- Hey, y'all Scott here. It's truly an awful situation
when you re-experience something you initially loved,
but upon further inspection it's just not as good as
you remember it being. I'm of course, talking about eczema. Tried it again, wasn't into it. Anyways, I'm going to
replay Mario 3D Land. 3D Mario, a staple of 3D Mario games. The 3D Mario lineage is an important one. Every single game stands on its own as a monumental moment in gaming history. Each one bringing with it, innovations in design, control, play style
and just gaming in general. A new 3D Mario game was, is,
and forever will be an event. They don't happen all the
time, but when they do they scare the out of me. They don't happen all the time. This isn't normal. Each 3D Mario is unique and
special in their own way. And most people take playing through each and every one as a sign of being human. But every family has a daughter you don't dislike. Super Mario 3D land for the Nintendo 3DS. Yes, this is one of the best
Nintendo 3DS games ever made. It saved the system from performing slightly
below expectations. It successfully transitioned
3D Mario into 3D Mario. It uses the Y button. How come people don't talk about it? Whenever 3D Mario comes
up, 3D land is very, very rarely thrown into the combo. Was there a statewide ban or am I just talking to the wrong people? Because the Sunoco cashier
had nothing to say about this. Well then Nintendo 3DS was
something special, wasn't it? Basically a DS with a fancy new aerial and a 3D screen that doesn't need glasses. Sure. I'll bite. What
kind of games are on it? You sure you don't want to
talk about the headphone jack? Yeah the 3DS was struggling
throughout its first year on the market with a lack
of heavy hitting titles. We got Ocarina of Time 3D, Starfox 64 3D and games like Pilotwings
Resort, and Steeldiver. But these were remakes
or such minute titles that nobody really had much of a reason to blow 250 bones
on pretty terrible cameras. There was pretty much nothing
too awful worthwhile to play on the handheld for that first year. That didn't mean it didn't have promise. We knew about so many big
games coming in the future. Buying a 3DS in 2011 was more
of an investment if anything. Kid Icarus, Animal Crossing,
Resident Evil, Paper Mario, Mario Kart, Metal Gear,
Kingdom Hearts, Smash Brothers. You may have had to play
Pokemon Rumble Blast but considering what was
coming, it was worth it. Maybe, especially since we were getting a brand new 3D Mario
game for the portable. Now this was big news. This was 2011. We were hot off the heels of Super Mario Galaxy 2 releasing in 2010. That was considered a good video game. So when they were making
another video game I think we had every right
to believe it would be good. But of course what made this special was the fact it was a 3D
Mario game in your hands. Now 2D Mario has been in constant
on the Nintendo handhelds but back in November 2010,
Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that they were not only
developing a new 2D Mario for the 3DS but a 3D one as well. To be fair, Super Mario
64 DS holds the record for first portable 3D Mario game. But it was a remake of Super
Mario 64, so give it back. Formerly revealed on March 2nd, 2011 at the Game Developers Conference, Super Mario for Nintendo 3DS looked exactly how you'd expect it to. I mean, hearing that they're
making a new 3D Mario game and seeing these screenshots, it is one it looked like a mixture
of the more typical theming of Super Mario 64 with the streamlined yet out there level design
of Super Mario Galaxy 2. It looked quality but where's the tail? - [Shigeru] You may notice
something that looks like a tail at the bottom on the logo. - Oh, I'm not pissed. 2011 was right when many game developers were starting to actually
react to the retro boom. The internet was always
going on and on about how the world was better in 1990. Hey remember how Super
Mario Brothers 3 came out? Loads of retro game discussions consisted of how Super Mario Brothers 3 on the NES was the best Mario game of all time. And one of the core reasons often given was the awesome power-ups. And the big one on display
here was Raccoon Mario. Being able to whack enemies with your tail and glide and fly. Hey you were a raccoon,
of course you can do that. Obviously loads of nostalgia and love for Super Mario Brothers 3
existed and still exists. So Nintendo decided to capitalize on that by injecting a bit of
Mario 3 into Mario 3D. I mean, this was awesome. Just the idea of being
able to fly like he could in that old game, made this
one infinitely more interesting because as it stood, there
wasn't a ton to get excited about outside of it being a
new 3D Mario on a handheld. So when E3 2011 came around
Nintendo had a ton of oddly shaped screens at
their press conference that they finally decided
to put some use to. They had these CGI animations
representing the major Nintendo 3DS games they were
about to go into detail about. And one of them was for Mario 3DS. Mario comes in, jumps
