[Wii U] Captain Toad

Captain Toad is MOSTLY a casual small puzzle game. I say mostly because the hardest part was in the Bonus book.

Story

Toad and Toadette are on a journey to collect treasure. They get their hands on a star and a giant bird comes by to take it. Toad/Toadette hangs onto the star and gets taken by the bird. Time for the other to go rescue/find who ever got taken.

Gameplay

Each stage is a small 3D puzzle where Toad/Toadette needs to get to the star. There are challenges to each stage. Similar to Mario stages, there are three jewels to collect. A hidden challenge unlocks after beating a stage once (can be achieved without knowing the challenge). These challenges are usually Collect X coins, Find Golden Mushroom, Don't get hit/seen, Kill X enemies, or Use only X amount of moves. By doing all the challenges, a red stamp is stamped on the top of the page to show completion.

With a Toad amiibo, find Pixel Toad mode is available. During this mode, dying does not take a life and the only way to exit is to find Pixel Toad or quit Pixel Toad mode. Pixel Toad makes a noise if Toad/Toadette is nearby. Find Pixel Toad mode is only available in Book 1, 2, and 3. It does not work in the Bonus book.

The biggest challenge in the entire game is to run from a doppelganger mummy Toad following Toad and mimicking him while doing a puzzle without being able to stop. It is hard to look around while being chased and having other things try to kill Toad in the process. It is much more fast paced than the rest of the game.

Final Thoughts

The game probably took around 7-8 hours to play every stage, finish all challenges, and find Pixel Toad. The only challenge left is collect 5000 coins while being chased by Mummy Toad and in a maze. Unfortunately, there is not much replay value. The only thing left other than the last challenge is time attack.

While the game was a nice break and enjoyable, the stages could have been a bit more expansive. In the Bonus book, it does this in a few stages. Even though most of the stages were small, many of them were quite creative.

Recommended for those who like simple puzzle games.