Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (2014)

So earlier this year I picked up Captain Toad for Wii U at a gaming swap meet for 10 bucks and I gotta say it's been a lot of fun. If you enjoy simple puzzles, good music, and a game that is easy to pick up and play for a few minutes to a couple hours this is probably for you.

The levels have good concepts which while different genres remind me of games like Mario Galaxy or the game in which the character Captain Toad debuted, Super Mario 3D World. The simple themes or gimmicks of each level build on each other throughout and while the game is not very difficult you still might find yourself down a few lives if you get careless or haven't managed to navigate around enemies.

The game is overall a good time and if you want a chill game to come back to for a level or two I think you'll enjoy it. Maybe don't buy it full price on Switch though.

This is my review, tips , and comments on the game Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

This review is for anyone playing the game, but especially completionists

GAME HISTORY

The game Toad Treasure Tracker relesed in 2014 for the Wii, is a prequel to super mario 3d world, it is a puzzle action based game.

In 3d world, there were levels every now and then where you got a chance to play as Captain Toad, whom simply appeared throughout the game in levels, sometimes giving you a star for saving him from something.

In these levels, controlling toad, you would find yourself in minature enviorments, you need to roate the camera to veiw the different parts of the course , and the end goal is to get all the green stars in the level , (around 6 I think).

And when the developers of 3d world saw the fans adoring this, they began joking of a game soley based on this style. skip to 2014, it finally gets relesed.

My Rating and Reveiw of game quality

Pros of the game:

1. excellent graphics (9.5/10

The game has a satisfying, "fun" and cartoonish HD Look though might be missing a touch of cell shading, this beauty is very evident in this image :

1. decent 2 player support ( 7/10 )

Playing with another person can be quite fun, you have 2 different modes to choose from, partner adventure which is unlocked after beating the game, and assist mode, which is available from the start, partner adventure allows you to play with another person, with one person being toad and another toadette, so you can both navigate a level, assist allows one person as captain toad, and another to use a separate joy con and use motion controls to shoot turnips like canon killing enemies and collecting items.

1. camera is easy to get used to (in my opinion)

People online have been saying the camera is frustrating, but here on the switch, you can easily multitask, its very easy to move and tilt the right stick at the same time, if you are having trouble panning, moving, and running, try this: rest your left thumb unto the left joy cons stick to move, and rest the ball of your right thumb unto the right stick to look around, and the end of your right thumb to dash, It won't be for everyone, but I think it works the best!

1. satisfying gameplay

The game can be rewarding for its difficulty , completing a difficullt stage and watch the stamp get placed on the page of the level is very amusing, I will always aprecicate when you get bragging rights for doing something hard in a game!

1. if you like the game, there are near 100 levels with the dlc included to be busy on

Cons:

1. Feeling of Rushed stages later on

The stages in episode 3, witch is still a story episode feels rushed for the 28 episodes there are, so almost double the norm of 18! I found this episodes stages feeling so "Extra" and placeholder like*

Completionists Expirience

This was my first game where I really 100% a title, usually I give up an hour or so but this time not, and man, did it fricken feel good, let me just say, completion is not for everyone, although, its a brutal, time-consuming expirence, and opens the door right in your face to the dark side of kids games that you thought were easy.

So how did it go for me?

Did I use a guide? Yes I used polygons.com for the powerstars, and hidden toads and some tips for bonus challenges

Did I ever use amibos for invinsibility or assist mode? No, I didn't even really know about ambios and what they did for the game, nor had acess to one

Completionist Proof

> What am I doing for Completion? / What is True 100%

True 100% completion for this game would be within following criteria:

*From Most difficult

1. beat ever bonus challenge
2. beat every time challenge
3. beat all levels
4. collect every powerstar
5. find all pixel toads

A completionist touch would be getting a best coin run mark on all coins galore its extremly easy lol dont overthink it!

