{"id":17274,"date":"2015-03-01T19:25:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T09:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=17274"},"modified":"2015-03-01T19:29:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T09:29:24","slug":"captain-toad-treasure-tracker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=17274","title":{"rendered":"Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"captaintoadboxart\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Platform: \u00a0<\/strong>Wii U
\nDeveloper: \u00a0<\/strong>Nintendo EAD
\nPublisher: \u00a0<\/strong>Nintendo<\/p>\n

2<\/span>015 got off to a great start for Wii U owners\u00a0with the release in\u00a0January of\u00a0Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker<\/em>, an expansion of the mini-game from\u00a0Super Mario 3D World. \u00a0<\/em>The game involves two cheery and adventurous\u00a0Super Mario Brothers<\/em>\u00a0characters – Captain Mushroom and Toadette – as they explore the Mushroom kingdom in search of diamonds. \u00a0They are periodically thwarted by a gigantic\u00a0feathered creature – the lousily named Wingo – who has an affinity for jewellery, kidnapping fungus and I think he’s some sort of carnie fortune teller or something, judging by his elaborate headpiece.<\/p>\n

You might well wonder whether a game that takes its origins from a mini-game could make a successful transition into working as a full fledged game in its own right. \u00a0After all, the same framework exists from the Toad stages in\u00a0Super Mario 3D World<\/em> – every level has 3 diamonds to collect, is rendered on a miniature cubic level reminiscent of\u00a0Super Mario Galaxy <\/em>planets and neither Captain Toad nor Toadette is able to jump. \u00a0On paper, it seems pretty constrictive. \u00a0In reality, it only took me a handful of stages to realize Nintendo could take this concept and make it shine. \u00a0They\u00a0won me over with the fantastic level design which is definitely reminiscent of the\u00a0Super Mario Galaxy<\/em> games – each chapter\u00a0is full of creative flourishes, secrets to uncover and meta game challenges to enjoy. \u00a0When you take this enjoyable core concept and package it in a trilogy of storybook adventures featuring dragons, ghost trains, mine karts and gold mines…Nintendo has another winner on their hands.<\/p>\n

\"captaintoad\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m not entire sure how to categorize a game like\u00a0Captain Toad<\/em>. \u00a0I think it’s a little misleading to call it a puzzle game because hunting down diamonds or gold mushrooms in each level isn’t particularly taxing on the brain. \u00a0It’s obviously not a platformer either, despite the familiar looking\u00a0Super Mario\u00a0<\/em>window dressing. \u00a0I think its best described as an adventure game. \u00a0It’s about exploration across dozen of miniature worlds that the player interacts with by shifting, rotating and manipulating the environment using the right analogue stick and touch pad on the Wii U Game Pad.<\/p>\n

The game has a pretty mild difficulty curve but it remains an engaging experience thanks to the inventive level design, the huge assortment of challenges and bonus stages\u00a0plus\u00a0the gradual introduction of extra play mechanics. \u00a0Captain Toad and Toadette can’t jump, but they can throw turnips at the baddies (ala\u00a0Super Mario Bros 2<\/em>), they can use their headlamps for navigation\u00a0and they can use pick-axe power ups to smash through bricks and uncover hidden passageways.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I had a great time with Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker<\/em>. \u00a0Its a game comprised of a hundred little pleasures – from cutesy animations of goombas to retro-throwbacks to Mario games of old – and it strikes just the right balance when it comes to content. \u00a0Not so little as to feel too slight but just enough that it doesn’t overstay its welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The long-standing Super Mario sidekick Toad gets his own game<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[441,2193,950],"class_list":["post-17274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-nintendo","tag-toad","tag-wii-u"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17274"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17283,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274\/revisions\/17283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}