Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Review

   Ready For Adventure

Remember the adventurous Toad that was seeking a whole bunch of Green Power Stars in his own bite-sized side levels back in last year’s Super Mario 3D World, and was constantly giving you insight back in Super Mario Galaxy? Well, he now has his own game based around the same idea that was introduced in the 2013 Wii U Platformer that successfully captures the ingenuity of Nintendo’s universally acclaimed level design and charm, all while being a simplistically-designed Puzzle experience that is just a joy to play through. Although Captain Toad is simply an elaboration of the greatness that was present in its induction, it’s still quite a challenge to master, provides a plethora of replayability beyond its 70+ levels and, because of its simple pick-up-and-play nature, it stands as one of the most memorable titles of the year.

Wrapping your head around Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will literally take about ten seconds as everything comes together within the opening moments of the game. The goal is pretty simple: Obtain each end-level Power Stars while traversing and maneuvering the camera around the three-dimensional stages to proceed further along the game. However, the real challenge is mastering Toad’s platforming inabilities in order to get through the levels without any problem. While Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker could easily be described as a Puzzle-Platformer because of its Super Mario-like nature, the platforming part cancels itself out because the mushroom-headed character cannot jump nor run like the Italian plumber, and it’s up to the player to work around those handicaps to successfully reach the Stars without any hiccups. Fortunately, Captain Toad can pull turnips and other helpful items from the ground and throw them at the various Goombas, Shy Guys, Piranha Plants and other newly introduced enemies to get rid of them, yet you’ll most likely be avoiding them by running past them as much as you can as two hits will lead to the loot-hungry Toad’s demise. Not only does this lack of capability add an extra challenge to the puzzles, it also makes the game stand on its own as well. Sure, you can avoid this complexity by strictly speed-running every stage, but Captain Toad is much more than simply getting from point A to point B without getting hit by the enemies.

Since there are three Gems scattered across all of the levels, in addition to the Power Stars at the end of each of them, an immense amount of depth is added to the overall gameplay that goes beyond the opening impression you get when looking at the floating stages for the first time. It makes you constantly analyze each of the layouts by manipulating the camera horizontally or vertically to find the little secret alcoves or pathways that will need to ever-so-satisfying treasure for the loot-obsessed character and, most importantly, for the player himself. And that becomes extensively apparent once you finally get the last Gem required to get the 100% Completed crown stamp that will show up before taking on a level. Although experiencing the game the passive route is totally optional, you’ll definitely miss out on some of Captain Toad’s best moments as most of them occur when finding an unrevealed area or figuring out the way to reach places that were unattainable or hidden beforehand.

At its core gameplay basis, Captain Toad is, inherently, a simple game. Thankfully, there are quite a few GamePad-centric features that come into play to spice things up and add a little variety other than simply moving Toad and the camera around to reach your objective. Sadly, because it relies heavily on those second screen-type of features, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is only playable using the Wii U GamePad. The most obvious function of all is that you can tilt the controller up or down, left or right to rotate the map with a little bit more precision using the GamePad’s gyroscopic capabilities. However, constantly turning and twisting the controller multiple ways gets annoying very quickly, and you’ll most likely commit to using the Control Sticks to patrol around the stages. Also, this cannot be turned off, meaning the slightest movement with the GamePad will shift the camera to a direction that was never fully intended. This will happen a lot as its other components involve tapping or touching the screen to freeze enemies or move specific obstacles in some capacity.

Moreover, the perpetual interaction with the GamePad has you shifting from your TV screen to the small screen displayed on the Wii U’s tablet-like controller very often. As much as this looks and sounds cool initially, it becomes difficult to handle as you won’t know which screen to look at. On multiple occasions, I found myself starting a level with my eyes glued to my television and finishing it with them staring at the GamePad because switching back and forth from both displays was extremely tedious and useless ultimately. These implementations aren’t as gimmicky as some of the other titles currently available for the system, but they could’ve definitely been fleshed out further to bring out even more uniqueness out of the entire Captain Toad experience.

Nintendo has always been known for exceptional level design when it comes to their big franchises such as Metroid, The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong, but nothing competes against the senseless creativity that is present in all of its Super Mario titles. Somehow, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker manages to capture the same level of cleverness and imagination within its 70-ish stages all set in the Mushroom Kingdom universe, not to mention that they all look gorgeous and are accompanied with ridiculously catchy tunes as well. Even though how they are all connected isn’t fully explained and, pretty much, makes no sense (just like any other Platformer, really), you’ll be navigating through familiar environments such as Dry Dry Desert, Boo’s Hunted Mansion and Freight Trains that don’t shy away from being tricky from time to time.

Captain Toad’s level structure is, essentially, a compilation of the great and most iconic Mario settings tweaked around to be adapted for the powerless protagonist. Additionally, they are packed with variety as you’ll, quite literally, never be playing the same stage twice throughout your six-hour-long adventure. Granted, they are all variants of conventional puzzles, minecart sequences that turn the game into a First-Person shooting gallery (and are also my personal favorites), boss battle sequences that are very repetitive and unimaginative, levels all about Super Mario 3D World’s Double Cherry power-up that adds an extra character on-screen, and the occasional random Coin Galore minigames that end up being axe picking extravaganzas or turnip throwing frenzies for more coins. Whether it interests you or not, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker’s levels will always throw in a curveball from time to time to keep the game engaging and fun for multiple hours at once.  

In the midst of all the senseless puzzle solving and loot hunting, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker tries to tell a story, by the means of its book-like presentation, involving both Captain Toad and Toadette, who is also a playable character, as they hunt down the most precious Power Stars in the Mushroom Kingdom and the multi-verses past it. It isn’t the richest plot in terms of character depth and outcome of events, but the alteration between both mushroom-headed characters makes for some genuinely funny moments that occur throughout the game’s three episodic scenarios. Plus, who doesn’t like a game where the female lead must save her male counterpart from the hands of an evil menace, for a change? It’s quite amusing to see Toadette be a courageous and in-control character, without even saying a single sentence, while Toad, who is a male, is just terrified of everything that looks threatening.

Captain Toad’s action doesn’t stop after blowing through its main story levels. As a matter of fact, each of them has a secondary objective that is only noticeable after completing the stage, and involve beating it in a specific way or collecting some sort of treasure that is hidden somewhere. You can try to solve them on your first run through the level, but it’s extremely hard to guess what it is going to be. Knowing it from the get-go would’ve been appreciated as it would’ve avoided constantly restarting stages, but it really only adds to the game’s replay value in the end. In addition, if you have a Super Mario 3D World save file stored on your Wii U, you’ll be able to play selected full level of the game with Captain Toad right from the beginning or after you have completed the game if you don’t, but they end up being disappointing as they are stripped down from all of their great elements because of the character’s inaptitude to jump or run as efficiently. They feel like levels that were just thrown away to add even more stages to play through, instigating the biggest problem with the game: It is over way too quickly. Hopefully Nintendo has some plans to add more content with future DLC or something similar with the implementation of its amiibo figurines, but I would’ve loved to play through 100+ levels that were specifically designed for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.

VERDICT

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is the perfect experience if you simply want to sit down and have fun while playing a video game. It’s not as ambitious as some of AAA titles currently out there as it is a very simplistic game, but the amount of creativity and imagination present within each of this Super Mario spin-off’s levels will be enough for it to remain enjoyable and captivating for the entire duration of your adventure. Despite the fact, it is a bit on the short side and has some flaws with its controls, but hey, for $40, you cant’t ask for anything better.