledge that playing hours just to get to the great part isn't awesome. Imagine playing really bad stuff for 9 hours just to get to entertaining 3 hours after that, is that something people should support? (at least I'm not the only one who thinks that way) And yes, I quit movies when they are boring or in any other way bad (this is still an opinion and not a PURE FACT-"bad", don't always go at people saying they say something is bad; I just asked why it is great lol) for the first half unless at cinema because I paid loads for it. Just like I'll play through this game because I paid for it. Don't start talking about books now, even easier to put them aside when the first third doesn't catch you.

Bad speaker system? Right, because you can judge music only with great equipment. Sorry, but some of the pros for the game in this thread are just lame arguments that don't hold much. When the music doesn't change for 8 levels and is a generic Mario holiday doodle, it isn't awesome. I could start talking about how my musical sense and knowledge is superior to yours and therefore your "argument" doesn't mean anything but why should I?
I won't start a reviews and metacritic debate here, there's enough of that and I don't care for those scores. Just want opinions.

Thanks to the people on the first pages of this thread for their interesting replies. You understood I was just asking something and not insulting the game or anyone who's played it. Others on here didn't understand and had to be all interpretative and defensive again because they felt hurt by some words that were just general talk. One active day on this forum after years and I know why I went read-only on here ..

The thing to remember with games, especially Nintendo games, is that they have to have a learning curve. Yes, the first 3/4 worlds are very easy, because potentially they are being used to teach 3/4 years olds not just the controls, but how to play games at all.

The fact that the first few easy worlds are still chock full of ideas and excellent level design whilst still being accessible to newcomers is a testament to the design quality, not a criticism of it.

I'm still considering to buy a WiiU just for Mario platformers. I loved Mario64 on Nintendo64 and this really looks like
its spiritual successor.