Super Mario 3D World (Wii U Review)

ZombiU 
Released on the Wii U, November 22, 2013, by Nintendo 
Retail: $59.99
Wii U Game Reviews Score: 9.7/10



Mario. When I was a kid, my dad and I had an Atari 2600. I loved playing it. Breakout. The Tank Game. Pac-Man. Pitfall! Then, Super Mario Bros. was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Before, Mario was just that guy who was mean to Donkey Kong. Now, he was Super Mario. The 2600 just wasn't good enough any more. I needed an NES. I needed Super Mario Bros.
30 years later, and the high-jumping plumber is still here. He's had his highs (pretty much every major Mario game, excluding Super Mario Sunshine), and his lows (pretty much just Super Mario Sunshine...which is actually a pretty good game...just not a good Super Mario game). Can the streak continue? After the Wii's two fan-beloved Mario Galaxy games, can everyone's favorite koopa-kicker keep the positive momentum?
Yep!
Apparently, Nintendo's developers are just as fond of Mario as his fans. Super Mario 3D World is a lovingly crafted homage to everything that has made Mario great, while still managing to take the series in some new directions.

What's Old? Just like in the original Super Mario Bros., Mario still has to make his way through a variety of obstacles, including platform jumping, in order to reach a flag at the end of each level. Like 1988's Super Mario Bros. 2, the player can choose from four characters (from the start): Mario, who can run pretty fast and jump pretty high, his brother, Luigi, who can jump really high, but slides just a bit, Princess Peach, who can't jump quite as high or run as fast, but who can float after jumping for a couple of seconds, and Toad, who jumps the lowest, but runs the fastest. Mario and company jump on their foes to vanquish them, hit bricks with their heads to produce coins and power-ups. Like previous games, those power-ups include a Mushroom that makes Mario (or his buddies) a little larger (or into "Super Mario"), a fire-flower that grants the ability to shoot fireballs at enemies, a tanooki suit, which allows players to jump and glide much farther, and an invincible star that makes, making the player impervious to enemy attacks for a short time.

What's New? It's on the box, and it's in the picture above: the kitty-suit. Mario and friends can attain a golden bell that turns them into a kitty version of themselves. The cat-suit grants the ability to flip in the air, dive bomb, and most importantly, climb walls. This grants many new gameplay opportunities and level-beating strategies. It can also incite fights over who gets the last kitty-suit, but we'll get to that. Another new item is the "double-cherry," which doubles whichever respective character gets their grubby little mitts on it. Here are three Marios, about to open up a can on a Boomerang Brother.

Another item not common to other Mario games is the GIANT mushroom, causing the player to fill the screen, and giving them the power to cause mass mayhem. There's also a special version of the kitty suit found late in the game, which allows the player to turn into an invisible statue, and also causes coins to appear whenever the player stomps the ground. Finally, if a player is having considerable trouble completing a level, a white tanooki suit will appear at the start, giving invincibility against all enemies for the duration of the level, along with the rest of the tanooki suit's attributes.
This final item really touches upon what makes Super Mario 3D World great: it welcomes players of all skill levels. I'll talk more about that right after I wax rhapsodic about this game's camera perspective and multiplayer mode.
Bohemian Rhapsody? Super Mario RPG for the SNES was the first RPG I ever played. All those Final Fantasy games for the NES looked strange to me, so I never ventured into those waters. I picked up Mario RPG because I saw screen-shots of its 3/4 top-down perspective in Nintendo Power, and thought that it would just be a regular Mario game with Zelda: A Link to the Past's camera-angle: my dream come true. While I ended up really enjoying Super Mario RPG, and after that, RPG's in general, I still craved a regular, platform-style Mario game from that top-down, 3D-perspective. Seventeen years later, Super Mario 3D World is that game.

The 3/4 top-down perspective is perfect for what Super Mario 3D World does most uniquely among its Mario game brethren: up to four-player cooperative multiplayer. While a few previous 2D games, most recently, New Super Mario Bros U, allowed multiple players on screen at the same time, Super Mario 3D World brings this element to the third dimension, and nearly perfects it. My wife and son and I played through large portions of this game together, and had a blast. The camera responds well enough to three or four players spread across the screen, and if one or more lags too far behind, they are bubbled and brought ahead to the other players. Question mark blocks also contain enough items to power-up everyone. Players can also chunk each other around, which is a good way to boost someone to a higher platform, or throw them to their death if they are annoying you. The multiplayer aspect really brings to light something I mentioned above, though: the game's universal challenge variation.

