I can't help but feel what few things I found to be missing in 3D World I've found here in Tropical Freeze.
Music feeling a touch pedestrian after the grandeur of Galaxy? well we've got David Wise doing what Wise does best.
3D worlds stages often have no real sense of place being like boxy dioramas shoved in the clouds with vague scenery elements (yeah I'm still irked by how the Bowser's carnival thing never lived up to its map appearance), meanwhile TF has scenic progression across stages entwining the stage obstacles with the environment, visual storytelling meets fantastic platforming.
Some 3D World stages felt reigned in by the need to compensate for multiple players, DK meanwhile gives no fucks for the second player, of course conversely 3D World's multiplayer dances all over DK's.
I don't think I need to point out difficulty level comparisons here, while I'd agree that nothing in TF comes close to Champions Road that doesn't mean much to me when everything that isn't Champions Road was easily handled, a step back from Galaxy 2 here.
Regardless of this when it comes down to it the gap in quality between the two is small, either way it's a win for platforming fans and two of the very best in either characters respective line ups.
I'm not ready to wade into the direct comparisons game, but I would like to say that in a little over a year on the market, Wii U now has:
(1) The best 2D Mario (or two of the best five, if you choose to split off New Super Luigi);
(2) A top-tier 3D Mario (with 4P co-op that makes it a pretty different value proposition from almost any other 3D platformer);
(3) Probably the best Donkey Kong game ever;
(4) The best Rayman game (that has the misfortune of being good rather than great on a system full of GOAT contenders).
It's been a good time for those of us who love the genre.
Pretty much, I feel Rayman could attain its peak in this current form if they give it one more swing building off Legend's improved physics, streamlined lum nabbing and then simply dial back on the Murfy stuff while raising the difficulty a bit more, and by dial back Murfy I mean he becomes the equivalent to NSMBU block placer mode and nothing more.
But that's another matter entirely.
I'd be able to compare like everyone else if I could, you know, finish the game.
And you will, I
believe.
My main thing with Mario Kart...is it gonna have any single player modes worth a damn or its just gonna be Grand Prix and Time Trials again?
Because after CTR, DKR, and Sonic Transformed I really wish they'd step it up in that regard
It's a Mario Kart game, you already know the answer to that.
Actually they could have mission mode again but for some reason that feature got jettisoned into the Nintendo vault after MK Wii's shoddy weekly challenge implementation of it.
My main thing with it is more that with it being the fourth game heavily following the foundation of the GOAT MK game that was the DS entry that things are feeling a little tired here, like NSMBU levels of knowing what to expect.
