Jeff's Gaming Blog

After completing the bonus World Star in Super Mario 3D World, I continued on to the second bonus world, World Mushroom. This world is a fairly short world, with only eight levels. Each is a new take on an earlier level, and there are no stamps to collect in this world.

World Mushroom-1: Night Falls on Really Rolling Hills starts out with only 30 seconds on the timer! It’s clear you have to hurry, and picking up clock icons to give you more time is a must. You really don’t have time to explore and find all the stars on one run, so you’ll probably need multiple attempts to find everything.

World Mushroom-2: Spiky Mount Beanpole requires you to ascend a very tall structure in search of five key coins. Fortunately, this level has a reasonable time limit, so it’s more relaxing than the frantic running in the previous stage. Once you find all five key coins, you’ll have to return to the starting point before you can advance to the exit.

World Mushroom-3: Deep-Black Jungle Drift, as the name implies, takes place in a dark jungle. You’ll wear a light box (the spotlight power-up) as you ride rafts through haunted wetlands. Many Boos can be found here, which can be defeated by shining the spotlight on them for a few seconds. This is actually a pretty easy level.

World Mushroom-4: Trouble in Shadow-Play Alley is a colorless 2D level in which you only view silhouettes of practically everything in the level. You’re only given 100 seconds to complete the level, so again, you may feel rushed. But the level is fairly short, so it’s really just a matter of figuring out how to get the stars in time.

World Mushroom-5: Back to Hands-On Hall takes place in the same Japanese setting as World 6-3. Much like that stage, this one also makes heavy use of the touch screen on the gamepad. You’ll use your finger or stylus to swipe the screen to open doors and bang gongs. It’s not a bad level, but I lost a lot of lives using the propeller power-up, trying to get the second star.

World Mushroom-6: Gigantic Seasick Wreck has you walking across a broken ship, while avoiding the gusting winds of the cloudy Ty-Foo enemies. They’ll blow you overboard if you’re not careful. There are also some Bullies that will try to push you around. However, there are multiple mega mushrooms in this stage that let you turn the tables on the bad guys.

World Mushroom-7: Broken Blue Bully Belt is a challenging level that has some very tricky jumps. Platforms rise and sink over some blue lava, while enemies pop up and other spiky hazards spin around to make things even more difficult. There is a tanooki suit power-up here, but practice is going to be required to get through this stage.

World Mushroom-Cube has ten stars up for grabs. Each room has a ten-second time limit and a different group of enemies to defeat. Clearing each room earns you a star and a trip to the next room. It’s helpful to have a power-up here, particularly the cat suit. But it’s not that difficult regardless.

This still isn’t the end of the game, because World Mushroom leads right into another area, World Flower. So I’m not done yet!

I’ve taken a very long break from playing Super Mario 3D World, but in the past month or so, I’ve returned to it to finish collecting the stars, stamps, and flagpoles in the eight standard worlds. Once I did that, I opened up a bonus world: World Star. And yes, I’ve been playing primarily as Peach lately. Her SMB2 style hover jump is very helpful for levels with tricky jumps. It also helps for reaching the tops of flagpoles.

I’ll be giving my impressions and opinions of each level in this world.

World Star-1: Rainbow Run is bound to bring back memories of Rainbow Road in the Mario Kart games. The first and third sections of the level feature some tricky jumps on spinning rainbow-colored cylinders.

The second star challenge actually involves a cool Legend of Zelda reference, and the Zelda theme song even plays for a short time! This level also has a Plessie swimming segment that takes place over rainbow-colored tiles. This section is very short, but it’s a fun (and colorful) diversion from the platforming sections.

World Star-2: Super Galaxy is a Super Mario Galaxy themed level with lots of rotating platforms and some peaceful Galaxy music. The background features the northern lights and Rosalina’s ship, the Comet Observatory. Completing this level unlocks Rosalina as a playable character! She has a spin-attack move, although I decided to stick with Peach.

World Star-3: Rolling Ride Run is probably my second least favorite level from this world. It involves running on giant rolling pins–which in itself is quite tricky–while navigating through a maze of blocks and avoiding enemies and other obstacles. Needless to say, it’s a challenging level.

World Star-4: The Great Goal Pole is basically a practical joke on everyone who plays the game. You’re only given 100 seconds to complete the level, but it appears to be no problem since the goal pole is only a few feet away from the starting point. However, once you try to jump on the goal pole, it suddenly sprouts wings and flies away from you! It’s hard not to laugh the first time it happens. You then have to chase down the pole over a series of clouds and falling donut block bridges, while avoiding enemies of course. You have to be quick to clear this level!

World Star-5: Super Block Land features giant brick blocks and some hefty Chargin’ Chucks. You just know there’s going to be something hidden inside some of those giant blocks. Fortunately, there are bombs to throw at them and blow them up. There’s also a tanooki suit here, which gives you a helpful tail attack. It’s a pretty fun level.

World Star-6: Honeycomb Starway is played from a fixed, top-down viewpoint (except for the flagpole section at the very end). Some futuristic, sci-fi hexagonal platforms fly out of nowhere to assemble the path ahead of you. Some of them are covered in fire (lava) or ice, making for some hazards to avoid. And there are flying enemies (including bees and anti-gravity piranha plants) that will try to defeat you, but this level is short and fairly easy. Especially since there’s a helpful boomerang suit right at the beginning of the level.

World Star-Toad is a Captain Toad level located in a cube. Captain Toad can’t jump of course, but there are P-switches that change the gravity within the cube to let you rotate the entire playfield. Like most other Captain Toad levels, it’s a nice change of pace that’s pretty fun.

World Star-7: Gargantuan Grotto features some enormous Goombas, but also some mega mushrooms that can make you just as big. This level is very easy, and being a giant is quite enjoyable. I’m just disappointed that we only get one “giant” level as opposed to whole Giant World like in Super Mario Bros. 3. Oh well, it’s fun while it lasts.

World Star-8: Peepa’s Fog Bog combines  a large, open haunted graveyard with a winter wonderland. You’ll be fighting (or avoiding) ghots and snowmen alike as you collect the five key coins to proceed to the next section. There you’ll ride a raft on a poison river, leading to the final section with a sinking/rising bridge through fog. It’s a pretty cool, unique level.

World Star-9: Cosmic Cannon Cluster is my least favorite level in this world. It’s also the hardest level in the world (and one of the hardest in the whole game). Most of the level involves jumping on switchboards–directional platforms on rails. You’ll be wearing a cannon box power-up for most/all of the level, and you’ll need to shoot switches to change the paths–while you’re moving, avoiding enemies, and trying not to let your platform fall off the rails. But the hardest part of the level is a section where you have to scale a wall by jumping on cannonballs, one after another, before they hit the wall and explode. I lost quite a few lives here. There’s also an underwater segment, but it’s actually quite a bit easier than the rest of the level.

That wraps up this world, but there’s still more to come. Completing World Star-9 unlocks another bonus world, World Mushroom! The Super Mario 3D World coverage here on JVGS is far from over! Stay tuned!

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