Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

I've just polished World 3 off. Here are my thoughts:

The Good:
The graphics are the stuff dreams are made of. Really superb.
Everything feels so tangible, doesn't it? One of the most important things in a platformer for me. See also Rayman Legends.
Cat Mario is the best power-up I've seen in the series since Mario's Galaxy spin-attack (that's a power-up, right?).

The bad:
As with 3D Land, the levels are over before they've started.
Freakin' Boom Boom.
Feels like a massively improved 3D Land but a dumbed-down Galaxy. So far, at least.
Mario seems to move about as fast as an old lady up a spiral staircase*.

*This might just be me. I've been mixing games up, and this one's currently a double-header alongside Sonic: Lost World.

~~~~~~~

In short - though I'm being a bit nitpicky - I've had a lot of fun with this so far. I've also had a nagging voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me it doesn't want the game to end, which is a very rare thing for me. Also: Mount Must Dash made me grin from ear to ear.

Stu_the_great wrote:

Cat Mario is the best power-up I've seen in the series since Mario's Galaxy spin-attack (that's a power-up, right?).

Swap that for Ice Flower and you're bang on.

Still lacking good bosses, though. The boss of the fourth world was...

Spoiler:

And even Toad is quite slow.

Balladeer wrote:

Do the bosses get better?  So far I've had Boom Boom, Ms. Boom Boom, and the snake boss from the trailers against whom I didn't take a hit.

Oh, they get better. Not much harder, but there are a couple of classic fights in there.

It's funny: one of the "extra battles" in World 7 was harder than any prior boss fight. I hate those lava ball face things. Hate 'em.

In fact, World 7 as a whole seems to be a substantial step up from the other worlds. Things should have been this hard (maybe slightly less) in world 5!

That seems to have been the way of the list few Mario games; a nice difficulty in the list could of worlds that doesn't last long enough. Even in 3D World's post game stuff, it was late in the last world or two when it got hard hard.

Now I've finished the level containing that special character (almost: need to go back and get the stamp), and all I have to say is **** **** **** **** ********. That's where all the difficulty from the rest of the game has gone!

Balladeer wrote:

Now I've finished the level containing that special character (almost: need to go back and get the stamp), and all I have to say is **** **** **** **** ********.  That's where all the difficulty from the rest of the game has gone!

There's a level in that part of the game with log-type platforms where you need two or three double cherry clones near the end to get one of the green stars or the stamp. Infuriatingly difficult.

And this is the first time I've had to give up on the final, final world. Usually I can pass with perseverance but this is too difficult and I don't want to 'cheat' using a raccoon tail powerup (I resisted doing so on 3D Land's final level).

I don't consider that cheating, Fronky. I shamelessly used the Raccoon Suit to beat 3D Land's final, final level. It's all above board and within the game (though I know where you're coming from).

fronkhead wrote:

There's a level in that part of the game with log-type platforms where you need two or three double cherry clones near the end to get one of the green stars or the stamp. Infuriatingly difficult.

And this is the first time I've had to give up on the final, final world. Usually I can pass with perseverance but this is too difficult and I don't want to 'cheat' using a raccoon tail powerup (I resisted doing so on 3D Land's final level).

I think I may have passed that level, where there's a lift right at the end in an alcove.  I had a cat suit.  And while we're on the subject of "cheating", I've gone back to Super Bell Hill numerous times for when I need a bit of help reaching the top of the pole.

Is the final final level harder than SMG2's, then?  I never did finish that. 

This game just won EuroGamer's GOTY.

Avoid the comments though lol.

You can't say that and then not link to the comments page!  

Well, you've overtaken me Balla. I stopped after unlocking She Who Shall Not Be Named so I could savour the endgame after finishing Batman and that.

Balladeer wrote:

You can't say that and then not link to the comments page!  

  Here you are. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-12-30-eurogamers-game-of-the-year-2013

Clearly it attracted a bunch of Nintendo fans. Most of the trolly comments at the top have been down-voted enough to be hidden.  

Well, I've reached the final final world...

Spoiler:

So I experienced the final final world for the first time today & it's a right bastard!

Spoiler:

On the verge of world 6 here, and as I've stipulated on Twitter thus far, I'm still not sold on this game. Am I broken?

I can't deny, though, that it's feckin' pretty.

Double post!

I beat Bowser last night, and I thought it was the shittest showdown in the history of the series. Dress Bowser up to look like a bad face paint rendition of a cat, scale a building and smack a POW block, what, two times? Genius.  

Maybe it was just the shoddyness/easiness of the bosses than went before, but I was actually pretty keen on the final showdown.  Challenging enough, and quite spectacular with all the rain pouring down.  Pretty cool music too.

The **** is this though:

I think that's been the most disappointing thing about this game. I can recall just about all the major bosses from the original Galaxy: Dino Piranha, King Kaliente, Tarantox, Bouldergeist, Topman... but I doubt I'll remember any of the bosses from this game for the right reasons.

The brassy, jazzy remix in the end credits was pretty sweet, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LAZU92bulQ

To be fair, the bosses in SMG2 weren't exactly paragons of good design.

Of the ones I remember, I only liked the armadillo thing and Gobbleguts. I got more than a sense of creative fatigue from the boss designs in Galaxy 2.



*shudder*

And it's not just about the designs, it's about the implementation. Knocking the living daylights out of Dino Piranha with its own tail is still great today.

I quite liked the end battle as well, challenging to get to the top & the pow block was a satisfying to hit.

Wow. The last 4 posts were like an Aardman animator's nightmares.