Tag: Super Mario

It was time to resume my game of Super Mario 3D World, so I headed off to the eighth world, known as World Bowser. It starts off with Spiky Spike Bridge (World Bowser-1). It’s a tricky level played in the rain, with raindrops running down the “camera.” And of course there are a multitude of spiky bridges and dangerous jumps. I must say, I really like the graphical style of these last couple worlds.

World Bowser-2 is another Plessie dino-riding level. But instead going down a river, this time Plessie plunges down sand dunes. These Plessie levels may provide a change of pace and some variety, but I don’t really care for them that much.

World Boswer-Train: The Bowser Express is a cool train level, where each car of the train has a different type of enemy or obstacle. One car has a spiky trapeze to avoid, another has bullies that try to push you off the train, and one even has an underwater segment. Once you reach the front of a train, a Hammer Brother guards the pipe to the boss fight.

World Bowser-4: Footlight Lane has you walking on a series of invisible platforms and bridges. Parts of them become visible as you stand on them, so you can see the area directly around your character, but not much beyond that. The level also has some Thwomps however, and their hard landings will make the platforms temporarily visible. The stage is a bit tricky, particularly in the later part of the level, but it’s not as bad as it may look in pictures.

In World Bowser-6: A Beam in the Dark, Mario has an unusual power-up to wear. He essentially puts a flashlight on over his head body and rides moving platforms through a haunted house. If you direct the beam of light onto ghosts and hold it there for a couple seconds, the ghosts will be defeated. This is a unique, creative level and it’s a lot of fun.

World Bowser-7: Grumblump Inferno has you riding a rotating block through fields of lava. It reminds me of those challenge levels from Super Mario Sunshine (the ones where you didn’t use the waterpack). It can be a challenge to keep your footing, but it’s also a very enjoyable level.

After a couple of encore fights against previous bosses, I made it to World Bowser-Castle: The Great Tower of Bowser Land. You need 170 stars to unlock it, but I only had 168. However, it didn’t take me long to revisit a previous level to get the other two stars I needed. I was then able to enter the castle.

The level consists of a huge tower you must ascend. The final boss reveals itself about halfway through. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t played this far yet, but I’ll say it wasn’t exactly what I expected. In fact, I laughed out loud when I saw what I was up against. I continued my climb upwards, and at the top, I easily beat my opponent in about three seconds flat.

The game started acting like I had beaten the game, but I knew that couldn’t be it. The little rainbow fairy munchkin girls were freed from their bottle, and the path to the flag was right in front of me. I just knew something was going to happen right before I got to the flag. But nothing did. A message said “Course Clear,” so I figured there must be another level waiting for me. And then…the credits started rolling. What? Seriously? There were no tricks, I had beaten the game. That final boss fight wasn’t really even a fight. That was a bit disappointing, although World Bowser overall was quite impressive and fun.

And even though I’ve beaten the game, I still haven’t completed it. I’m going to go back and get all the stars and stamps that I’ve missed. I’ve had a lot of fun with the game, and it’s not over yet. There may still be another blog entry about Super Mario 3D World, and later on, a review as well. So stick around!

It was time to play some Super Mario 3D World, so I started up my Wii U and resumed my game. I’m on the 7th world, but it isn’t called World 7. It’s called World Castle (actually it uses a castle icon instead of the word castle), which just sounds a bit strange. But it takes place within Bowser’s castle, with lots of fire and lava everywhere. I started the first level, World Castle-1, which is subtitled Fort Fire Bros. It has a unique visual style, with blue lava surrounding everything. Piggybacking Goombas may carry power-ups or even other enemies such as Fire Bros. It’s an easy, but enjoyable level, and a good start to the world.

The next level is World Castle-2: Switchblack Ruins. It takes place in a dark cave and Mario has limited visibility. Some parts of the level have torches that can be lit with a fireball; it reminded me of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. There are some rooms in this level that have better lighting (thanks to lava), and those areas often have you stepping on tiles, turning question marks into exclamation points.

World Castle-3: Red Hot Run is a race against the clock. Mario has only 100 ticks on the clock to make his way through across narrow platforms while avoiding spikes (and spiky rolling pins). It’s a tricky level, but it’s fun.