In total 

• 64 pixel toads

• 97 bonus challenges

• 97 stages along with the dlc

• 95 time trials (help)

• 252 gems/ crowns / powermoons of some sort

• 5 complete episodes 1,2,3, bonus, and special

• so in total this means there are 605 mini tasks to do

Bonus Challenges

Ok, so lets start with bonus challenges, seen as they were hardest. Bonus challenges are unlocked/visible after beating a level, they are exactly what you think they are, little challenges once beating a level, these can range from "collect 45 coins" , to " slip past all the shy guys" or find the hidden gold mushrooms, this might sound easy, but these were deviously place on stages with an enviorment and / or structure to make this hard, take for example, stage 10 of ep. 1 : king of pyropuff peak, in the stage, a big steaming lava monster slowly makes lava rise unto the surface meaning you must tread extremly careful, and guess what the challenge is, collect 45 coins, one missed coin in the lava, restart, dont know where the missed 5 coins are, welp, problebly already disentagrated in the lava.. RESTART, all i got to say for these are, "thought a level was already hard" heres some more difficulty" , what I liked about these is that the bonus challenges added alot of diffuculty to the game and most important, they each fitted the unique design of each level, on stage 16 of ep.1, there are glowing blocks you can shift to make a path to progress through the level with your gamepad spread throghout the stage, the bonus challenge for that is cleared the course in 4 touches, witch I though was extremly fun! Completing these earns you 3 toad stamps on each epsiode book The hardest include:

Episode 1-14 Pop-Up Prairie Town: You need to collect 150 coins, which is a lot more than the coins available in the level. You need to use the turnips and the pickaxe wisely to get more coins from the enemies and blocks.

Episode 2-9 Draggadon’s Revenge: You need to defeat all the enemies, which includes the giant dragon Draggadon. You need to lure him to the lava geysers and hit him with turnips, while also avoiding his fireballs and tail.

Episode 3-13 Secret of the Golden Realm: You need to collect 280 coins, which is very hard because the level is full of traps and enemies. You need to be very careful and quick to get all the coins from the hidden areas and the Golden Mushrooms.

Episode 3-Bonus Mummy-Me Maze Forever: You need to collect 5000 coins, which is extremely difficult because the level is endless and gets harder as you go deeper. You need to avoid the Mummy-Me that chases you and collect as many coins and power-ups as you can.

Timed challenges

Actually incredibly close to the bonus challenges in difficulty, these are ONLY unlocked once the whole episode is cleared *every level, on each stage you will find an overly faint number at the bottom of the stage page indicateing the number of seconds you have to beat this level to complete the challenge time, your fastest time will be displayed after level beat, and will even have a star next to it , when challenge time is acheived! These time trials will have you beating levels in ways you didnt know were possible, there is a stage you must beat in 3 seconds!!! TIP for these time trials, there are some videos online of speedruns and record times on youtube, go watch them to help with these when you're having trouble, there a HUGE help! Still let me say, get used to the following button pattern, -, down,A, lol that restarts the level Beating these Earns a feather on episode's 1 book only The Hardest time challenges you may find yourself doing are:

Episode 1-18 Wingo’s Watchtower: You need to avoid Wingo’s attacks and climb the tower quickly, while also collecting coins and turnips. The challenge time is 2:00, which is very tight

Episode 2-17 Spinwheel Sky Fort: You need to spin the cogs and time your movements carefully to avoid the Bullet Bills and Banzai Bills. The challenge time is 1:30, which requires precise execution

Episode 3-10 Multi-Vator Mayhem: You need to use the elevators and switches to navigate the level, while also dodging enemies and obstacles. The challenge time is 1:00, which is very challenging

Powerstars

You collect 3 of them in each stage, I dont have much to say about them lol, I rate them 6/10 difficulty, ***collecting all episodes powerstars earns you 3 stars ***

Pixel toads

These little guys:

They will be avaible to find once beating a level, they hid somewhere around the level and are super fun to find, there usually the easiest thing you will be doing, TIP : turn your volume up becuase they make a sound when near, you'll know when you hear it!

Mummy me- maze forever is the last stage of the base game, and is the most popular, diffucult and rewerarding stage of the game.

Important disclaimer, if you feel as if it is not cheating, try to get another person to throw turnips at enimeies in assist mode while you navigate the level

Okay, beating the level normally is what I did, and it took around 3 hours on friday and my whole saturday where i finally beat it :( This stage is less diffucult then champions road

What does the stage look like:

To get started, the stage makes you go through 50 rooms of mazes, in witch get harder as you progress, every maze features, loads of coins, a warp box in which is the player's goal and takes you to the next room, enemies are problebly the main concern, and a mummy that chases toad and follows toad with every movement he makes, the mummy constantly will be going to your position so you will get damaged if you ever stop moving!

