Enjoy the purest pleasure
As a collection game, Super Mario: 3D World + Rage World is a fusion of two works with hugely different genres.
Among them, "Super Mario: 3D World" (hereinafter referred to as "3D World") is an old game transplanted from the Will U platform, and in terms of gameplay, it is more inclined to the platform jumping type of traditional Mario games. "Rage World", on the other hand, is more like a semi-open action-adventure game based on the existing resource materials in the 3D world, which integrates the successful experience of more box-style 3D Mario games.
Therefore, this "Super Mario 3D World + Rage World" is like a bowl of cold rice with heavy stir-frying, it allows old players to find the classic elements of the Mario series they miss in the game of "3D World", and the addition of "Rage World" can also meet the expectations of new players, especially those who love box-style map exploration, for the new 3D Mario work.
And if I want to recommend a Mario series to my friends around me, then "Super Mario 3D World + Rage World" will most likely not be the first echelon player. I would prefer to recommend them to experience Super Mario: Odyssey or Super Mario: Galaxy, or even the same remake of The New Super Mario Brothers U Deluxe Edition, because in my opinion, these are the best games in the series. Compared with these, although the 3D world has a good exploration in design, it generally seems to be somewhat inferior to the top and more than the bottom.
Compared to the Mario game that focuses on 2D horizontal platform jumping, the 3D world really brought me a certain surprise when I first got started. Because honestly, for the 2D horizontal version of Mario games, many players should be like me, already have some aesthetic fatigue. Although each of them will add new gameplay, mechanics and creative levels, you will always feel that it lacks essential innovation, and although the reputation of these works among players is also good, it does not meet the evaluation of "divine works".
The introduction of the 3D world is expected to reshape the inherent impression of the Mario series with platform-hopping gameplay as the core. Different from the box court 3D Mario that landed on the host platform, the "3D Continent" and "3D World" that were first positioned on the handheld platform still retained the level system of the traditional horizontal Mario series - multiple large levels contain dozens of small levels, and the reason for this is that to some extent, due to the consideration of the limitations of the handheld platform function, it is impossible to achieve rapid switching between large scenes.
After 3D, the most intuitive change in the game is in operation. In the 3D mario world, Mario and his companions have a richer movement system. This should be understood by anyone who has played the box-style Mario game in the past. In addition to the regular running and jumping, rolling, touching the ground, jumping forward in the air and other actions can be performed through key combinations in this game, and the direction is no longer just the front and back of the previous horizontal game, but the high degree of freedom of 360 degrees without dead angles.
When the character transforms through props, additional corresponding action features will also be added, such as the ability to swing its claws to attack the opponent after transforming into a cat, and at the same time, it can also reach some areas that were previously impossible to reach by jumping by climbing the wall. These rich explorable content, combined with 3D maps, give 3D Worlds a deeper understanding of the operation.
After the operation is rich, the corresponding game difficulty naturally changes. Unlike in the past in 2D platform jumping works, players only need to pay attention to threats from front to back, up and down, in the 3D world, players need to take care of every wind and grass around the character. Movement and attack, which used to exist only on a single plane, now also have to take into account the important factor of "direction", in what direction to jump, how far to jump, how to attack to accurately hit the enemy, these are now in the "3D World", players need to consider the problem.
The high difficulty of "3D World" comes from this, the game still uses the fixed perspective of the previous 2D horizontal version of the game, although it can also be slightly adjusted, but compared to the free perspective of "Super Mario: Odyssey", there are still many inconveniences. For example, it is difficult to accurately judge the distance from a fixed perspective, it is difficult to accurately control the landing point, etc., and many levels are prone to a sharp increase in difficulty because of these problems. This is also why many players have lamented that the late levels of the game are too difficult after experiencing "3D World".
The game's one-week program consists of eight large levels and smaller levels with different themes in each large level. Each themed level has its own unique scene style and enemy types, and the difference is very obvious. After the completion of the week, you can also unlock additional theme levels, basically achieving a large amount of fullness.
Compared with "3D Continent", "3D World", which landed on the Will U platform, not only has more exquisite and complex levels, but also can accommodate more units on the same screen display, rendering more scene dynamic effects, so that the entire "3D World" level map can carry more visual elements, and the visual effect has made significant progress.
