Super Mario Land Versus Super Mario 3D Land

Though it may borrow the branding of a known sub-franchise, 3D Land can’t compare to a specific brand of Nintendo weirdness.

By: Bob Mackey
November 4, 2011

The title “Super Mario 3D Land” might be a bit misleading; sure, the game stars Mario, exists on a platform capable of displaying 3D graphics, and presumably features land of some sort, but this new portable adventure in The Mushroom Kingdom really doesn’t have much in common with the Land-branded titles of the past. 3D Land is still in capable hands, though, with the talented folks of Nintendo EAD Tokyo heading up development — specifically, the uber-talented team behind the Super Mario Galaxy series. Those who’ve demoed the game at trade shows can tell you Mario’s newest portable outing stands as a tightly-designed mashup of his greatest moments over the past 25 years, with some new elements thrown in to take advantage of the hardware.

Despite 3D Land’s apparent quality, one important element implied by its title seems to be missing: the balls-out game-changing weirdness of Nintendo Research & Development 1 — now known as SPD Group No. 1 — the in-house development studio responsible for Super Mario Land, Wario Land, WarioWare, Rhythm Heaven, and many other Nintendo classics. While their games didn’t take an explicitly revolutionary tack from the very beginning, subverting expectations eventually became the studio’s M.O., all thanks to the creative minds of directors like Hiroji Kiyotuke (Super Mario Land 2 and 3), Takehiko Hosokawa (Wario Land 2 and 3), and Hirofumi Matsuoka (Wario Land 4 and the original WarioWare.