Best 3DS Mario game?

[Zero Kirby]

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is going to be a disappointment if you go into it expecting a new and challenging experience on par with, say, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Even the multiplayer is slightly gimped - instead of both screens having a separate camera they decided it was a good idea to have a "leader" player have the camera follow them. (Oh, and it's not Download Play - you'll need two copies. Yeah that wasn't a great idea to me either.) There's nothing new in the game - even the Gold Flower is just a bigger variation on the Fire Flower from Super Mario World (and the fireballs from Super Mario World still turned enemies into coins). The bosses are all rehashes, the locations are all too familiar, and the game is ridiculously short. Coin Rush might extend your playtime, but you'd have to be a hardcore Mario fan to get enjoyment out of this game beyond an initial playthrough. The soundtrack is also ridiculous, filled with an overwhelming amount of sheep to the point I poorly parodied it. The only good tracks are the title and credits, which actually use a good jazz scat soundfont, but it might sound kinda familiar.

Super Mario 3D Land is a nice change of pace for 3D Mario games. While it's completely linear the levels are pretty well designed and the game gets pretty challenging once you've unlocked the Special Worlds, which while they're mostly remixed levels, they often throw a wrench into the mix like having a very short amount of time that must be extended by defeating enemies, or being chased by a Cosmic Mario Clone throughout the level. The bosses are pretty underwhelming, but the final boss is a load of fun. Overall it's a pretty satisfying Mario experience on the 3DS. Not much else to say other than it's probably your safest bet.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is divisive - you'll either love it or hate it, but even then there are some parts of the game which are just plain bad, namely, using Thing Stickers to solve environmental puzzles. This hinges on you not only finding the Thing, but having turned it into a Sticker (likely having done these steps twice to fill out your Sticker Museum), deciding to keep said Thing Sticker (and some take up more space than others and fit different playstyles), and then finding the environmental puzzle to use it on. You will need to leave a level more than once to find or buy a Thing (which you can only do if you already found it), make room in the album (which are your attacks), make the Sticker, and keep it until you reach the puzzle. Bosses ALSO have these puzzles in them (which is a pain in the neck if you don't know beforehand, and you won't, the game dropped a ridiculously tiny amount of hints compared to recent Nintendo games). The game also doesn't tell you the Action Commands for the Things as well - and they are different depending on the Thing (but most are the same, hammering the A Button). But the battle system, while unorthodox, is a lot of fun, and some events are pretty great as well (a Kamek fight in particular stands out). Experimenting with different stickers and Thing Stickers is fun. The story is pretty stale, though, as are the environments and characters - you won't find any breakout characters like Rawk Hawk or Don Pianta here, it's strictly from the standard Mario stable, except for Kersti. The forest section of the game also tends to drag on a bit, and there's even a potentially Lost Forever sidequest - no items come of it but if you're obsessive with 100%'ing, I'd GameFAQs that. I loved it - if you can handle a Paper Mario experience that's really different from the other Paper Marios, it might be worth a spin.