The unseen path

must run faster but have only little legs

After several patient attempts at trying to run through this simple - in theory at least - maze-based puzzle, it seems I'm going to be caught out twice during the levels around the mid-20s. Not only are there some pesky goombas hiding around the corners, but the camera becomes increasingly difficult to point in the direction of travel when trying to race to the finish transporter.

The increase in menacing mummies is a neat way of making the levels that little bit harder while keeping the game-play the same. There are other subtle touches too: the colour of the floor and bricks and the increase in accompaniment to the background music helps everything feel fresh as each group of ten levels is completed.

Trying to get to level 50 is proving difficult, so I changed tactics and tried to collect 5000 coins - but again I become unstuck around 3000. I now have no sure way of completing this level - and with it, the remaining content on the disc.

Cannot...keep...avoiding...Mummy-Me

I'm half way but Mummy-Me is still gaining on poor Captain Toad. 

I am delighted to report the tradition of having a rest on every tenth level (as seen in the Pit of Trials in Zelda) is maintained here.

Also, the music and colouring of the levels changes every ten levels making it look slightly different and so avoiding the challenge becoming stale.

Two thousand more coins to go, but better tactics for avoiding enemies and the second Mummy-Me need to be implemented.

The third Mummy-me follows a little further behind, blocking easy escapes from cul-de-sacs and a further strategy is needed to get in and out. Goombas love to hide behind walls, so my camera skills need to improve.

Are you my mummy?

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!

In a cute blend of the hardest enemies from Super Mario Galaxy

Cosmic Mario

and the voice of Toad comes mummy-me: a scratchy, squeaky, shadowy form of Toad (like Toad being drowned in a barrel of apples) is able to match his direction, his speed and his actions all over a level, but from about half a second behind him.

Snagging on corners, climbing on ladders and hiding from other enemies are a certain way to get caught by mummy-me. Trying to pull up a mushroom to become Captain Toad once again is difficult because it has to be done in four steps.

Mummy-me will follow - or better haunt - Toadette on three bonus levels that are modified versions of her earlier adventures. Finally, Toad must avoid mummy-me forever in what is undoubtedly the longest level in the entire game.

Do you have the right time?

The answer staring me in the face

Having overcome the problems on the train, it wasn't long before all the levels were given a red crown stamp - which in turn unlocked the bonus levels.

Additionally, a new time target is given to every level - even the levels that are mostly mine cart and have the speed controlled automatically - and  suddenly all the levels are given a higher replay value.

Questions that crop up when given especially difficult time targets are:

• is it possible to defeat the piranha plants and still reach the star in nine seconds? 
• can I do this any faster if I take a hit rather than waiting for a gap in the enemies?
• how is that a realistic target?!

Exclamations that can be heard from around the room are:

• ooh! That was so close!
• that must have been 9.9 seconds!
• The Toads keep getting stuck on corners!

There's a little reward for beating all the time targets which just about makes up for all the required effort.

Mud Troopers, Party Poopers

If there's one thing that's standing in my way of unlocking another bonus level on Captain Toad, it's the large amount of Mud Troopers that are on the train. I have to defeat ALL of them, and there's more of them than there are turnips. There's also a lack of those powerful pickaxes that come in handy.

Sometimes I find a turnip, but when I want to take it back to show the Mud Trooper, the turnip won't fit through the doorway. The Mud Trooper won't come out of the doorway either.

Running to my rescue is a chap in American Football pads. He can take out most of the Mud Troopers that are out in the open. However, he cannot fit through all the doorways and he can't climb a ladder to help me with the Mud Troopers that are resident in the front of the train.

Perhaps further exploration of the train is in order. What am I missing?

Pick up the pace, lads.

Captain Toad is joined by his brigade. These three toads helped Mario collect stars in Super Mario Galaxy. Now they are scattered in variations of worlds previously cleared by Toad. Still, their outfits are suitably expeditionary.

Throughout the rest of the game these three would appear and perform the same tasks: yellow would like on the floor and sleep, green would immerse himself in an old map, and blue would find a power-up shroom for Toad to restore him to...Captain?... or give him ten extra coins. It seems Captain toad cannot store up these lovely power-ups the way Mario et al can in Super Mario 3D World.

Toad has to be careful, however, because the brigade is vulnerable to attack: any hit on any member of the troupe results in all of them shouting out and falling off the world. Surely these guys have some sort of shroom power-up?! They are the same size as Captain Toad and should withstand some knocks. They struggle to fit themselves on pads and constantly look in danger of being left behind. 

I haven't mentioned the biggest intrusion of this game - the spinwheel. A massive graphic of a water shut-off valve with arrows appears on the gamepad screen any time you want to rotate, raise or lower a part of the level. I can understand it for the first use, or throughout the first level, but for the rest of the game is an unwanted addition. It's as intrusive as sports and sports resort showing every single replay - even if it's unremarkable.

Favourite Brigade level:
Bullet Bill - plenty of delicate manoeuvring of the party as bullets, small pads and lava all attempt to thwart the brave but ultimately feeble brigade.

I lava good challenge.

The final batch of levels from Book 3 are lava-based adventures that frustrate and challenge.

Playing with a character that can jump repeatedly helps to get out of tight spots, but we have a character that must remain in contact with the floor. As such, the first challenge Magma Road features Toadette at top-speed (as she steps on the red and yellow pads from Super Mario 3D World) and a complicated course moving forward, right, back, left and across narrow paths - and even around circles!

This is followed by the equally challenging, yet sufficiently different Sinking Scaffold that has a tall tower getting alarmingly less tall as Toadette scales it. Awkward camera angles add to the misery of snaking her way through the channels and pillars as she heads to the top of the tower.