Know your mazes

Room 1-4 are always just pirhanna plants

Rooms 6-9: Piranha Sprouts

Rooms 11-14: Goombas/Goomba Towers

Rooms 16-19: Boos

Rooms 21-24: Fire Piranha Plants; more common Super Mushrooms***

Rooms 26-29: Blue Shy Guys

Rooms 31-34: Bullet Bills

Rooms 36-39: Piranha Sprouts

Rooms 41-44: Bullet Bills and Goombas/Goomba Towers; more common Super Pickaxes

Rooms 46-49: Boos and Fire Piranha Plants

You might catch that rooms 5, 10 , 15, 20 , 25, 30 , 35, 40 , 45 , and 50 are missing heres why:

Every 5 levels excluding 10, and 20, are what I call CHAOS rooms, instead of normal enemies, chargin chucks will apear along with magikoopas

10,20 are break levels that look like this

At the center of the room, there is a super pixax, that you can pluck all of the pluck spots very quickly, each ones of these break rooms features a single mushroom and a gold mushrooms ( 50 coins) .

TIPS

1. Use the gamepad to stun enemies, this is one of your best bets to surviving this gruling course, and stops enimies in your tracks!

2. on break levels, take a 10-20 or even 30min break to catch a breath and just breath for whats to come

3. speaking of break levels, you can manually pluck all turnips, then grab the pickax , and go into the next level to practicly give you a free pass and skip the room next!

4. never collect mushrooms for the extra ten coins when big, you'll kick yourself hard when you find your self small later through the maze

5. hug walls as much as possible to not hit anything allong with stunning enimies

6. try to collect coins for the bonus challenge on purpose only until level 20

Overall just be enthusiastic, follow these tips and practice and you should get it right, after all, the reward at the end, is a shining golden crown you get to wear on every level from there on!

Final room (50)

And thats it, you have reached almost the end of my review, I hoped you found it usefull

Stats and info  

Favourite stage: minecart cascade crusade From the bonus mario oddesy stages

Favorite soundtrack: Title theme *super nostalgic for me

Story Rating: 1/10 Very bland and forgetable

level design rating 8/10 super creative

difficulty: 7/10

Reward: 8/10 not sure what the coins for even for , why were we collecting them lol

Completionist rating (was it fun to complete) 6.5/10 Its not worth it to complete the game, in my opinion just finishing it is better

It pains me to give this game a somewhat bad review just because it does so much right. First of all, the art style and concept of small diorama worlds is absolutely great. This game has beautiful visual concepts for each level. You will visit epic fortresses to cute gardens, all neatly packed in a cube-like world that you will closely inspect and explore. And it really is a joy to do so.

I also like the limited move set of the character you control. You understand very easily what are your options, which can make for a great puzzle. Powerups give Toad temporary abilites that introduce new mechanic and add to overall puzzle variety.

However there is one big problem that I have with this game. That is it being too easy. While I was okay with the overall difficulty of the first book/chapter, I think it is a waste that the game didn't ramp up difficulty in any meaningful way in other chapters. Including the difficulty of collecting the bonus diamonds.

This game is overall a puzzle platformer, but I think that it is mostly a rather bland platformer with some puzzle elements. Most of the obstacles you encounter do not requre you to think much. Just press one switch and you are usually good to go.

I think that there could be balance struck between game being accessible/easy and having challanging aspects. Just because the core concept is quite strong.

But unfortunately the game got rather repetative and boring for me in the middle of chapter 2. I still think that there is a nice game to enjoy for causal players that don't seek big challange, but rather an enjoyable and relaxing gaming experience.

This is a perfect game to play on and off, would pick it up whenever I felt like taking a break from another game. Toad and Toadette along with the brigade are cute as hell and their voice acting is just the best.

The game play is simple and the puzzles are fun, not super challenging but I enjoyed them. Just like the name treasure tracker theirs side quests in each level that you look out for. The Nintendo switch version has a lot of content to play even a Labo VR mode that I couldn't try, though the special section and the last couple of missions from the bonus section are either repeats with a twist or just some BS challenge levels lol.

I was gonna try to 100% this but didn't feel like completing some of the more tedious challenges (like the time challenges that I didn't realize existed until I reached the last special challenge) and when the levels started repeating I just decided that completing the main 3 chapters and most of the bonus chapters was enough.

This is a fun and simple game best played in docked mode so you can use the "touch pad" with the joycons, music is fine and other than the dlc I don't have much to complain about, if your looking for a background game or something that can be quickly turned on and off this is the perfect game.