My son, a relative beginner, can pick up the white tanooki suit to give him a better chance at surviving levels. The degree of difficulty ramps up slowly throughout the game's hundred-plus levels, lowering the frustration-level for the less-skilled player. However, the level-to-level obstacle variation, which is ingenious, keeps the more skilled player interested until he or she gets what they are looking for: a challenge.
What Challenge? Please Don't Bunny Trail Again!!!
Just wait, I'm getting there.
Super Mario 3D World is broken up into interconnected world maps, full of unique stages.

Along with the regular platforming levels, Super Mario 3D World's world maps include some treats: "Mushroom Houses," which are places players can grab free power-ups, "Slot-Machine Houses," where players can try their hand at racking up on stacks of coins, "Mystery Houses," where players can test themselves with multiple timed-challenges, and my personal favorite, "Captain Toad" stages. Captain Toad features the titular toadstool roaming over unique stages for green stars. Unlike the core four-characters, though, Toad cannot jump or attack, creating a whole new set of challenges. These maze-like stages actually fall more into the "puzzle" genre than "platforming" and are a personal favorite. Variety is the spice of life.

These stages must also be a personal favorite of Nintendo's, as Captain Toad now has his own Wii U game based around this same puzzle-filled level design.
All Right, Get Back to the Rest of the Game.
Once the player passes through eight progressively more difficult worlds, Bowser is fought and defeated, and the credits roll. This would be the end for most games, but for Super Mario 3D World, the challenge is only beginning. The player now has access to a rocket to space, where even more worlds can be reached. Early on in this challenge, a new character, Rosalina, can be unlocked.

Rosalina adds an entirely new game-wrinkle, as her repertoire includes an enemy-smashing spin move, unique to her character. It's worth playing to that point in Super Mario 3D World just to unlock her and play the previous stages, but for the hardcore gamer, the true pleasure lies ahead. At about this point in the game, after hours and hours of excellent Super Mario 3D World enjoyment, my son and wife checked out, and I progressed alone. As even more worlds are unlocked, higher above the surface of the Earth and deeper into space, the challenge grows exponentially. Also, up until this point, the player has had to grab hidden green stars and stamps in order to progress through the game. The collected amounts needed to progress early on are quite lenient. Not anymore. Deep into the game, the player must stretch their skills to acquire everything.
But What Do You Get for All of this Hard Work? 
The reward is a hardcore, lifelong gamer's dream: for beating every level and acquiring every single item in Super Mario 3D World, the privilege of attempting one of the most difficult video game stages ever created is granted. The stage is Champion's Road.
If you ever want to see the below image on your TV screen, you are going to have to do some serious skill-honing.

But what a rewarding experience. After hours of muscle-memory building, reaching that in-stage thank you message at the end of Champion's Road, and claiming the top of that final flag combine for one of the prouder moments of my 30-plus year video-gaming career...er, hobby.
Thus, after many, many hours of use, my son, my wife, and myself all maximized our Super Mario 3D World utility. What a great game.
But How Does It Look? As you can see from the screenshots, Super Mario 3D World is a visually resplendent game. While levels don't contain an insane amount of graphical detail, Nintendo made everything that is on the screen pop. Grass blows in the breeze, water ripples magnificently,  and characters are gloriously animated. Textures are smooth and gorgeous.  Weather effects, including fog, haze, cloud cover, and rain are duly atmospheric. Colors are bright, vibrant, and beautiful, even on the most basically decorated stage.

