The “Earthbound / Xenogears / Jet Set Radio / Donkey Kong Country fan excited to finally play the game” meme, but it’s me and Ridge Racer Type 4. As a big DnB fan, I’ve been moving in circles to this soundtrack for well over ten years, but for some reason never had the wherewithal to actually spend 5 minutes downloading the ISO and experiencing the free video game this classic album came with. Getting the disc was one thing - configuring DuckStation to a satisfactory specification was a whole other. I’m generally not too picky about how my games emulate, but something about Type 4 just demanded I tune my machine to neon-smooth sheen, and it paid off by miles - I got my shaders and filters and scaling playing just right for the pixels to bleed together and brake-light after-images to leave a lasting impression. Few games this short can stick around for so long - you can breeze through this in an afternoon, and will come back for more afternoons in the future. It’s the one for me!

Went petrol go-karting yesterday and managed to hit a few pretty solid drifts on a hairpin by applying the exact principles learned in games like OutRun 2 and Type 4, which felt very, very sweet. (I also gave myself pretty severe whiplash by spinning out on a downhill, but we'll ignore that) Having never so much as attempted a handbrake turn in all my fifteen years of holding a driving licence, finally getting to experience the rush of throwing my backside out caused me to zoom home, exorcise my disc and compare notes with the virtual worlds that taught me all I know about how to drive good (and bad).

Glad I've persevered with this one - I wanted to give it up early on, but the volume of comments suggesting that this was a beautiful gourmet lobster that needs to be cracked open in order to access its meaty innards is a positive example of how reading Backloggd opinions can enrich your gaming life. As everyone says, it is brutal in its opening hours, with punishing S-corners and AI drivers that work so hard to block your every opening to no real detriment of their own. Worth it, though, when you get a handle on how the handling here subtly differs from Type 4: the beginner car is more beginner-friendly than it first seems, essentially allowing you to "correct" a turn you've already started accelerating into in order to turn it into a drift, even when the corner's almost done - a life-saver, especially when your rival has plans for how to run you off the road. The other cars aren't so easily mastered, though, and the rest is up to you - trying to explain their mechanical ins and outs would be like describing how to ride a bike, essentially useless in comparison to just feeling it out for yourself.

Seven tracks (half of which intersect with each other) seems like hardly any at all, but when multiplied with the number of cars on offer and how wildly they differ, you realise you're essentially being offered a series of puzzles that involve working out when each car should turn or shift through gear - a smart game designer's way of maximising value from what was very likely a limited development time. The heroic, master, etc. GPs are less refined measures of improving the game's longevity by just bumping pure numbers up, but are nonetheless welcome because they let you go insanely fast with no real additional risk. Does drafting belong in Ridge Racer? Sound off in the comments below.

Outside of relatively minor mechanical quibbles and course semantics, all that really divides most Ridge Racer games is their vibes. In this regard, I feel like *V lags a few seconds behind 4. I get it - the potential of a new millennium is far more alluring than actually living in it, and there was no way a PlayStation 2 launch title could compare to a generational capstone... but the aesthetic sensibilities here don't feel as confident or coherent. Type 4's soundtrack plays out like a cohesive album by a single artist, whereas V is more like a compilation CD of electric dance tracks with no specific theme, a gamble of tone that doesn't always pay off. I hit [RANDOM PLAY] in Type 4 and I'll always be happy; in V, certain tracks have me considering whether it's worth just hitting the crash barrier and starting again - that's no good! Relationally, this is in many ways the Tekken 4 to Type 4's Tekken 3. Despite all that, this is, of course, you know it, still leagues and miles better than the vibeless drudgery of Gran Turismo*, which I also played yesterday. You WILL have a good time here, if you stick with it. Guaranteed!

My fiance wanted to play this with me once we were made aware of the same sex couples update. This was coming from a girl whos gaming experience so far has been Minecraft, a little bit of Mario Kart and whatever is on her phone so of course I was happy to oblige. The gameplay isn't really anything amazing, but the way it handles relationships was really heartfelt and the whole journey was really well done and emotional. Playing this game together has got her excited and wanting to get more into gaming, which has helped us get a lot closer too. This was a really special experience, highly recommend you play it with your SO.

