Excellent 3D Mario platformer with co-op up to 4 players. Inspired and varied level design in each world, fun costumes. Perhaps the best multiplayer Mario before Odyssey. Slightly too accessible for experienced solo players but a genuine treat.
Your verdict
Category
Platformer4 players3+
Co-op
Description
Mario, Luigi, the Toads, and Princess Peach explore six worlds of whimsical environments in co-op in this 3D platformer designed for multiplayer. Published by Nintendo, released in 2013 in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Wii U exclusive featuring 4-player local co-op, multiple transformations including Cat Mario, the GamePad for real-time assists, and generous playtime.
Super Mario 3D World review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
Candy colours, diorama levels and feline costumes: everything breathes festivity and playful clarity. Each tableau, conceived like a little toy stage, reads at a glance while overflowing with visual ideas. This graphic joy, crisp and generous, makes it one of the most exhilarating to watch as much as to play.
Recorded by a live big band, the music sparkles with playful jazz, swinging brass and festive rhythms of infectious energy. Each world breathes good cheer, from the cat-suit fun to the sunny plains. This sonic freshness, luminous and refined, irresistibly lifts the mood from end to end.
Gameplay
"Masterful"
Every level introduces an idea, develops it, then sets it aside before it can tire: this generosity of invention works wonders, alone or four-player. The cat suit and controls of flawless readability make jumping as accessible as it is rewarding. Joyful and inventive, this 3D playground keeps its charm and freshness fully intact.
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
Bounding through 3D levels designed like playgrounds, donning the cat suit to claw walls and climb anywhere, all with up to four players at once: 3D platforming here is as readable as it is gleeful. Co-op mixes teamwork and rivalry in joyful disorder. Inventive, colourful and bursting with ideas, a family peak of the genre.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Bounding between platforms, donning the cat suit then clawing up a wall to reach a hidden star sets up an inventive playground where every level reinvents its rules. Green stars, stamps and top-of-the-pole flags revive the urge to collect it all, especially four-up in joyful chaos. The difficulty stays gentle, but this unbridled creativity keeps an immediate and lasting hook.
Super Mario 3D World, a Nintendo 3D platformer brimming with design ideas and four-player co-op, one of the console's ludic peaks despite a commercial reception held back by the machine. Sought, its desirability rests on this status as a platforming masterpiece and a tenacious demand rather than a manufactured scarcity, its later reissue elsewhere taking nothing from the original on this platform. A prime piece for a Mario set.
Better with friends
A 3D platformer for up to four where Mario and friends cross ingenious levels together, each capped in a color to track the scramble. Cooperation is joyful, but a healthy rivalry quickly sets in: you fight over the best-score crown and squabble to climb onto each other's heads. Accessible and inventive, it sparks spontaneous teamwork and laughter, ideal with family and friends alike.
Is Super Mario 3D World still worth playing in 2026?
A 3D platformer by Nintendo EAD, Super Mario 3D World offers a 3D adventure where Mario and his friends face Bowser in the fairy kingdom with four player cooperative mode. The sublime colourful art direction, accessible yet deep handling and level richness make it an absolute 3D platformer reference on Wii U. For anyone fond of Mario or seeking an absolutely essential cooperative 3D platformer, an absolutely essential recommendation today still without any hesitation on the Nintendo machine truly here indeed.