Towards the end of Book 3 I finally saw this appear:

It's fair to say these levels depleted a fairly good stock of Toads and Toadettes. Roughly 20 were lost in total trying to complete these levels.

Oh, and incidentally, no sooner had I blogged about the lack of levels that rotate, than I get to enjoy one on the next level! It's still not up to the standard set by Super Mario 3D World, but it was still fun to play one.

Complex Complex

Multi-floor, more complicated levels dominate the second half of Book 3. This is a good thing because there are, I feel, far too many simple levels. The levels that featured on Super Mario 3D World were more complicated than these, and there's still no sign of the wonderful turn-the-whole-room cubes that were a highlight from that game.

Here are four notable levels from the second half of Book 3:

Magikoopa Keep is a tall tower with stacks of coins, pipes and Magikoopa strikes. The layout is not straightforward, and there's plenty to think about. A recurring problem is how to move a key up and down the levels when climbing becomes impossible.

Shadow Den is a lovely, dark level. At last there's a tactical reason to have your headlamp off - and there should have been more levels like this. Avoiding the Shy Guys is tricky when it's hard to see where they are, where Toadette is and where the corridors go.

Razzle-Dazzle is a beautiful pinball machine. There's lots of control over Toadette as she tumbles down the slope. Whether you want to fall down a hole or avoid them completely, there's a good amount of challenge.

Retro Ramp takes the classic layout of Donkey Kong and switches Kong for Spikes, barrels for spiked balls, and hammers for the short-lived pickaxes. The brilliance of this level is that in the classic if you went inside an alcove, there's no indication of what's behind it.

Toad Tag Team

Toad and Toadette two take it in turns rescuing each other in Book 3. I suppose that's a twist on the classic Peach-rescued-by-Mario set-up.

There are lovely little scenes where it's possible to take Toad or Toadette about a dozen steps through tall mushrooms, dense forest and barren crags. This makes a refreshing change from cut-scenes that don't involve the controller.

It's worth mentioning the mine-cart levels here, because they start to become a regular feature. The first two-part mine-cart level occurs in Book 3 and it's quite challenging. There are objects that whiz past and moving the controller accurately behind the cart is difficult to do quickly. The interlude between cart rides is fun as it involves avoiding Mud Troopers.

There look to be more levels in this book. It might be the final book, but I don't think the total is over the 70 levels indicated on the outer packaging; I'll have to wait and see.

My Favourite level of Book 3 is:
Pickaxe Cave Plummet. There are so many different ways to play this level, and it's so big that it's not possible to see the whole level at once. To break blocks or not? To go in the water or stay on dry land? To smash a whole floor of blocks or drop through several floors? All these different approaches are possible on this open-ended level.

Toad Debt

I don't know how Toadette can stand having her plaits pinging around all day long, but she is certainly focused on rescuing Captain Toad. No sooner are the two united at The End than Toad gets snatched away by that pesky, over-sized crow.

There are no new moves here; even though Toadette has no super-heavy backpack to prevent her from jumping, she still clings to the ground.

The difficultly is ramped up at the start of book 2, and that's encouraging because the simplicity of the opening book was worrying me. There's reaching the star and then there's completing the level. Sometimes that distinction is enough to save this game from being thought of as a bad purchase.

Each level requires Toad or Toadette to complete a hidden task. This task is sometimes as simple as "don't take damage" but usually they ask you to "find the hidden golden mushroom" that seems to have no place on the level to hide!

Occasionally they want you to throw turnips at all the Mud Troopers. On rare occasions they require you to take no damage. As it's hard to know what the hidden task is, more often than not the level requires a second visit.

The size of the levels is increased so rather than cube after cube, there are some lovely large places to explore:
Spinwheel Sky Fort has a certain "Crystal Maze" appeal.
Double Cherry Spires has a lovely spire design.
Shadow Manor has plenty of effective dark bits.

However, my favourite level from Book 2:
Sinister Street Signs has the light-activated shiny blue floor. It's one of my favourite features from Super Mario 3D World.

Can this be...the end?

After fifteen fun-filled levels, it's all over. There wasn't even an interactive credits sequence. I'm left hanging.

...

...

What's that? You detected Super Mario 3D World save data? Alright then. I'll be off to explore some bonus levels.

Since Captain Toad can't jump, how is he going to smash floating blocks? Oh. Looks like I have to smash them for him.

Favourite of the first 18 levels:

Boo Mansion - probably because there's a lot of rotation involved.

Blizzard Express is a very close second because it's reminiscent of the Bowser Express levels on Super Mario 3D World.

Captain Toad makes an entrance

It's been months of waiting, but Captain Toad is finally on the trail, tracking treasure and avoiding Shy Guys.

What a lovely game world this is! From his cute, high-pitched opening salutation, "Ready for adventure", to his ability to applaud his team whenever he meets them, there's fun for everyone in this little game.

Picking up where the Super Mario 3D World left off, Captain Toad (with occasional huddles with his team from Super Mario Galaxy) is still exploring rotating, transforming, complicated cube-like worlds in search of treasure and ultimately Toadette.

It's possible to zoom in and see the lovely level of detail that has been put in to each world. The background music includes some themes from Super Mario Galaxy and classic Mario Land and is lovely to accompany the adventure. 

Each level can be played again because there are hidden goals that get revealed: some simple enough - such as "find ten more coins" - and some more difficult like "do not be seen by the Shy Guys". (Given that these guys are supposed to be shy, they readily seem to make a beeline for Toad).

Favourite of the first 10 levels:

The library. Lovely layout, good accompanying music and some gentle puzzle solving.