Closing out a decade of Dead Rising, the fourth and final entry in the series is a flickering candle, a sputtering flame compared to the galactic supernova that was its forefather. The wick burns dimly, a slow glow fading from an empty room; Dead Rising’s found-family, Capcom Vancouver, returned to ash with the ill-received launch of Dead Rising 4, leaving the neglected to quietly parish among the ruins. The black sheep rests, each prolonged second snuffing out the light, a foregone conclusion coming to fruition. From Frank, to Chuck, to Nick, all pawns in the dawn of the dead, we turn our sights to the final era of Frank West. It comes to this. The beginning and the end, Capcom’s Memento Mori of the Dead. The eternal end of Dead Rising.

Inside that decrepit tomb, sheltered from the wages of perpetuity, you lie. Tattered and ragged, the skin stretched thin over creaking bones, I’m struck with pangs of reminiscence. You’re Frank West, but not the one I know. You’re Willamette, but one from a different world. You’re "Dead Rising", but not one I recognize. Each moment with you is a recollection of better days, and for that, I have nothing but contempt for you. The mechanisms beneath have faltered, the smile has decayed, toothless and rotten, your very self torn away, stripped clean from the hollow skeleton I stare at.

But as much as I’ve been told to hate you, to despise this so-called resting place, I can’t force myself to do so. Engulfed in the soft glow of enmity, my experience with you was not moments of anger, misery, or malice. Locking eyes with the evanescent embers, my goal was clear: Acceptance, in the face of loathing. Embracing the light that was in my life, and not the shallow hollowness in front of me. And most of all, letting sleeping ghosts rest peacefully. Once, I would look upon you, a ray of cosmic brilliance piercing my retinas, a direct concentration of everything I loved and would come to love, a burning beam of sunlight. Now, the flame has died, smoke rising from an ashen stem. Surrounded by encroaching darkness, I can finally bury my memories of you, a peace deserved but long-delayed.

Minutes pass, hours, and now weeks. Every instance apart stings, a double-sided blade dividing my being; You killed the heart of a man I found myself endeared to, but would I have been endeared if not for you in the first place? You stole the essence of time from me, but would I have missed it without you showing the importance of the time I have? You gave me a universe of options and opportunity, but could I ever appreciate it after you taught me to thrive within limitations? Away from it all, I’ve come to accept that you, the creature known as Dead Rising, could never be what I need. Under the ocean sands, your body resides, a forbidden mistake upon the world's unforgiving gaze. But sitting on the shore, I will never bring myself to hate you, not as is so easily done by those near and dear to me. For your missteps, every half-cocked misfire that led me to this point, you showed me something that will stick with me until my dying breath. For that, I thank you. And with that, I need to move on.

Nostalgia’s high tide engulfs the rubble, the seafoam of loss eating into bygone shores. The waves have drowned the memories I made, but as I peer over the crystalline beaches, the deep washes over your grave. For as often as you are buried below the sand, an endless repetition of undying death, I still am drawn in by your ghost, pulled in by the beloved song of Dead Rising. But my love, desecrated as it is, can only fall victim to the same charms so many times.

You are beyond recall, buried in the abyssal plain… and for what it’s worth, I’m at peace.

i LOVE this game. the level design is so good and all the small little side paths and rooms translate even better into 3d than they do 2d.
abilities are a little more simplified compared to previous games, with only a handful of moves, but the upgrade system builds upon those beautifully and they're used so well - i really really like the way they did it, and wouldn't mind at all if they stayed this way in future 3d games.

can't wait for dmc kirby with copy ability switching and hardcore combos in like 2 console gens