Various themed small levels, in the design will also be used in the series of games appeared in a variety of trap props, such as trampolines, pedals flipped according to the number of jumps, moving platforms with forward and backward functions, etc., most levels will introduce some new elements, so that players always have enough freshness in the process of playing, and the difficulty will change. For the NS, Will U touch screen and gyroscope function, this game also added some adaptable small mechanisms, which is also very interesting to play.
Other than that, things like Forward! Nintendo first-party IP such as Captain Chinobio and Luigi's Mansion also have their own corresponding linkage levels in this game, and all show some of the game characteristics of the original game. For example, the bookcases that constantly change positions in the Western-style building level, the corridors with tracks, and the false finish flagpole make people feel really interesting. These undoubtedly enrich the fun of playing the levels of this game.
In addition to the diversification of the level design, the game also provides five protagonists (one of which is a hidden character), as well as a variety of transformation props to allow players to get a more differentiated game experience. Players challenge with different protagonists and transformation props in different levels, and in theory, they can really make the process of each game different.
But the design of this game is not very good in this regard. First of all, although each character has their own characteristics, such as Luigi can jump higher and Princess Becky can slowly slide down in the air. But in reality, in the level, there is no map design that can play the characteristics of these characters. Each character can reach all areas on the map, and after transformation, the characters gain exactly the same abilities, except that they change color.
This makes it so that later in the game, you basically don't have to think about changing characters to get different game experiences. If the designer can add an area in the level that only a specific character can enter, or let each character retain its own characteristics after the transformation, then using different characters and different props to repeatedly try the solution of the level may bring more fun to the game flow, and also allow players to experience the game for many weeks, not so boring.
In the level design of this game, another place that makes me unhappy is the shorter level process, although as mentioned earlier, the number of levels in this game is not small, but almost all levels only retain a halfway save point, the play time of a single level is controlled at about ten minutes, if you do not study the collection elements in the map, just to advance the level, the play time of a single level is somewhat unfinished. With the exception of some of the more difficult levels that are time-consuming, most of the early levels of the game give a sense of regret that they are forced to stop abruptly when they first enter the rhythm.
Of course, perhaps the purpose of this design is also to meet the needs of the multiplayer mode of this game. Short levels, uncomplicated maps, local/online modes for up to four people, rich level rewards, and support for points evaluation are all settings that meet the needs of modern players for fast-paced multiplayer online games.
During the Spring Festival holiday just this past, I also deliberately found three relatives and friends to play a local four-player online game. Honestly, the experience is indeed much more interesting than single-player games, and the variety of situations, the score after the level, and the use of scenes and props between teammates to play tricks on each other, all of which make us want to start the next round of competition quickly.
Of course, multiplayer online games with a fixed perspective will inevitably appear and cannot take into account the smooth experience of all players. For example, in the four-player online mode, the four players in the same screen must maintain a neat and consistent forward rhythm, but if one person wants to leave the team to explore other areas of the map alone, it is difficult to achieve, leaving the field of view will be automatically teleported back to the center of the screen by the game, making the game lose some of its freedom.
After talking about "3D World", let's talk about the new "Rage World"
As mentioned earlier, "Rage World" is a semi-open box court map created after reorganizing the game materials in "3D World". So in terms of the richness of the game's content, "Rage World" is not much different from "3D World".
The entire World of Rage level consists of a large map of the archipelago, which is set up as the kingdom where cats live, so the entire map is full of cat elements - even most enemies are in cat form. The villain we are most familiar with, Cool Lord, for some reason, with the help of Cool Bully Jr, saves Cool Lord and purifies the entire archipelago.
The specific process is that the player needs to go to various areas of the archipelago, complete various challenges and exploration tasks in the area, collect the cat sun power in the map, to illuminate the sea polluted by the Cool Overlord, and unlock more explorable areas. Eventually, after collecting enough cat sun power, Mario can transform into an equally extremely transformed form through the huge cat bell in the middle of the archipelago and face the Cool Overlord head-on.
Due to the box-style map design, in "World of Rage", the player's freedom of operation and exploration is much higher than that of the previous "3D World". The perspective is no longer fixed, allowing you to explore all corners of the map as much as you would play Super Mario Odyssey. Almost all areas of the map can be reached by the traps in the scene and the skillful use of props.
At the same time, although the entire Rampage World map does not reach the exaggerated size of the current mainstream open-world games, the explorable elements in the map are still rich enough. Each area of the archipelago on the map begins with multiple playables, including a variety of explorable locations, puzzle solving, collection, time-limited challenges, boss battles, and more. These contents are also gradually enriched with the advancement of the player's game process.