• Year played: 2019
• Playtime: 3-4 hours
• Completion level: about half of levels done (3-star rating)

This game is cute and charming and has some really nice, tight level designs. The levels are small and layered with lots of hidden pathways, and your goal is simple: to get from start to finish, collecting hidden secrets along the way. You can rotate the entire level 360 degrees along both axes, so a lot of the puzzle aspects come from things being hidden from view unless you're looking at it from just the right angle.

It's nice to pick up and play a few levels here and there, but it gets kind of repetitive. Each level has a number of bonus stars you can earn by completing the level under certain constraints (such as time limits). These can be fun sometimes, but not all of them can be done in one pass, so you'll often find yourself repeating the same level multiple times to check all the boxes, and the gameplay just isn't interesting enough to support it.

It's not a bad game, but it's not a compelling one either - it just kinda feels like a sidequest that never gets to the "real" game.

Let me start off by saying that I loved the concept of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. This puzzle platformer tasks you, as Captain Toad and Toadette, to travel through various levels, overcoming obstacles and reaching the star at the end of each level. The levels are well themed and designed, requiring you to use the camera and different persepectives to reach the end goal. There are a few boss battles which provide a small amount of challenge. All in all Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker has a solid premise that is well delivered. So why not give the game a higher score?

The repetition of the story. You essentially play the game three times over and the first two times have the exact same story as each other just you are controlling a different character. It almost feels like Nintendo felt like they had to add to the game time in order to justify the cost of the game. I would probably have been OK with this, if Nintendo hadn't pulled a similar trick with Yoshi's Crafted World. It is a shame as both of these games are well made but I wouldn't pay any more that £30 for them, as they are both quite short.

If you enjoy platformers, I would suggest you try Captain Toad: Treasure Track but only buy it if it is on sale.

Cute and charming all the way through! This game is unique in many ways. I'm not a puzzle guy, but this game takes it to another level and just makes almost every puzzle GOOD! Even the easiest, short or hard ones, everything is so charismatic that the "AHA" moments, whether silly or challenging, are very satisfaying.

Soundtrack is nice, albeit repetitive, but it packs a few cozy and entertaining songs. Sound design goes without saying, since Nintendo always knocks it out of the park on this aspect. Graphics feel "comfortable" and safe, waving from deliciously built levels and some very simple moments, that warmed my heart.

Still, there are a few things to dislike here. The camera, although mostly 'ok', can become a pain. Controls can feel a little bit stiff, sometimes. Some levels are unnecessarily "big" and this Switch version, overall, might just outstay its welcome. "Boo" levels seem to always drop the ball and the "special" and "bonus" levels lack the variety and creativity from regular chapters. Also, the game is way better when played by couch co-op, since a few stages feel like they were exclusively built for it.

But the bad aspects of this game does not outweighs the good ones. This is a very accessible, well-crafted and beautifully designed product. It may not be perfect or super creative all the way through, but it's totally worth it.

PROS

• Charming art and animation
• Diorama-esque levels are diverse and bursting with creativity
• A successful design exploration of an ultra-limited move set
• Works very well as an introduction to 3D camera controls while not being overly simple
• It's got that special Nintendo level of polish

CONS

• Very easy
• Some design concepts could've been iterated upon much further

My boyfriend at the time said he wanted to play a video game. He had never played one before. I was ecstatic. I've been trying to push video games on my loved ones for years with no results. And here was a man, a poor destitute man, desperate for some interactive culture. I could show him the way.

I decided Captain Toad was a good intro game. It's mechanically simple, not very difficult, and aesthetically gorgeous. It could teach my man the basics of navigating a 3D environment and moving a camera to see your character. I was wrong.

On level 1-2 he was already yelling and swearing. He hated Toad and he hated me for introducing him to Toad. He threw my Wii U gamepad. He threw it onto the couch, but he threw it nonetheless. I broke up with him at Subway the next day.

I am grateful for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for revealing my ex as an unstable angry man-child. There was wrath deep down inside him. And a simple Nintendo game about a mushroom man walking around mazes showed it to me and warned me.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a cute and clever puzzler I never would have picked up without a recommendation. A friend with limited time played through it on the Wii U and said I should definitely pick it up on the Switch.

I thought my kids might enjoy it, but the puzzles quickly increased in complexity and they lost interest. I made an effort to complete a puzzle or two during the evenings, but finally started burning through levels during my holiday break.

I beat the main game earlier this evening and felt a huge sense of relief. The puzzles were fun, but they grew a bit monotonous by the second story.

Ultimately, I was happy to finally reach the end of the story for these intrepid treasure trackers.