Adventure? I just met 'er!

Did I really not finish Captain Toad? Huh. Just give me a ... yup ... okay. Now we're good.

As modern Mario games are wont to do, Captain Toad does a beautiful job of ramping the challenge up as it goes. But this game's difficulty scale is, uh, skewed downward somewhat. Most of the first two "books" of levels were exceptionally breezy, and by the third's end, there were just a handful of levels that I would call "hard." Nevertheless, for a bite-sized Mario spinoff, the final count of satisfyingly-complex levels was pretty respectable.

(And I can't help but admire the troll move of making the third book 28 levels, over the previous books' 18, for no other reason than to screw with the player's expectations.)

Overall, Treasure Tracker is a fun, mildly exciting, but not revelatory game. What's most fascinating about it is not necessarily mechanical or technical, but the fact that it was made at all - given its small scope compared to typical Nintendo fare - and with, considering its "budget" release, such a high quality bar of level design and presentation. More than anything else, Captain Toad is a promising sign of what Nintendo can do when it scales its ideas down.

Better than: Super Mario 3D Land
Not as good as: Super Mario Galaxy
Obvious next step: a downloadable Captain Toad character in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Progress: 192 gems; completed the Sprixie Kingdom, Toad Brigade, and Mummy-Me bonus levels.