For example, after the player completes several challenges on an island initially, collects enough cat sun power, and defeats the first stage of the Cool Overlord, the map will open a new area, and the content of the previous area will also change, and each time the Cool Overlord is defeated, the islands on the map will undergo visible changes, perhaps the area previously covered by the mud has been purified, or the challenge mission on the original map may have been upgraded.
This design makes the originally small "Rage World" map achieve the highest utilization rate. In a limited area, a richer amount of fun is created for the player. Of course, you can explore a new area as soon as you unlock it, but you can also find new challenges in the original map area. The map will change after each time it reaches The Cool Overlord, so it is equivalent to constantly adding new content and new gameplay to the original map template, and finally making the playability of the entire map reach a height that has not been achieved in the previous single box map.
In the process of exploring the map, in addition to collecting the power of the cat sun, the various enhancements in "3D World" have also become a must-have for players to explore the map in "World of Rage". These boosters make it easier for players to explore various areas of the map or to identify enemies on the map.
Unlike the setting in World of 3D, where characters can only carry up to two boosters, in World of Rage, players can store the various boosts they get on their companion Jr. There is also a limit of five items per item, and it can be changed freely at any time. The advantage of this design is that players can freely switch the form of the character according to the needs of the level scene to help them solve the puzzles in the level more quickly. For example, the challenge that originally needs to reach the end point within a limited time, in addition to the player can be realized by platform jumping in the conventional form, the player can also directly choose to transform into a cat form and quickly reach the end point by climbing the wall.
Another important game mechanic of World of Rage is the Furious Form's Cool Overlord, which constantly interferes with the player during the game. The world in the game changes significantly due to the awakening of The Cool Overlord every few minutes. When the Cool Overlord is asleep, the island is surrounded by peace and sunshine. Once the Cool Overlord awakens, the entire map will be instantly shrouded in storms, and large rocks will continue to fall to interfere with the player's normal actions. After waking up, the Cool Overlord will also hunt down and kill the player in the map, posing a huge threat to the player by means such as spewing flames.
In order to allow the player to explore the map to be combined with this special mechanism, there are also many places in the game scene that need to be "helped" by the Cool Overlord, such as some hard bricks, which can only be broken with the help of the Cool Overlord's flames. Alternatively, some areas of the map need to be reached smoothly by using the platform that rises from the ground after the Cool Overlord awakens. In terms of game experience, Rage World's combination of this game mechanic and map scene design can really make people feel bright.
In stark contrast to the cool bully's evil form is the cool bully's son, The cool bully Jr. who appears in this game. In addition to helping Mario store enhancement items as described above, players can also use the touch screen function of NS to command Bully Jr to interact with the question marks that appear on the walls of the map to obtain the items hidden in it.
Alternatively, players can change Jr's following strategy in the game's settings menu to participate in battles with enemies.
Of course, the most interesting way to play is to play online games with friends, the two play mario and bully Jr, respectively, adventure and exploration on the map.
The way to advance the process of "World of Rage" is to collect the power of the cat sun, so that Mario transforms into a very intelligent cat form to fight the cool overlord, which is the traditional boss battle game. Players familiar with the Mario series must know that the boss battles of this series have always been relatively perfunctory, and the same is naturally true of "World of Rage". Every time the player fights with the Cool Overlord, there is basically no difficulty to speak of, even if the game divides the Cool Overlord's BOSS battle into multiple stages, but overall, the Cool Overlord's moves are still so single and difficult to pose a threat to the player.
So, if you want to evaluate Super Mario 3D World + Rage World, my point would be: this is not a Mario series that non-core players need to buy the experience for the first time, you can try some better options first, such as Super Mario Odyssey or the classic side-scrolling platform-hopping Mario game. Of course, if you want to try to experience the operation of 3D Mario on a handheld, then in addition to the Super Mario Odyssey and the previously launched Mario 35th Anniversary Collection, this game will also be a good choice.
It is still an interesting and excellent work, representing Nintendo's consistent design pursuit of pure game fun, as well as the world's top level design level, the large amount of the original volume plus the new "Rage World", all have a high playability. Although the overall feeling of the game is not as amazing as the top works in the series, it is still a rare masterpiece.
And, if you can find friends to play with, then the fun that this game can bring you will greatly exceed your expectations.