Probably my favourite of the 2D Mario games except for SMB3. It contains the most interesting mechanics, and is without a doubt the hardest. It is so relentless that I had to use save states to not spend 300+ hours on completing this game, because you get thrown back to the beginning if you get a game over and waste all your retries. The music in this game is damn good, especially the main overworld theme and the final boss theme. The level design is overall pretty solid and completing levels is very satisfying. A pretty good game.

For many of us, we have a game that's a black sheep of the series that we absolutely adore that others may look upon and deride. Looking from the outside, I see those that love Zelda II, and while I think it's a crock of crap, those that are passionate about it are VERY passionate about it. I guess I'm the same way about this game.

That said, I don't think this game really has any flaws to speak of. The soundtrack is catchy. The hit detection is on point. The level design can make a quest difficult, but not unfair. And the bosses, while there are a couple repeats, are fun to tackle.

This to me stands up to Super Mario World and Super Mario 3 as the greatest games in the series, but I may be a minority in that, given how different this title plays.

Game 3 of Mario Marathon

Hard to say if Doki Doki Panic would have been a hit game without the Mario wrapper on it but it should have been. It's still super fun even though it's so mechanically different than any other Mario game. I'm ultimately glad it exists as it introduced a whole slew of new characters to the Mario World forever and the ending made me tear up as a kid.

I ultimately prefer the NES version over All-Stars or the GBA one. The GBA one might add more new content but the voice clips just sounds so off-putting and terrible (especially with GBA's dogshit speakers).