Review Information
Game Reviewed Paper Mario 3D Land, by DJ Coco
Review Author Quicksting
Created Mar 5 2022, 11:07 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
There is a difference between challenging and just plain cheap. This game relies on "just plain cheap".
 
Pros Innovative level designs. When the camera was cooperative, I had fun.
The stars are challenging and fun to get. They are placed well.
 
Cons The main culprit is the horrible camera. The camera often doesn't move towards your next obstacle, forcing you to go in blind. It also likes to not let you even see what Mario is doing, and is zoomed in so close that enemies can often snipe you from off-screen before you can even know they are there.
I got to the last level in world 4 and got so frustrated that I stopped. One could say I rage quit, I guess. I was being hit by stuff that had hit boxes beyond their models. The camera was faced away when I had to jump onto pillars that sunk, forcing me to just start hopping blind. The pillars were sinking so I couldn't stop jumping, but enemies were jumping out of the lava between them. It was either "get hit" or "die in the lava". My health was so low by that point that I would end up dying anyways.
It just didn't feel like a lot of the deaths were my fault. If the deaths aren't my fault, skill is removed from the equation, leaving only luck.
Not much enemy variety. There were a lot of different enemies, but often the same ones were repeated again and again with some odd new enemy every now and again. I don't think there was a single level that didn't have the swinging logs on a chain. The moles make a lot of appearances too.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
5 / 10
Good, but held back by the horrible camera. It was SM64 bad.
 
Graphics
10 / 10
I enjoyed the graphics. Kudos.
 
Sound
10 / 10
I enjoyed the music as well.
 
Final Words
7 / 10
This game has the potential to be great. Overhaul the camera and spice up the enemy variety, and it will be there. The graphics and the sound are a chef's kiss, but the gameplay feels like it relies on luck rather than skill.

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