My Thoughts on "Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker"
Note:
This was originally written on Monday January 16, 2023 and was posted on DeviantART the next day on Tuesday January 17, 2023. I decided to repost this on here because I've been Super Mario 3D World and it's awesome 😁. My cousin brother (as in, he's my cousin, but I call him my brother) really came through by giving it to me as a birthday gift 🎁. I finally started playing it after I gave up on Skull Island: Rise of Kong. I gave that game a chance, I gave it a genuine chance, even after I saw all the bad reviews online. I wanted to be able to finish that game, and be able to say, "That game wasn't all that bad. I actually enjoyed playing it, and I disagree vehemently with all critics on this one." But, no, I wasn't able to say that.
That game was just bad, pretty much as bad as everyone said. The real breaking point for me was when I got through the final level, or final chapter or whatever, and I got the final boss fight of the game against Gaw. I kept losing the fight against Gaw, and I had to try again in order to beat him and finish the game, but on the second or third time I pressed try again, the game erased all of my progress, and started me back all the way at the beginning of the level. I was so mad 😡 when that happened, I was like, "F this game! I'm not going to go through all that again!" And so, I immediately took it out, and stopped playing it. So, even to this day, I have not finished that game, and I have no desire to finish it. I'm usually a completionist when it comes to video games, but not this time. Skull Island: Rise of Kong is a game that I'm perfectly fine with not finishing.
So, I waited a week or so until I finally started another game. I don't exactly remember if I played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe after Skull Island: Rise of Kong, or I started playing while I was in the middle of breaks playing Skull Island: Rise of Kong. Whichever was the case, I played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe before playing Super Mario 3D World. I won't say much about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe here, but what I will say it is that it was nice to be playing an actual genuine Mario Kart game after playing Mario Kart copycat games, which the Nickelodeon Kart Racers games are. Not to say that those games were bad, they weren't (at least, the last two weren't), but they aren't Mario Kart, and they will never be Mario Kart. So, it's good to finally play the real deal.
But, I am so glad that I did start playing Super Mario 3D World because it is a really fun game. It's the perfect palate cleanser to wash the awful taste of Skull Island: Rise of Kong out of my mouth. Everything about Super Mario 3D World is near perfect, from the gameplay, the level design, the progression system, the character design, the story, and of course, the music. Oh my god, the music in that game is incredible 😍. I've listening to my favorite tracks on YouTube, and I even have a playlist of the entire soundtrack saved on my playlists page or whatever. Just as good, if not better than the music in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
I've mostly been playing as Princess Peach (don't judge), and so far I've got to World 5. At the time that I'm writing this, I just finished playing through the level known as "Tricky Trapeze Theater," which was kind of a difficult level because of all swinging that you have to do. I kept missing some of the trapezes, and falling to my death. And it took me a few tries to get all of the Green Stars. I also had trouble getting all the stars in the final level of World 4, that "Lava Rock Lair" level, especially the second one where you had to those rock guys into those buttons and you have to press one too before the timer runs out otherwise you won't get the second Green Star. That was pretty tedious.
But, probably the hardest level or most frustrating level so far for me is the one that most other people would say is the hardest and most frustrating level, "Chain-Link Charge." For me, while I was playing it and after I played it, I don't think the level would've been that bad or that difficult if it weren't for that stupid fixed camera. That fixed camera goes from left-to-right and then down-to-up and then left-to-right again then down-to-up again and then right-to-left and then left-to-right again is what makes that level so infuriating. You have no control over the camera in that level whatsoever. I found myself having to stop, and wait for the camera to catch up to where I was, so I could actually see where I was going. And I kept falling and dying as a result. But, I did eventually get through it, even if I did have some help from watching a YouTube video of it.
What truly struck me about Super Mario 3D World was how similar the gameplay was to Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. It is clear from playing it that this game was supposed to tie more into Super Mario 3D World than Super Mario Odyssey. You see, when it was ported to the Switch, they changed the ending of the game so that it would tie more into Super Mario Odyssey, which was the big Mario title at the time when Captain Toad was ported to the Switch. But, there really isn't that much of a connection between those two games as there are between this game and Super Mario 3D World.
