Super Mario 3D Land Dared To Embrace 2D Mario In A 3D World

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wonder forever, because in 2011, Super Mario 3D Land released for the 3DS and changed what a 3D Mario game could be. How? By doing exactly what I wanted Super Mario 64 to do 15 years prior: fully translate the classic 2D Mario style and gameplay to the third dimension.
Even looking at 3D Land’s cover art evokes memories of the plumber’s colorful side-scrolling escapades. We see Mario hopping around a colorful environment full to the brim with blocks, pipes, platforms, even classic power-ups like the Fire Flower tucked away in the corner. And few elements could get the nostalgia juices flowing like the inclusion of the iconic Super Leaf from Super Mario Bros. 3. The game promised to be something different yet comfortingly familiar.
And what’s more comfortingly familiar than Bowser capturing Princess Peach and Mario racing off to rescue her? But even the simplest of Mario plots has to have at least one wrinkle. Due to a storm the night before, the land has been coated in Super Leaves, and now, Bowser and many of his minions have access to raccoon tails and the power of limited flight, just as Mario does.
Yes, the Super Leaf is the real star of the show here, marking the power-up’s first appearance in over two decades. You’d be hard-pressed to go through a level without either running into one of the raccoon power-ups or seeing one of Bowser’s minions imbued with it. Even the notoriously heavy Thwomps gracefully float about in the air as if they were light as feathers. 3D Land drills the point home that power-ups are back in a big way, no longer relegated to temporary usage as was the case with previous 3D titles. Joining the Tanooki Suit is the ever-classic Super Mushroom, allowing Mario to take an extra hit before dying—no life bar here!—and the aforementioned Fire Flower. New to the game is the Boomerang Suit, a spiritual successor to Super Mario Bros. 3’s Hammer Suit that can take out enemies coming and going (because it’s a boomerang, you see). Skilled players can go from level to level, even world to world, without ever losing the utility of a power-up at their disposal.

The power-ups wouldn’t be nearly as fun without great levels to use them in. 3D Land foregoes sprawling sandboxes for the more linear, self-contained, obstacle-course-like levels that first made Mario famous: Hop across colorful floating platforms, bonk some enemies, and slide down the flagpole at the end in classic Mario fashion. And at the end of each world, you take on Bowser (or at least a reasonable facsimile) on a bridge in a 3D variation of the classic boss fights from the original Super Mario Bros. This made 3D Land the perfect portable Mario game for bursts of quick fun on the go. It was 3D Mario in the palm of your hand when the Switch was still just a twinkle in Nintendo’s eye.
So, was this refreshing take on 3D Mario met with a warm reception from fans? Well, yeah, but not as much as I would have hoped.
Many fans decried 3D Land for deviating from the sandbox and exploratory gameplay the 3D games had showcased up to that point. To them, it felt “safe,” unwilling to take the big risks of its 3D predecessors.
To which I argue…what’s wrong with that? Despite being a smaller and more conservative Mario adventure, it did exactly what it sought out to do: make the  classic 2D Mario experience the foundation of a 3D Mario game for the first time. Even if it didn’t take any huge swings, the novelty of the concept is more than enough to make the game a classic in my eyes. And the fact that the game would pave the way for the fantastic Super Mario 3D World a few years later further demonstrates that the concept had legs. Super Mario 3D Land deserves to be judged on what it is, not what it isn’t. It was pure, distilled, classic 2D Mario on a three-dimensional plane, and I’ll remember it fondly for another 15 years.