Super Mario 3D Land
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo
Back in Spring, if you had said the 3DS was going to crush hardware sales by the end of the year and be well on track to outselling its enormously popular predecessor in its first 12 months, most people would have looked at you like you’d eaten one too many Super Mushrooms. But all it took was Nintendo’s trusty plumber extraordinaire to redefine 3D gaming with one of his best adventures ever to drum up those sales numbers. Mario’s conspicuous absence from the launch lineup is one of the biggest reasons for the handheld’s slow start (though I’m sure 250 other reasons would beg to differ).
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