Since the Wii U was announced a couple years ago, gamers have been dying to get their hands on the first true 3D Mario title on a high definition platform. The two Super Mario Galaxy games are two of my favorite games ever, so I will admit I was pretty disappointed after the E3 Nintendo Direct this year that announced Super Mario 3D World. I was expecting something on a grander scale than even Galaxy, which may not even be possible, but instead we saw footage of a successor to the very fun Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS.
With every new trailer that arrived, I realized more and more how wrong I was by my initial impressions. The game was looking absolutely gorgeous. The power-ups were looking better by the second. Before long, Super Mario 3D World became one of my most highly anticipated games of the holiday season, possibly the most anticipated.
I think one of the issues I had at first was the multiplayer element of the game, after not being a huge fan of it in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii U. I greatly enjoyed both titles, but the multiplayer aspect was just not that fun to me in such a condensed space. Super Mario 3D World entirely changed my perception of a multiplayer mainline Mario title, as I had an absolute blast while playing. Due to the 3D plane in the game, there is much more room for each player to actually feel like they are doing something with the ability to spread out across the screen.
At first glance, you will notice that the game uses a similar map system to many of the Mario titles, but with a little bit of a twist as you can actually walk all around the map to access hidden stages or special events such as the slot machines. Even if you can walk further along the map, you do still have to complete levels to unlock the following stages, like you would expect in most Mario games.