around and gets a power up. I never cared for Mario, but
I'm liking the new direction. This up ended up being the Tanooki suit. Yay. So not necessarily Raccoon
Mario from Mario 3, rather Tanooki Mario from Mario 3. It was the exact same power
up, except it was more suit than severed raccoon ears. And you could turn into a
statue so not much is lost here. It's basically the same power up. We then dive into the first
trailer for Super Mario 3D as it was called at the time. And there he is, Tanooki Mario. He can whip his tail and hover. Where's the flying? So you bring back to
Tanooki Mario from Mario 3 to end up just leaving
out the entire point of Tanooki Mario from Mario 3? Did Nintendo just think
we liked this power because it was cute? It's f**king adorable but that's besides the point! It's really weird, they
make this whole game's identity surround a
classic power up returning when it can't even do the
thing it was famous for doing. Other than the power up,
Mario 3D looked fantastic for a 3DS game. If you held it far away and squinted it could probably be
mistaken for Mario Galaxy. And the gameplay was interesting here. They were bringing loads of
elements from the 2D Mario games and incorporating them in a 3D Mario for the first time ever. Ending the level with a flagpole. When you get hit, you
shrink down to small Mario the way power ups work, the stage timer. This was a very uniquely ununique Mario. There was stuff to discuss but this trailer was far from great. I mean, they forgot to hold the run button in most of the footage. So this game looked slow and pretty much everything here we've seen Mario do before. A few months later the game's
final title was revealed and I don't know why they
couldn't think of this sooner. I think they were panicking
on what to call this thing. Super Mario 3D Land could be the title of any 3D Mario game ever released. This game's sequel Super
Mario 3D World could have been called Super Mario 3D Land. And this one Super Mario 3D World and these titles are so
close to Super Mario Land and Super Mario World
that I constantly hear people mess up these games' titles. Super Mario Land 3D Super Mario World 3D. Some people have just
called this Super Mario Land and Super Mario World but on top of that some people have called
this Super Mario Land and this Super Mario World. After a few more trailers, some with really odd amounts of pop-in,
Super Mario 3D Land released on November 13th, 2011
here in North America to critical acclaim and PETA's fist. PETA is the organization to listen to. They love animals so much. They would kill one to
prove how serious they are. They saw Nintendo was
releasing a new Mario game featuring an animal suit as a power up and decided to go for the angle of this. They even made an online
flash game about it all. Well, now I got to listen to them. Obviously this was done
as a way to get attention. If you were somebody going
online to discuss how absolutely ridiculous it is that PETA thinks Nintendo's
promoting animal abuse, congratulations, you did exactly what PETA wanted you to do. And Mario 3 had a frog suit, did anybody really think Nintendo was pressuring kids to think anything of that? Here's a gun, kill a frog. Super Mario 3D Land was lauded as the killer app, the 3DS needed. It actually used the
glasses free 3D effectively with many saying it completely
justified the gimmicks. Implying that it is in
fact, not just a gimmick and can be used to
enhance gameplay because of that and a very necessary
price drop earlier in the year this alongside the release of Mario Kart 7 kicked the 3DS in gear. And ever since it experienced a pretty sizeable amount of success. Sure it wasn't a runaway hit like the original Nintendo DS or Wii, but it did more than well
enough to carry Nintendo throughout that generation. Mario 3D Land helped
Nintendo sell a handheld that was truly, its only
hope during that era. The Wii was dying, the
Wii U was about to release so, the Wii U was dying. The Nintendo 3DS was Nintendo's
success story at the time. And without Super Mario 3D Land it might've been a different story. So why does nobody give a
s**t about this game anymore? Super Mario 3D Land is the odd one out in the 3D Mario lineage. It's not a bad game, but
most of the time people talk about 64, Sunshine, Galaxy 1 and 2 and then immediately jump over to 3D World or sometimes Odyssey. Many feel that with 3D Land's successor there's not much reason
to go back to it as 3D World is just better in most ways. If you played 3D World, you sort of already kind of played 3D Land. I mean, these are two separate games. There's very little
distinctive about this one, other than it being five inches. I picked this one up after netting some Christmas
money in late 2011. I played through it
and loved every second. And then I played it again. And then again this time 100% completing
the game with no deaths. And when I say no deaths, I mean every time I was about to
die, I quit out of the game and re-entered until I beat it first try. Look at that. No deaths. I did that. Alright, let's try out