I mean, there are actual Captain Toad levels in Super Mario 3D World where you play as Captain Toad, while there aren't any in Super Mario Odyssey. Super Mario Odyssey is a mostly single player experience through and through, and you never get the chance to play as any other character besides Mario and Cappy. Odyssey does have a two player mode, but it's kind of limited, and you only get to choose between Mario and Cappy. In the game, you just encounter Captain Toad while you're in the various worlds you visit, and you get Moons from him. But, you never actually get the chance to play as him at any point in Odyssey. In 3D World, you do, and his levels are exactly like the levels in the Captain Toad game itself. Even down to the whole 360˚ camera and level design where the environments (the levels) are floating in the sky ☁️, and you can turn the camera around and see the entire environment from every conceivable angle.
Captain Toad pretty much functions as a prequel to that game, and it shares a similar gameplay style and progression system. The only difference between Captain Toad and Super Mario 3D World is that you can actually choose which character you play as in Super Mario 3D World, whereas in Captain Toad, you can't. You basically switch and alternate between playing as Captain Toad and Toadette in this game. But, you don't have control over that. While, in Super Mario 3D World you have 100% control over which character you play as throughout the game. Except for in the Captain Toad levels themselves, you have to play as Captain Toad, and you don't get to have a choice in the matter.
There's also a time limit ⏱️ in 3D World, which is actually my one true complaint about that game so far, besides those ridiculous cursor levels (you know what I'm taking about if you've played the game). I don't like that there's a time limit ⏱️ because it means you don't get take your time, and explore the levels, and solve problems. You kind of have to rush through the game just to get to the flag pole at the end before the timer runs out ⏱️. I don't remember if Captain Toad has a time limit ⏱️ or not. I don't think it did because I remember taking a really long time on certain levels, and not losing because an arbitrary timer ⏱️ ran out.
I understand that's how most of the classic Mario games were, where they did have a timer ⏱️, and you did have to kind of rush to get to the end of the level, but the franchise has grown beyond that, and there are plenty of Mario games that show that you don't have to have a time limit ⏱️, in fact, it's usually better if you don't. So, it's a shame that 3D World had one. But, to be fair, that was a game that originally came out in 2013 on the failed Wii U, and was ported to the Switch as a bundle with Bowser's Fury in 2021. And the latest Mario game in a similar vein called Super Mario Wonder doesn't have a time limit ⏱️ from what I've heard. So, it seems that Nintendo has learned their lesson since 3D World that people generally don't like time limits ⏱️ on their games.
But anyway, I just wanted to write this note because I wanted to let you know that I stopped playing Skull Island: Rise of Kong and I've started playing a different game, Super Mario 3D World and that through playing it, I've noticed the similarities and connections between it and Captain Toad. And that it's apparent that Captain Toad was always meant to tie into Super Mario 3D World and not Super Mario Odyssey, and the revised ending for the Nintendo Switch version doesn't really fit or make as much sense as the original Wii U ending.
One last time before I close this out, and let you get on with the review itself is that Nintendo did confirm that Captain Toad is a different character from Toad. They may look the same, they may sound the same, and they may essentially have the same name, but they are not the same. They are totally different characters. Captain Toad does have a different personality from the Toad that we're all mostly familiar with. He's more adventurous and he's a bit more greedy 🤑, hence why he's always looking for treasure. If they do bring Captain Toad into the Mario films by Illumination, I wonder if they'll have him also be voiced by Keegan Michael-Key, and if they'll make a joke about how he looks the same, sounds the same, and has the same name as the regular Toad. If so, then that could be potentially funny, but it could also be kind of lame and unfunny. It just depends on how they would play it, how they execute it.
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You can't jump in this game, mostly because of Toad's backpack 🎒, so you have to find more creative ways to solve different problems like getting past an obstacle or dealing with a certain enemy. This game definitely makes you think a little bit, like you have to kind of use your brain 🧠 to solve some of these puzzles. I know some of the puzzles in this game had me stumped for a while before I found my own way to solve them and advance through the course. I really dig Toad as a protagonist, it makes me kind of wish that there were more games with him as the protagonist, or that there were sequels to this game.
Maybe, in the future, Nintendo will make a sequel to this game, either on the Switch or on whatever future console they come up with. Since Illumination is making Mario movies now, maybe we can also get a spin-off movie featuring Captain Toad in the lead role, as the protagonist. Maybe, it could even be based off of this game, where Toad's a treasure hunting adventurer, going through different courses, solving puzzles, collecting coins 🪙 and diamonds 💎 , and either fighting enemies or evading them. That would be a fun movie to see, and Illumination is certainly no strange to spin-off movies, since they keep making those Minions movies which are actually more popular than the Despicable Me movies that they're spun off from. I have a feeling that I'm going to have a lot of fun with my Nintendo Switch 😏.
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