Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is the best Nintendo spin-off in years

[Administrator]

Talk to people about the superlative Super Mario World 3D World and ask them what they love. It's often a long conversation, but Captain Toad's little puzzles always seem to come up. The mini-levels were designed as quick distractions - brief breaks from Mario and co.'s main platforming adventures - and yet amongst 3D World's inventiveness and capacity to surprise level after level, their simple concept still stood out.
The levels restricted Captain Toad to the most basic of movements. Unable to jump or attack, he was still the diminutive, humble hero from his earlier appearances in the Mario Galaxy games. He was someone more typically found shivering in fear and waiting to be rescued than acting out the role of Nintendo's traditional castle-raider.
But this reversal of Mario's usual tropes and Captain Toad's reliance on timing, speed and skill to scurry around for treasure - as well as Nintendo's usual brilliance for building the levels themselves - left players wanting more. Forum posts and Miiverse messages hungered for a full spin-off starring Nintendo's new hero. More importantly, Nintendo apparently realised that, with a little extra time and room for expansion, the concept could still be improved.
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