Super Mario 3D Land again. - [Mario] Super Mario 3D Land! Never thought this would be the intro. Super Mario 3D Land
starts out simple enough, just a small game play demo. But after awhile we
enter the screen where we can control Mario and understand what makes the game tick. Now of course, if you're
not seeing this on a 3DS screen itself with the 3D turn on, you're missing out, buddy. See cranking that 3D slider
up, we get a sense of depth. Objects in the foreground
are now obviously in the foreground things
in the background. Yep. They're definitely back there. This demo screen features
an optical illusion where in 2D mode you have more
questions than answers. In 3D mode you have more
answers than questions. Moving in a specific location
shows how the illusion works if you're only playing in 2D, which many of us definitely did. With the 3D effect being really picky, you had to hold it in just the right spot to get the effect to work properly and a couple 3DS models excluding the 3D feature entirely and Mario
3D land still works perfectly fine in 2D, but you always
have that faint feeling you're missing something. Starting up a new file Super
Mario 3D Land has a tree. And a lot of it. I guess this is giving a story context as to why there are no Tanooki
leaves all over the place because that was my biggest concern when this game was announced. How was that Bowser's doing? It was a rainy night and it's like, if I saw a fire, oh, I know this exact arsonist I can tell by
his signature flames. But breaking news that isn't
the only problem on the block. Bowser took Peach and leaves. At least he left a note. That scared Mario so much
he went to a world map. I love this little detail of Mario anxiously running in place. It only happens here in the beginning and that's why I like it. Hopping into World 1-1. (video game music) I'm shocked. So it's Mario, 3D Mario, to be exact. Imagine a New Super Mario
Brothers game, where you can move in a 3D space. 3D Mario games up to this point were pretty different from 2D Marios in terms of the core design. You'd have multiple missions
within a single level. Some games were more linear than others with specific
ends to the levels. Whereas some were more
open-ended and about exploration. 3D Land is as linear as linear could be. You have a start to the level,
get to the end of the level. There are no branching paths or much to do exploration wise. It's all about getting over this. That's not a bad thing. In fact, this does wonders for covering up that giant gash between
2D Mario and 3D Mario. And these two things were pretty different but 3D Land is as if a
2D Mario was a 3D Mario. Most of the controls are just
like they are in the 2D games, but we do have some extra
moves from the 3D ones, like the long jump. But overall 3D Land, in my
opinion, has far more in common with 2D Mario than with 3D
Mario again, not bad thing but it just makes it
sort of underwhelming. Like, yup, it's 2D Mario in 3D. They did it. They did it well. Good for them. It's pretty cool, considering this is what Super Mario 64 was
originally envisioned as. Tons of levels just
like the 2D Mario games, a flagpole at the end but it had to be reworked
due to hardware limitations. So we got multiple missions to do in fewer, larger levels. In this way 3D Land is like the game God never wanted us to see. But this time we've got
stereoscopic 3D without the need for glasses, I should have never
gotten prescription lenses. This entire game was designed around the 3D. How the camera angles are fixed. The perspective of it all, the controls. Everything was crafted to make it so the game was enhanced by the 3D effect. Now jumping feels more precise you know exactly where you're
landing with that slider up. It's never 100% necessary,
but I do feel playing the game in 2D I miss my jumps
a tad more than in 3D. You can also change whether
or not the 3D pops out or sinks in by hitting
up or down on the D pad. C'mon, 3D is way more pizzazzy
when it's popping out. When it sinks in, I feel like
I'm looking at a goldfish. So well yes, I agree the 3D
does enhance the gameplay. It doesn't enhance it nearly
as much as impressions back in 2011 made me believe. The way people were
talking about this game sounded like every game
from this point forward will have to be in glasses-free 3D. Super Mario 3D Land has
started a revolution. Like, no. This is one of the few 3DS
games that truly benefits from leaving that slider on. In most games, it's a nice effect, but not much more than that. In 3D Land it's a nice effect that slightly benefits the
player by turning it on, but not much more than that. These 3D illusion rooms
appear every now and then, same idea as that demo screen. These are kind of cool. I guess they do the best job of immediately showcasing
how 3D is beneficial. But I feel like these were designed in a way where they
wanted to push a gimmick by creating a problem that
wouldn't be there normally and that problem is
