You just have to love Captain Toad. He started his own little brigade in Super Mario Galaxy to assist in the retrieval of power stars, you could get a brief glimpse of how he retrieves said stars in the bonus levels of Super Mario 3D World, and then he had his very own adventure in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for the Wii U. Now it’s time to relive that adventure on the go for Nintendo Switch (as well as 3DS).

Is Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for Nintendo Switch as cute as a Toad in a box, or is it a rather undelightful adventure? Found out in our review after the break!

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo 3DS
Developed by Nintendo EAD (Wii U) Nintendo EPD (Switch/3DS)
Published by Nintendo
Released: 2nd January 2015 (Wii U) 13th July 2018 (Switch/3DS)
Review copy provided by Nintendo
Reviewed on the Nintendo Switch version

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker revolves around the avid treasure hunter, Captain Toad. He may not match the courage of Link or the mobility of Mario, but he’ll always get the job done. Along with his friend,Ā Toadette (who allegedly is NOT his girlfriend), they set off on a treasure tracking adventure, until, out from nowhere, a giant bird of prey, named Wingo, flies in from nowhere to steal Toadette and their loot. From here, you mustĀ travel through various diorama-type environments to save Toadette and your loot. Though be careful, as there will be times where Toadette will be a knight in beige armour.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker boasts more than 70 different levels, and each one is truly beautiful and wonderfully unique. Each level isĀ is like a small diorama and you are tasked in collecting the Power Star at the end of the level. As Captain Toad lugs around that backpack, his ability to jump has been greatly sacrificed.Ā This means that you have to manoeuvre the camera angle to see where you are going, alter the environment around you using gizmos and the touch screen, and avoid being defeated by any baddies.

The levels start off rather straightforward, though some of the later levels can get pretty tricky. One level will have you navigating a hedge maze with the Double Cherry powerup, another places you in a haunted mansion that’s sinking into some spooky purple goo, and another has you manipulating platforms to direct Spike’s rolling hazards. A lot of levels are actually small and contained, but it’s pretty amazing to see what Nintendo are able to do in such a small play field, there’s one level which is literally a single rotating crate, yet it is still quite a puzzle to complete fully. They are an absolute delight to play through.

There’s more to just collecting Power Stars though, you are treasure trackers after all. Each level (bar the bonus levels) has three diamonds for you track down, and some of them are definitely a challenge to find. Collect enough diamonds, and you may even be able to unlock some bonus levels. If that wasn’t enough for you, each level also has a special objective to complete, such as collecting x amount of coins, finding the hidden Golden Mushroom, or to complete the level without getting spotted by a Shy Guy. Finally, once a level has been completed, you can then play the level in Pixel Toad Hide and Seek mode, which was previously unlocked with the Toad Amiibo on Wii U. This mode task you to find the hidden Pixel Toad; happy huntin’.

The Switch and 3DS version comes with a few brand new levels based on some of Super Mario Odyssey’s kingdoms… unfortunately they replace the Super Mario 3D World levels though. These levels are also extremely good, and you’ll be entering some familiar territory if you’ve played Odyssey before. The game does a fantastic job to represent the vast kingdoms in four neatly contained levels, especially the Sand and Metro Kingdoms. It’s just a shame that only four levels were made based on Odyssey, would have been great to see representation from the other kingdoms.

For some odd reason, a lot of people despised motion controls on the GamePad in the original, and it kinda makes sense. Those who didn’t like using the gyroscope to move the camera should be happy to hear that you can disable motion controls in the Nintendo Switch version (I have yet to try the 3DS version).

Unfortunately the touch controls can still feel a bit cumbersome, especially when you have to manipulate a platform while moving Toad and the camera. If you’re in docked mode though, you can aim a crosshair with the JoyCon and use ZR to manipulate the environment. True you are sacrificing portability, but is a great trade off if you find touch controls too clunky. Speaking of docked mode, the game looks absolutely stunning as far as Mario games go.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a fantastic title for the Nintendo Switch which is filled with a lot of smartly designed levels which are a hoot to play. Though I feel it doesn’t have enough new content to warrant purchasing again (though those Odyssey levels are pretty amazing), I would urge anyone who never checked out the original to dip into this version on the Nintendo Switch!

If you ran the original to the ground with multiple 100% runs and you aren’t too interested in the new levels, then maybe it would be best to give it a skip, however if you missed out on the original and love a good platforming puzzle, then I’d definitely recommend Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker on Nintendo Switch. Also… how could you possibly say no to that face.

Final Rating – 4 out of 5

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is out now for Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo 3DS Family Systems

Leon Fletcher

I am a huge Nintendo fan, hence why NintyBuzz exists. I especially love all things Zelda and Metroid. NintyBuzz was started by me back in the Summer of 2014, it started out mainly as a hobby, though the site has gradually grown, and I hope it grows for many years to come!