Super Mario 3D Land

Super Mario 3D Land takes a lot of design cues from Super Mario Bros. 3, with bouncing music note boxes, airships, wrench-throwing moles, and, of course, the raccoon tail-granting leaf.

The game uses different angles to show the 3D at all angles, from isometric to behind-the-back to in-front-of-Mario-while-he-runs-from-a-giant-ball.

Classic Mario power-ups are there to help you, like the mushroom, the fire flower, and the raccoon/tanuki tail from Super Mario Bros. 3.

While some of the 3D perspective tricks seem unfair at first, they're so impressive and surprising, and the rest of the game is so balanced, that they're worth the experience.

Super Mario 3D Land seems to throw different ideas at you randomly, with each world unified only by a different colored background. One level could involve clouds and floating platforms, the next could involve lava, the next could involve snow, the next could involve desert.

Super Mario Land 3D stands as the first Mario game made for Nintendo’s new handheld. It takes Super Mario Galaxy-style platforming and Super Mario Bros. 3D-style design and turns it into the best game we’ve seen yet for the 3DS.

There are also other new power-ups, such as the propeller block that lets you jump high and the boomerang flower that lets you throw boomerangs.