solved by said gimmick. Like, oh don't know where these coins are in perspective to you? Crank that 3D slider up. See like no, nobody thought, oh my God they finally
solved the coin problem. The rest of the game,
these perspective issues aren't an issue. The 3D is sorta cool
here, but it's a total and utter gimmick. It's like in Starfox
Zero, where you used the Wii U game pad to aim. You have to look between the
game pad and the TV screen. And it's difficult to get
used to, but people who did get used to it liked it a lot. They were like, aiming
works really well this way. It also worked perfectly
in Starfox 64, they just created a problem with
Starfox Zero to then solve it with their s**t gimmick and
they didn't even solve it. Oh, the 3D works pretty
well on Mario 3D Land. It's just not that necessary. It does benefit you to leave
it on, but I've played most of the game in 2D no problem. May have missed a few jumps here and there but I can always shrug it off. But that was the big thing everybody lauded about this game. The implementation of 3D, what else does it have going for it? Existence? This is one of the most basic Mario experiences you could ask for. At least with the New
Super Mario Brothers games you know, a basic Mario
experience is what I expect. The title New Super Mario
Brothers basically says that. But this is a 3D Mario game. To be fair, the title
of Super Mario 3D Land kind of says basic Mario
experience as well. However, when I lay out all the 3D Marios this one has the least original about it. No doubt. Eight worlds, you go through each level, collect three star medals
placed in each if you want. You need a certain amount to
progress through the game, beat the boss at the end of the world get a cute cut scene
where Mario gets a letter showing the status of
Peach, rinse and repeat. The level designs are good, but completely unmemorable. There isn't a single one where
I get excited to replay it. Maybe the clock one, but that's it. Pretty much each of these levels has a theme we've seen done
to death by Mario before. No s**t grass, snow, colors? Now at the very least
each world doesn't have a theme where every level in
world one is grass themed, every level in world two is desert themed. No, the themes are completely random. And I kind of liked that. Variety is fun, it keeps things fresh. And again, the levels are well-designed. They work great. They look wonderful on the 3DS. The entire game oozes quality. Like this looks lovely, but it's all stuff we've seen before. And the stages are really
short and really, really easy. There's an infinite one-up trick you can find in the second level. There's nothing wrong with
easy games, but Mario 3D Land is so easy that it almost feels mindless. The levels just aren't too interesting from a design perspective. There's not really anywhere
I get excited to play it. And I'm just like, oh sweet, more s**t for my thumb to do. Even the music is mostly
just reused or remixed from previous games. The main power up at
play here is just taken from Mario 3 and you can't even fly. Sure flying in these stages wouldn't work. So why bring back this power? Why not create a brand new one? You can't even turn into a
statue in its basic form. Now you can find a variant
where you do turn into a statute by performing your ground pound. Thanks? The boomerang flower appears as a new power up and it's just a worse version of the fire flower. Thanks. If you die a lot, you get
the invincibility leaf. It's the Tanooki suit
but you're invincible. Thanks. And then if you die a lot, a lot you get the P wing where it just completes the level for you. Great feature. There is the propeller box,
which isn't technically a power up, more of a box you can wear. It's pretty much the propeller suit from New Super Mario Brothers, wait, moving on. I mean, I always just
want the Tanooki suit. One hundred percent. It's the best power up in this game. But again, you bring back
this power up to just gut it of what made it
great in the first place. At least there are a decent
amount of new enemies like Tail Bowser. That's his name. Many enemies now have Tanooki tails. Again, I think Nintendo got the wrong idea as to what we liked
about the Tanooki suit. It looked quality, but where's the tail? I've matured since. Nintendo has thrown this
tail on so many things in the Mario universe around this time. Well, people love the Tanooki suit. For the tail! But we do get these guys,
this guy, those guys there's some fun new designs in here but they also put a tail on a block. That's a new enemy. Look at this list of
characters, pump the brakes. There are these cutouts of enemies that are supposed to trick you. It's an illusion where you
can tell what's a real enemy and what's a fake enemy
if you have the 3D on. And I never missed a cutout
of an enemy for a real enemy. I don't know who they were fooling here. We have Toad houses to
visit every now and then where they give us some power-ups. Honestly what I like about
these is the camera angle when entering the house. This feels like a regular 3D Mario game. And this whole thing just