Super Mario 3D World's use of light and shadow is particularly masterful. There are actually a few levels innovatively dedicated to these two concepts, further stretching the diversity of Super Mario 3D World's gameplay.
But Will My Ears Like It? Nintendo enlisted a crew of composers, including original Mario and Zelda theme creator, Koji Kondo, to work on Super Mario 3D World's orchestral score. The game has its own unique jazz theme, played by a real ensemble, the "Mario 3D World Big Band." This new theme receives several jazzy variations throughout. The game also features copious amounts of new compositions, as well as the now mandatory reinterpretations and reiterations of the series' classic themes--it seems like every past Mario game score gets its due or shoutout on Super Mario 3D World. Lovely for an older gamer to hear. Sound effects are great, as well as character voices, enhancing the game's fun atmosphere.
It Still Seems Like You Left Out One of the Coolest Parts.
The Wii U gamepad also gets a great workout during a Super Mario 3D World session. First and foremost, the game can be played solely on the Wii U gamepad when the TV is not available, and the graphical and musical quality barely suffers. This is a great asset in itself (for when the wife wants to watch The Voice, or something), but using the gamepad has other benefits. For one, enemies can be stunned and sometimes defeated with a tap on the gamepad screen. Coins and other items can also be attained from tapping. Actually, it's also fun to use the gamepad to the tap on objects just to see what will happen, all Forrest Gump like. Tap on something you haven't tapped on yet: you never know what you're gonna get. The surprises seem endless. The game developers' love for their work shines through here, with the little touches, just as well as in the bigger ones. Also, there are all those hidden 8-bit Luigis...
Does It Control Okay? Ever play a Mario game? Then you already know what you're doing. Everything new is completely intuitive. If you're new to Mario, five minutes is all it takes to get the hang of the controls. True to Nintendo quality standards, the controller to game response is perfect. However, a slight problem crops up in cooperative multiplayer, and it is my only true complaint with this game: the same button used to pick up another player is used to dash. Unfortunately, most players, myself included, will generally be holding down the dash button 95% of the time they are playing Super Mario 3D World. This means that during cooperative multiplayer, friends are sometimes accidentally picked up and tossed off a ledge, just because another player was trying to dash jump to the next platform. While it doesn't happen often, this problem could have easily been remedied by mapping the "pick up" button to one of  the controller's unused buttons instead. Otherwise, Super Mario 3D World controls like a dream.
Anything Else You Want to Ramble About, Reviewer Dude?
That's about it. From the single and multiplayer gameplay, to the great diversity and fairness of challenge, to the game's bright graphics and fun score, Super Mario 3D World ensures that the legend of Mario will continue to be told for years to come. With so many bonus stages, the game is the gift that keeps on giving, more than earning whatever one has payed to play. I couldn't ask for more in a Mario game.
Oh yeah, and I got a perfect file, so here's a picture of that, with the amount of times I died conveniently cropped out of the picture.

9.2

Graphics

Beautiful to see, with movement and color as easy on the eyes as one could imagine, yet simple, a testament to the developers knowing their system's limitations.

9.5

Music and Sound

Great new themes, and excellent reinterpretations of old ones, with sound effects and voices that will warm the heart of all but the grinchiest player.

9.7

Gameplay

3/4 Top-down, 3D Mario platforming, with delightful and innovative level design, polished cooperative multiplayer fun, and some puzzle-solving stages to boot.

10.0

Lasting Value

Outside the simple fact that mastering the later stages will take a while, the multiplayer mode may never get old, giving the game nearly infinite replayability.  

9.7  FINAL SCORE

ZombiU (Wii U Review)

ZombiU 
Released on the Wii U, November 18, 2012, by Ubisoft Montpellier 
Retail: $19.99
Metacritic Average Score: 77/100
Wii U Game Reviews Score: 9/10


Expectation can play a large role in how a game is perceived. A game can be excellent, but if it is not what players thought it would be, it might still be panned. Such was the case immediately after ZombiU's release. Some early reviews were tepid. Even stalwarts like IGN seemed to completely miss the point.

A Different Kind of Game: Resident Evil IV is one of the greatest video games ever made, and generally considered among the best of all time. It completely changed the course of the Resident Evil franchise. Where previous games in the Resident Evil series are strict survival horror, dropping players in hopeless situations with only a small amount of ammunition, Resident Evil IV is all about action. While still containing quite a few scares, the focus is loading up on ammo and blowing multitudes of foes away. It worked wonderfully in that game, a landmark in the genre. However, Resident Evil IV's gameplay also changed gamers' expectations. After REIV's success, less straight horror games were released, while many action games with a touch of horror, often involving zombies, filled the shelves. Players now associated zombies with intense fire fights and blood-pumping action. ZombiU is not that type of game. It is a throwback to a time when video game designers simply wanted to make the player pee their pants.
The game begins by forcing you to run down a London alley, unarmed, for your life, as zombies come alive all around you. You are eventually taken in by a grizzled old survivor who goes by the title "Prepper." Prepper gives you a safe place to sleep (and consequently, save your game), a backpack, a "Prepper Pad," a cricket bat, a pistol loaded with only six bullets, and a number of tasks to accomplish. Other survivors give more tasks along the way, taking the player to such exotic locales as Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.
Throughout the game, the player will encounter a limited amount of guns, ammo, and explosives, but as many of these items have been used up in the current zombie apocalypse, they are hard to come by. Instead, one must strategize...survive.

Graphics: Outside of a few random low-res textures, ZombiU is a very beautiful game. The environments are gorgeously designed, and as mentioned above, designed to scare. Lighting effects cast shadows, often moving, everywhere. Of particular note is a container storage yard during an intense, midnight downpour, zombies possibly around every corner. The zombies themselves look quite terrifying, and take damage believably as the player bashes and blows bit and pieces of them everywhere. The limited amount of facial and body designs stick out at times, but the player is often too busy fighting for their lives to notice. Overall, Zombi U's look is heavy on atmosphere, evocative of the nightmare apocalyptic scenario it presents, but also of Britain itself.