World Castle-5: Trick Trap Tower is quite an interesting level. It has lots of moving platforms and Thwomps that you must climb to ascend to the top of a tower. Once you reach the top, you’ll fight three Magikoopas on the Lego-covered roof.

You then move on to another tower, where you have to collect five keys. But reaching the top of this tower unleashes some purple poisonous gas, and Mario has to escape in a hurry! Me-YOWZA!

World Castle-6: Rammerhead Reef is an underwater level where Mario must avoid the “rammerheads,” whose heads resemble the spiky rolling pins I mentioned earlier. There are also bloopers swimming around. I’m not generally a fan of water levels, but this one is pretty cool.

Once you reach the castle, it’s time to fight Bowser in the ridiculously named “World Castle-Castle.” Also known as Bowser’s Lava Lake Keep, this level has you battling Bowser in his car. It’s a pretty cool boss fight, but after knocking Bowser into the lava, I saw this:

It was kind of funny to run out of time right then, actually. But I beat him again, this time with more time remaining on the clock. This is a bit of a spoiler coming up, so you may want to skip the rest of this blog entry if you don’t want to know what happens. But as I crossed the flag of this world, all seven of those floaty fairy munchkin girls were there. I guess the game was trying to trick me into thinking I beat the whole thing. But then suddenly, Bowser drops in and puts them all in a bottle again and takes them all away. I’m not sure how Bowser recovered that quickly, but that’s video game logic for you.

I found myself back on the world map, and I took a clear pipe up to the 8th world, World Bowser. This world appears to be a noen-filled amusement park…I love it! It looks great, and I’m looking forward to going there next time.

I resumed playing Super Mario 3D World in World 6, the cloud world. It starts off with World 6-1: Clear Pipe Cruise. The level has a lot of clear pipes which you must navigate through. Often, there will be enemies moving through the pipes also, so you’ll have to make sure your timing is good. The level is a bit easy and plain, but it’s not a bad start to the world.

Things get more exciting in World 6-2: Spooky Seasick Wreck. The level takes place on a haunted airship that constantly sways from side to side. Part of the level takes place inside the ship. where there are some flooded cabins and some ghosts. But most of the action takes place on the outside of the ship, where “bullies” will charge at you and try to knock you off the ship. You’ll have to give them a taste of their own medicine.

World 6-4: Deep Jungle Drift is one of those levels where you’re on a log raft that flows through the poisonous waters of the jungle. The raft keeps moving constantly, so you can’t be too slow overcoming the obstacles in the stage or else you’ll be left behind. I found myself switching the camera angle a lot in this level. Some parts are easier with the side view, but you don’t get to see what’s coming up next if you use it for too long. This was not one of my favorite levels.

World 6-5: Ty-Foo Flurries has some ice-skating areas where you can again stomp a Goomba to take its ice skate. I like to call it Kuribo’s ice skate. Using those things is just pure fun, although there’s only a (relatively) small area of ice to use it on. But the “star” of this level has to be the enemy known as Ty-Foo. These overgrown clouds with sinister eyes and soft-serve heads will blow strong gusts of wind. They can easily blow you off of whatever platform you were standing on, so you have to be extremely careful around these airheads.

In World 6-6: Bullet Bill Base, you’ll be climbing a tower as Bullet Bills shoot out from almost everywhere you look. There are floating clouds and other platforms you can use to climb up, but the cat suit (with its climbing ability) is particularly helpful here.

World 6-7: Fuzzy Time Mine has you rushing up through a mine shaft as a horde of fuzzies chases after you. The scrolling is forced, which emphasizes the need to hurry your butt up.

After a regular boss fight in World 6-Tank, there’s another boss fight looming in World 6-C. This time you’re fighting Motley Bossblob, a court jester who becomes huge before breaking into dozens of blobs of liquid metal.

Overall, World 6 was enjoyable, but it wasn’t my favorite world. Next time, I’ll be heading off to the seventh world, which is actually called World Castle instead of World 7. It looks to be a hot and fiery place.

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