Super Mario 3D World multiplayer mode may not mix with a relationship

Mario’s platform games are very relaxing when I’m playing alone. A complicated level can occasionally appear, but 95% of Mario games can be completed by anyone with a passing familiarity with platform players. After all, time is rarely a factor and don’t worry if you die, as there are a million lives waiting in reserve.

Super Mario 3D World definitely falls into this category. I liked the first worlds on the Nintendo Switch, but I don’t remember feeling challenged. All of this was within my reach.

So I added a second person and it all sucked.

Is two a crowd?

When played alone, Super Mario 3D World continues to launch explanatory texts – on the world map and at the beginning of each level – for other players to participate. It is similar to what you can see in a beat-’em-up arcade, trying to attract another source of coins with a Marge or Rafael joining the fight. But if you can compete with another player, the dynamics of the cold during the solo game will change dramatically.

Although Mario Kart gets a lot of attention for ruining friendships, you wouldn’t necessarily expect something similar from a Mario platform game. After all, everyone is just trying to get through the stage together, right? 3D World it even encourages cooperation through level design. Panels that change position whenever you jump require communication between players to ensure that no one is sent to an untimely death. At another level, players can work together to issue commands while assembling a dinosaur called Plessie. Plessie gets faster the more synchronized the two players become.

It all felt like an idyllic paradise for teamwork and made me think that maybe I should play with my wife. She definitely doesn’t like platform games, preferring slower brain efforts, like Stardew Valley and Do not starve. But, I don’t know, did that seem like a fun way to spend time together?

It turns out that playing with other people becomes 3D World in bloody sport. For each moment when you have to work together, there are three moments when you are chasing a second Flower of Fire, even if you already have one, just for a few extra points.

See, every thing you do in 3D World you earn points, and those points are counted on the scoreboard at the end of each level. The person with the highest score on the scoreboard? They earn a crown. For dress. Maybe you see where this is going.

Things were going well while my wife and I were playing in the early levels. There was a moment of tension when I accidentally picked up a second Mega Mushroom, making her miss the experience of becoming a huge Frog of destruction, but she knew I hadn’t done it on purpose.

Then the scoreboard appeared at the end of the level. I had narrowly defeated her, thanks to the Mega Mushrooms and my highest position on the flagpole at the final level. The crown was mine.

I could say that she accepted, but she was not happy. It felt like a mild end of a level, just for her to be reminded that she could have done better.

After another level or two of me still barely beating her score, I skipped things to the level that was currently in my solo game: a boss level with Bowser and a giant train. I’m not sure what I did during this level, but I think she died a few times and I absolutely screwed up her score in the end. It wasn’t even close. It was such a big explosion that I started to laugh uncontrollably. It was not to brag, it was just an unpleasant surprise, like a loud fart at a funeral.

And then I made a fatal mistake: I took a screenshot of the scoreboard.

In the back of my head I thought: Huh, maybe it’s a fun thing to write about how this cool and friendly game turned into a competitive massacre. And having a little art to accompany that story would be useful. But she understandably read the image as a flex. She threw the controller on the couch next to me to signal that she was finished.

When everyone is Player One

She was totally right about pulling the rope, and I quickly apologized. What happened was not what I expected. I imagined a utopia in which we help each other in complicated jumps or discover hidden items as if we are on a treasure hunt. That’s the spirit of Mario platform games, right? It’s about the thrill of exploring, trying new things in a friendly space.

While Mario Kart and Mario Party seem to delight in giving you ways to screw other players, Mario’s main games often offer support. Think of Cappy in Super Mario Odyssey, which can be controlled by a second player useful to help Mario with jumps and attacks. Hell, even the nefarious Baby Bowser becomes a useful friend when a second player jumps Bowser’s Fury. There are no fights over coins or flowers of fire in these games, it is just about working towards a common goal.

But these secondary characters have no agency. They have no control over the camera or where Mario goes. They are there purely to help Mario on his mission, instead of taking charge.

At the 3D World, additional players have the same skills as Player One, the same right to pick up any items they want, and the same ability to carry out the action at any time. Suddenly, everyone has the same power.

The strong contrast between solo and multiplayer game in Super Mario 3D World it’s not really a bad thing … under the right circumstances. In my college days, this would have been a big hit in the dorms, with fun jokes and a few beers. A controller may have been thrown at someone, but, you know, college students and all.

Perhaps less ideal: someone who lives with you and loves you very much, but is not overly enthusiastic about competitive platforms or games and prefers that you leave it with the 1.5 update. Stardew Valley. Briefly? Read the room.