Sound: Just as the graphics, ZombiU's audio is designed to scare, and the sound is even more effective than the visuals. Wind blows, crows caw. Zombie noises send chills up and down the spine. Those walking corpses have of a way of sounding like they are directly in your ear. The music often goes from non-existent to frantic, particularly when a zombie is approaching and the player's character is frightened. Speaking of the PC, the player's character's breathing goes loud and frantic when they fight off a zombie attack, and they will often begin to scream when a battle gets particularly intense. On the other hand, sound effects for discoveries and item pickups are quite satisfying, and music for safe houses and safe places is appropriately soothing. The Prepper's voice-acting in particular is quite well done, but all of ZombiU's in-game speech is well performed.

Gameplay: I started off my ZombiU campaign by running directly into danger. I started off my ZombiU campaign by dying...often. ZombiU defies a major trend in today's video-gaming world: when you die in ZombiU, your character is actually dead...forever. The game saves the moment your fate is decided, then you wake-up on a cot in the Prepper's hideout...as another character the Prepper has saved off the street. You are then tasked with taking out your now zombified former character, so that you can take back the belongings (health, ammo, other weaponry) you lost. Of course, if you did something stupid, like attempt to throw a grenade through a closed window (guilty as charged), you can re-visit your former character's scattered remains to take back your old stuff, as well. The has quite a jarring effect, particularly if you've grown fond of the character you were using, and now have to bash your own brains in.
Brain-bashing is a vital component of ZombiU, as the cricket bat is your only unlimited weapon. Realistically, the characters you inhabit are just average Joes and Joettes. Not only does it take several swings of the bat to splatter a zombies brains, but your character will start to sway and panic as their horror grows. Panic is actually a major enhancer of ZombiU's difficultly. I don't mean your character's in-game panic, either. In my own case, most of my deaths, even when I had a good handle on ZombiU's gameplay, came from me freaking out and losing my cool. The sounds of approaching zombies would grow too loud, and the music would get too intense, and instead of following through on meticulously made plans, or even making plans, I would bolt and run, only to get swamped and devoured. If the player wants to hold on to their character and not have to backtrack to pick up lost items, avoiding this type of behavior is a must. ZombiU does not allow multiple game files, so you can't just make several copies of your file to return to if you die. You have to start back in the Prepper's hideaway as a new character. To stay alive, the player must remain calm and always be adequately prepared for every situation.
Having to think is not always something video gamers enjoy. Those who can and want to spend 20 hours thoughtlessly blasting away will be immensely disappointed with ZombiU's premise. However, for those who want a unique experience, ZombiU satisfies. It is one of the few games that actually allows a player to size up their apocalypse-surviving abilities. Turns out I would die 51 times.
Finally, I should note the benefit of the Wii U Gamepad to ZombiU's gameplay, or as the Gamepad is called in-game, "The Prepper Pad." The touchscreen acts as an upgradeable map. The player can tap into London's CCTV security cameras to map out areas, and eventually receives a sort of zombie sonar. Zombie positions appear red, and flash on the screen. This helps for better strategies, as it gives a better idea of what's around the corner...unless it's a flock of crows that have only been placed there to scare the crap out of you. The sound of a ping without a return (which would signal a nearby zombie) is as comforting as hot mashed-potatoes and fried chicken. The Gamepad is also used to hack doors or pick locks. Overall, the Wii U Gampad's ZombiU utilization is quite innovative and enjoyable, and it enhances gameplay greatly.

Lasting Value: ZombiU's adventure lasts between 15-20 hours. I haven't returned to it yet, but I have such fond memories of prowling around post-apocalyptic London, I might. The game also includes a "Survivor Mode," where one death means game over...instead of waking up as a new character in the Prepper's hideout, one does not wake up at all. There are also two fun multiplayer modes. There's a capture the flag mode where player one must strategize on the Wii U Gamepad, sending zombies to capture the flags and devour player two (use a Wii Remote or the Wii Pro Controller), who is also trying to capture the flags, but is human. A second mode similarly pits players one and two against each other, to see how long player two can survive player ones zombie onslaught. These modes feature several arenas, and are good fun, though they pale in comparison to the game's single player mode. A final bonus is a filter for the Wii U Gamepad's camera, which makes "zombified" photographs of anyone in front of the lens.

9.0

Graphics

Atmospheric, beautiful, and scary, with just a few low-res textures fouling the punch bowl.

9.5

Music and Sound

From music to zombie yelps and moans, ZombiU's audio package is one of the most terrifying put to disc.

8.5

Gameplay

Survival horror, with emphasis on both words. ZombiU is a thinking man's zombie game, done right.

8

Lasting Value

Decent length for the single player quest, and a fun, but limited multiplayer mode.  

8.8  FINAL SCORE