With the holiday release season behind us and little to look forward to until March, I’ll be working my way through the stack of major releases I didn’t get to last year. I’ll cover the major console releases  such as “Batman: Arkham City,” “Uncharted 3,” and “Saints Row the Third” in the coming weeks, but this week I’ll focus on the system I unexpectedly found myself playing the most often.
    
Though I barely touched my 3DS from launch day to December, I killed the battery on it at least a dozen times over the break. Nintendo has made up for the system’s weak launch with quality releases that aren’t just 3D remakes of past hits.
    
“Super Mario 3D Land” is the killer app the 3DS should have launched alongside. “3D Land” provides a unique take on the Mario platformer that has appeal for newcomers and those who grew up squashing goombas. The game is structured like the “New Super Mario Brothers” series. Levels are divided into worlds, and toad houses are scattered around to provide the occasional power-up. Like those games, each level contains three giant gold coins that are used to unlock bonus levels.
    
The gameplay of “Super Mario 3D Land” blends the fast-paced linear levels of 2D Mario games with the 3D environments and controls of the 3D games. For the first few hours this blend was frustrating to me as the platforming required more twitch and precision than “Super Mario 64” or “Super Mario Galaxy.”
    
The imprecision added by the third dimension makes the game much more difficult than either of the “New Super Mario Brothers” games, but after a few hours I came around on the 3D. Although I still occasionally ran off the edges of platforms because I didn’t have a grasp on their depth, the scope and variety in the levels allowed by the third dimension made up for the occasional irritation. Even with the increased difficulty, by the time I got to the eighth world and sent Bowser into the lava I had over 100 extra lives.
    
Completing the first eight worlds unlocks a fresh eight that are significantly more difficult. These new levels saw my pool of extra lives dwindle into the single digits. New elements are introduced in these levels, such as an evil shadow Mario chasing you through the entire level or having a 30-second timer to start off that you can only increase by killing enemies. The levels that start you with 30 seconds were some of the most challenging levels of any Mario game, period. They took on a racing game feel and reminded me of something like “Mirror’s Edge.” “Super Mario 3D Land” also presents the best example for why the stereoscopic 3D effect of the 3DS matters. It actually makes the game easier due to better depth perception, and some of the game’s puzzles hinge on its application.
    
The game should easily keep 3DS owners occupied until upcoming releases like “Luigi’s Mansion 2.” Unlocking the final bonus level requires collecting every golden coin, beating every level as Mario and Luigi, and landing on top of each level’s flag pole. Once all that work is complete your reward is the single most difficult level Nintendo has ever put in a Mario game. It is also the longest level in the game and has no checkpoints. I still haven’t beaten it.
    
Nintendo’s other major holiday release was the bluntly titled “Mario Kart 7.” Every Nintendo system needs its “Mario Kart” and as the “Mario Kart” games go this is a good, but rather rote, entry. There are four cups worth of new tracks and four cups worth of old tracks, as always. The selection of old tracks is decent (Waluigi Pinball being the highlight), but for the most part the new tracks are significantly more fun to race on and it made me wish Nintendo would take more time with entries into this franchise to add more than what we’ve come to expect. The game still lacks a meaningful single-player mode. The only thing to do solo is race through the eight cups, which can be finished in a couple of hours. As far as track selection and graphics go this is probably the best “Mario Kart” game to date, but I can only really recommend it if you have several friends with 3DSs willing to race.