feels cool to run around. It reminds me of the camera angles from the original screenshots at GDC. Like these make the game
look way more involved than it turned out to be. The fixed camera angle
works really well here but makes the game feel
so sterile like, yup. This is all there is to see. There are these mystery rooms
you can enter on the world map or in a level itself where
you get this tiny challenge you have to complete under a time limit. Fine. Like most of the
challenges are crazy easy. So they're not the most
engaging in the world. Boss fights. They brought back Boom Boom from Mario 3 alongside his brand new
female counterpart Pom Pom. But they're the only bosses besides Bowser so you refight these guys a couple times alongside refighting
Bowser a couple of times. At least the final Bowser
fight is pretty neat. It's this giant crumbling landscape. And he throws barrels like Donkey Kong. This is regular Bowser we're
talking here, not Tail Bowser. And when those credits finally roll after 3 hours of playing
from start to finish, Jesus Christ this was
a short and easy game. It's time to reflect
on what I just played. It was okay. But then something magical happens. The game doubles in length. We get eight special worlds. I think that's just awesome. Any Mario games only give
you a couple of these but Mario 3D Land effectively gives you two times the stages. That's so cool. This is where we get the statue leaf. The poison mushroom makes an appearance every now and then. These are remixed stages. Levels from the regular eight worlds revamped to be a bit harder. Some of them are pretty lazy. They just kind of barf
cosmic clones in them where they mimic your every move and touching them hurts you. But hey, you, unlock Luigi
as a playable character after beating the first special world. He doesn't turn into to Tanooki Luigi. He turns into Kitsune Luigi because Luigi can't be a Tanooki,
are you f**king serious? And then beating every
stage as Mario and Luigi, collecting every star medal
and getting to the top of every flagpole unlocks
one final brutally, difficult, tough as nails level. I beat it in one try. See, Super Mario 3D Land's
idea of brutally difficult is on par with a see and say. So that is Mario 3D Land, or as many others call
it Mario Land Super 3D. I know I just dogged on this
game, but I loved this thing. I replayed it constantly. It was always sort of my safe bet game if I didn't know what to
play, but I knew for a fact I wouldn't be starting Max Payne 3 I would just replay Mario 3D Land again. This is a good game but critically looking at it right now, it's really basic. I feel like I've become less accepting of the status quo for a Mario game, which this is very much that. It for sure it gave a
massive push to the 3DS, not only showing how 3D can enhance a game but also using the gyroscope. Save the 3DS. Mario 3D Land was kind
of my junk food game. There wasn't a ton of substance but it was a great time killer. The stages being so quick and easy made them perfect for a handheld. And while the game
itself doesn't have a lot of personality to truly
make it stick out compared to the other 3D Marios, what
it did well, it did well. So I think that answers the question. Why isn't this talked about as much? There's not much to say about it. It's a New Super Mario
Brothers game in 3D. It honestly makes more sense to talk about 3D Land alongside New Super Mario Brothers than Super Mario Sunshine. Oh my God. I said something wild didn't I? I should shield my eyes
from such statements. I didn't have sunglasses. So I spray painted my lenses black. (classic arcade game music)
Finally, I was hoping Scott would talk about Land Super 3D Mario ever since he talked about 3D Super World Mario!
On a non-reference-y note, two videos in three days?! I know he would be honest and transparent with us if he was getting worn out and didn't release a video today, but I just worry and would rather him not overwork in order to get a video out. With that being said, again, he would be honest with us if that were the case and would likely just have delayed the video.
Speaking of which, this was a good video. Greatly enjoyed.
This is too much Scott the Woz content in one weekend, my Scott premium is gonna overload. I knew I should have gotten Scottsurance when I refinanced my Woz.
You know what's better than sex, going on a scottthewoz binge and seeing he uploaded a brand new video
How the hell does Scott produce high quality videos at the rate that he does?
is no one gonna talk about the fact he owns a rifle? no idea if it's a toy rifle, but it sure as hell looks like a rifle
I'm hoping it's a toy rifle
To quote Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon;
“This is such good shit!”
Yeah even when I was younger I remember thinking how weirdly easy of a game it is
I bought this game on release day in Toys R Us NY. They were giving out free Tanooki Ears and Tail with them! (note for peta: they're not real, just a costume)
It's been 3 days, so reddit now says 3D.