Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

In Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, the player controls Captain Toad, a Toad, or his companion Toadette, attempting to safely navigate through various obstacles and reach a star at the end of each level. As in Super Mario 3D World, Captain Toad and Toadette can walk and run, but cannot jump due to their heavy backpacks. They are able to pull plants out of the ground to use as projectiles, a feature that is also used to interact with other items in the level.

Each level is contained in a small environment, requiring the player to solve puzzles or complete platforming challenges to complete the level in a linear fashion. By using the thumbsticks or motion sensors on the Wii U GamePad, the player can rotate the diorama-like level to different orientations, revealing new paths and parts of the environment. The GamePad can also be used to interact with the environment in some levels, such as using the touchscreen to move platforms, blowing into the built-in microphone to move moving platforms, and using the motion controls to aim and throw objects at enemies. The player has two hitpoints that can be lost by being hit by enemies.

The game opens with Captain Toad and Toadette ascending a tower together to claim a star. The villainous giant crow Wingo appears and steals the star, taking Toadette along with him when she grabs hold of it. The player guides Captain Toad as he tracks Wingo down to his lair and rescues Toadette. Each following chapter sees one of the two captured, and the player controls the other Toad on their way to save them.

In the final scene of the game, they defeat Wingo, and the introduction to Super Mario 3D World plays out, and Captain Toad is seen following a falling green star into the glass pipe. For the Switch/3DS versions, the final scene shows Captain Toad following the Odyssey.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo. Shinya Hiratake, the lead level designer of Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World, served as the game's lead director, while Koichi Hayashida, who was a director for 3D World, served as a producer. Despite being in a position that was less hands-on, Hayashida said he was more involved with Treasure Tracker in its latter half than he was 3D World.

Among the many prototypes of what would become 3D World was a level that Hayashida described as a "little diorama stage using Mario"; the game's camera would look at the level from the outside. They found that allowing Mario to jump would result in the level needing to be much larger than intended, so the idea as the game's base concept was scrapped. However, they knew the concept would work if the player character was unable to jump. An idea was pitched to the creator of the Mario and The Legend of Zelda franchises Shigeru Miyamoto that featured Link as the featured character.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was well-received, with the Wii U, Switch, and 3DS versions all receiving "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 84% of critics.

==== Wii U version ====