For those of you who have played both, which do you prefer? A Link Between Worlds or Super Mario 3D World?

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@Mr_Mustache

I'll never, for the life of me, understand the appeal of game worlds that are huge solely for the sake of being huge... because it's technically impressive or "immersive?" I guess, but traversing them is boring. It really ends up being yet another method to artificially increase game length. I played World of Warcraft for a few months and I hated how much time was spent walking or flying to your destination. It's obvious that Blizzard did this only to ensure that the player has to spend more time in the world and keep coughing up the subscription fee... so why would anybody want such a thing in a singleplayer experience? I want concentrated fun and minimal downtime.

I feel bad for bumping this thread now...

Now that I've played both games I'd have to say I prefer Mario, though granted I haven't even gotten to the fourth dungeon in Zelda yet. It's awesome but it's both a blessing and a curse that they reused the same world from LttP.

@PogueSquadron
I agree. I feel a tad less compelled to play it. I've taken a small break at the Swamp dungeon.

PogueSquadron said:

I mean, what was Nintendo giving the DS in 2009, 2010, 2011? Pokemon Platinum, Black and White, some Layton games they didn't develop, Kirby's Mass Attack?

DS got way more than that from Nintendo during those years. Just off the top of my head:

WarioWare: D.I.Y.
Picross 3D
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Pokémon Ranger
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Glory of Heracles
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Art Academy

C'mon, give due credit where credit is due!

@GameDadGrant

But how many of those were worth playing? Maybe half of them.

Aside from Picross 3D, I don't think many of those titles were really all that notable, especially compared to games like Galaxy 2, Skyward Sword, DKCR, and Xenoblade.

BIS was great, but otherwise I agree.

I'm about halfway through Zelda and as great as it is, I have to go with Mario. Except for the going into walls thing a lot of this Zelda game feels too familiar, Mario felt more fresh.

Zero said:

I'm about halfway through Zelda and as great as it is, I have to go with Mario. Except for the going into walls thing a lot of this Zelda game feels too familiar, Mario felt more fresh.

I agree, but in the complete opposite way. Huh…

I think proximity helps in the case of Zelda. It's been so long since we've had a more open-ended non-hand-holdy Zelda that ALBW feels like a breath of fresh air. With Mario, we just got 3DL a couple years ago so much of 3DW felt a little too familiar to me.

(that said, I think Zelda would've been even better with an original overworld, etc)

My memory might be betraying me here too but I feel like Spirit Tracks had way more interesting puzzles in the dungeons. I don't feel like I'm doing anything all that new or particularly clever in these.

Except, again, the wall stuff, which is pretty awesome. But even that gets a bit predictable after awhile.

The puzzles seem very similar to those in Link to the Past, for better or worse. The dungeons don't seem as fleshed out as the ones in the Oracle games, but then again, they also don't feel as formulaic. I love the Oracle dungeons but they more or less feel like they were made using a "How to Make a Zelda Dungeon" book.

PogueSquadron said:

Aside from Picross 3D, I don't think many of those titles were really all that notable, especially compared to games like Galaxy 2, Skyward Sword, DKCR, and Xenoblade.

I disagree. C'mon, Galaxy 2 was just more Galaxy, Skyward Sword had junky controls that barely worked and an insane amount of re-trekking through the same areas and somehow made flying boring. Xenoblade and Donkey Kong were good though, even if the RPG took 10 years to complete, lol.

I'm not saying all those DS games are gems, but I can at least tell you from personal experience that Mini-Land Mayhem, Spirit Tracks, D.I.Y., Bowser's Inside Story, Picross 3D and Dark Dawn are all well worth playing. And honestly? In some cases, superior to their Wii counter parts.

That's of course not counting the games you already listed, not in the least of which were the phenomenal Pokemon games (and their first-ever direct sequels, which were curiously left off your list) and the admittedly brilliant Mass Attack. I guess I could have also mentioned Starfy, but I doubt anyone played that game.

I mean, I know you guys here really loved the Wii, but damn. The DS was not - or ever, tbh - a slouch in comparison. (and just to be clear, I'm not saying the Wii was a slouch either - but I can't stand when the DS has to be dragged through the mud to "prove" that fact)

So you're dragged Wii games in the mud to retaliate.



This is why I can't stand some of these threads anymore: they've turned into Zelda discussions, where people can't defend their favorite without saying the other person's favorite was complete and utter shit.

@GameDadGrant The DS was awesome but any argument trying to negate the awesomeness of Skyward Sword and Galaxy 2 kind of falls on deaf ears to me.

Zero said:

@GameDadGrant The DS was awesome but any argument trying to negate the awesomeness of Skyward Sword and Galaxy 2 kind of falls on deaf ears to me.

Agreed, I loved those games!

Kirby Mass Attack was a good one for sure though, I didn't expect much from it and really enjoyed it.

BTW to be clear I'm actually loving Link Between Worlds. It does manage to feel like a Link to the Past sequel while also having these new mechanics, so I consider it a pretty worthy sequel. I just wish it felt a bit more fresh / challenging to me. I know I can't really expect to feel get the same OMG WTF BEST THING EVAR feeling that I got from the original Link to the Past (for many reasons, one being that I was young back then and LIFE ITSELF was fresh), but I kind of wish it pushed the mechanics it uses more. Like I said above, I kind of think Spirit Tracks had more clever dungeons. I haven't played it in awhile but I remember at the time being very impressed at how it stepped outside of the usual Zelda tropes and created some genuine mind-benders, while Link Between Worlds is pretty standard Zelda puzzles.

Not that standard Zelda puzzles are bad. They're still pretty darn good.

I'm not necessarily saying Spirit Tracks is the better game. It had its own problems. The weak-ass overworld, for one.

@GameDadGrant

Really? You argue Skyward Sword has 'junky controls that barely worked', and then heap praise on Spirit Tracks?


I'll take motion control swordplay over a terrible pipe flute thing any day of the week.

Wait are we arguing over which had better games, the DS or the Wii?

My vote goes to the Nintendo DS, by a considerable margin. But the Wii of course had many great games too.

@Zero

Yeah, Spirit Tracks did have quality dungeons. If they had just designed a proper, traditional overworld the game would have probably secured a pretty high place in my overall favorites... but I hate that train nonsense. I want Nintendo to be done with travel gimmick overworlds forever and get back to making real overworlds from this point on. Even though they reused the LTTP design in ALBW, it is still more enjoyable than anything else in years. Hopefully they learned from it.