Super Mario 3D World multiplayer can not mix with a relationship

Mario platform games are quite cold when I play alone. Sometimes a tricky level can pop up, but 95% of Mario games can be completed by anyone with a passing familiarity with platform players. Time is seldom a factor after all, and do not worry if you die, because you have one million lives in the reserve.

Super Mario 3D World definitely falls into this category. I enjoyed the first few worlds on the Nintendo Switch, but I can not remember being challenged. It was all within my capabilities.

Then I add a second person and it’s all going to shit.

Two is a crowd?

When played solo, Super Mario 3D World constantly throws out exclamation marks – on the world map and at the beginning of each level – for other players to join. This is similar to what you might see from an arcade beat-up, to attract another source of quarters with a Margin or a Raphael participating in the battle. But if you manage to wrestle another player, the cold dynamics during solo playing will change drastically.

While Mario Kart gets a lot of attention for ruining friendships, you would not necessarily expect something similar from a Mario platform. Everyone is just trying to get to the end of the level together, right? 3D World even encourages collaboration through level design. Panels that change position when you jump require communication between players to ensure no one is sent untimely. On another level, players can work together to issue commands while riding on a dinosaur named Plessie. Plessie goes faster, the more synchronized both players are.

It all seemed like an idyllic paradise of teamwork, and made me think maybe I should play with my wife. She certainly does not like platform games, and prefers more sluggish, cerebral attempts such as Stardew valley and Do not starve. But I do not know, it was a fun way to spend time together?

It seems to play with other people 3D World a blood sport. For every moment where you have to work together, there are three moments where you run to a second fireball, even though you already have one, just for extra points.

See, every thing you do 3D World earn your points, and the points are counted on the scoreboard at the end of each level. The person with the highest score on the scoreboard? They get a crown. On wear. Maybe you see where it’s going.

Things went right when my wife and I played through the first few levels. There was a moment of tension when I accidentally picked up a second Mega Mushroom, which made her miss the experience of becoming a huge path of destruction, but she knew I was not doing it on purpose.

Then came the scoreboard at the end of the level. I beat her closely, thanks to the Mega Mushrooms and my higher position on the final level pole. The crown was mine.

I could see she accepted it, but was not excited. It felt like a slight feeling to complete a level, just to remind her that she could do better.

After another or two levels of mine still beat her score neatly, I moved things forward to the level I was currently at in my solo playing: a boss level with Bowser and a giant train. I’m not quite sure what I did during this level, but I think she’s dead a few times and I absolutely singled out her score at the end of it. It was not even close. It was such an outburst that I started laughing uncontrollably. It was not to be believed, it was just out of an awkward 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 mind I thought: Huh, maybe it would be a fun thing to rewrite, how this fun, friendly game has turned into a competitive slaughter. And it’s useful to add a little art to the story. But she read the screenshot understandably as a flex. She throws the controller on the couch next to me to indicate that she’s very done.

If everyone is Player One

She was perfectly ready to pull the ripcord, and I quickly apologized. What played out was not at all what I expected. I envisioned a utopia where we helped each other through difficult jumps or discovered hidden objects like we were on a treasure hunt. This is 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 offer their ways of addressing other players, core Mario games are usually supportive. Think of Cappy in Super Mario Odyssey, which can be controlled by a second helpful player to help Mario with jumps and attacks. Hell, even the ominous Baby Bowser becomes a useful companion when a second player jumps Bowser’s Fury. There is no fighting over coins or fireflies in those games, it’s just about a common goal.

But those side characters do not have an agency. They have no control over the camera or where Mario is going. They are simply there to help Mario in his quest, rather than to take command himself.

In 3D World, additional players have the same abilities as Player One, the same right to grab whatever items they want, and the same ability to represent the action at any point. Suddenly everyone has equal power.

The stark contrast between solo playing and multiplayer in Super Mario 3D World is actually not a bad thing … in the right circumstances. In my college days, it would have been a big hit in the dormitories, with playful witch and a few beers. A controller might have been thrown in someone’s direction, but, you know, college kids and all.

Perhaps less ideal: someone who lives with you and loves you very much, but is not super jazz about platform players or competitive games, and rather that you get her with the 1.5 update of Stardew valley. In short? Read the room.