The “Dead Rising” I knew was dragged behind a shed and shot in the sweltering summer of 2010, its rotting shell sharing the same name but carrying the soul of an entirely different beast. Stumbling upon the shambling creature, I fell for its ruse, a 24-hour entanglement with a monster wearing a beloved veil. But for all of the carcass’ failings, I couldn’t bring myself to hate it. Glancing upon the decayed remnants of a lost friend, I still could see the remains of the dearly departed; in spite of the malicious current pulsating through its veins, I still saw the “Dead Rising” that I fell head-over-heels for, crumbling away but still recognizable all the same. Laid to rest and buried away, I said goodbye to not only “Dead Rising” itself, but the love I held for it, not out of new-found hatred, but out of acceptance for what it was becoming. In 2013, something bearing the name “Dead Rising” crawled out of that grave, festering and desecrated.

It’s… extreme, to put it in such intense terms, perhaps hyperbolic. However, as time passes and as I expose myself to more and more of the series, my individual story becomes one of watching something I adore be ripped limb from limb, it’s remains cobbled together in a discombobulated amalgam and presented as a new iteration on “Dead Rising”. The spirit of the original has long been excised, and the withered corpse walks, lacking the stylistic flourishes, the mechanical depth, the heart and soul that the name “Dead Rising” usually encompasses.

Yet despite my obvious grievances with the game, I have reached acceptance in my personal stages of grief. Beyond my preconceived notions of what is or isn't “Dead Rising”, of a minimalist structure maintained by the backbone of breakneck pacing and nerve-shredding time limits, something is under the shallow surface. Buried under the murky sands of mid-2010s design philosophies, emotionless browns and soul-sucking grays plastered under a user interface reminiscent of a thousand mobile games, the embrace of freedom over structure flawlessly encapsulated the mindset behind Dead Rising 3. Disregarding story, tonal consistency, and filing away mechanical grain, the city of Los Perdidos becomes a puerile playground, an endless wave of gory, grotesque, goofy ways to dispatch impressive waves of undead practice dummies.

I wish there was more to say, but Dead Rising 3 casts aside most of what I like about the prior entries, with the tone leading in the grimy direction pushed by its direct predecessor, the oversimplification of combo weapons and streamlining of the leveling system. I can’t fairly say it’s a game I disliked; playing online was still extremely fun, but that comes down to the fact that every game in the world can be fun with someone else, even irredeemable trash. As a game building off of one of my favorite series, it’s a massive let down.

So obviously expect a Dead Rising 4 review in a month or so, We Doin’ This

Rayman Legends is a gorgeous, content-rich 2D platformer. There's so much to do it's actually a little overwhelming at first as you are repeatedly informed of newly unlocked content. Once you begin to decipher what all of those notifications mean you'll find a smooth experience with a lot of variety and only the most minor of flaws.

The game's charming water color graphics are remarkably detailed and very pleasing to the eye. This is fantastic looking. Longtime fans and newcomers alike can take pleasure in knowing the series' ear for memorable tunes is still in place. On top of being pretty, Legends is an aural delight as well.

The platforming and controls are spot on. There is a lot to see and do in the game. With so many unlockables and side-challenges to overcome it will take even the most skilled of players some time to fully complete everything Legends has to offer. I was regularly caught off guard by the game's ability to constantly change up the action. It seems like each stage has it's own unique twist to help shake things up. The amount of imaginative scenarios is impressive, ensuring that there's never a dull moment and new challenge to overcome around every corner. While usually a masterfully designed platformer, there are some flaws to take note of. Some stages have less than stellar checkpoint placement. Something that will cause you to have to replay lengthier sections of a stage than is desirable. I also had the achievement for completing the game's last painting/world fail to unlock. Small these issues may be, but they are noticeable nonetheless.

Overall, Legends has just about everything you could want from a platformer. Tons of content, top-notch level design, and first rate production all help it stand amongst the best of what the genre has to offer. The action is even more fun when you bring up to three friends with you for some incredibly chaotic cooperative gaming. Just know you'll have to be able to get together in person. For whatever reason Ubisoft left out any online options. Regardless of whether you play couch co-op or solo though, this might just be Rayman's standout adventure.

9/10

Thief II's sound design creates such a strong sense of space that despite the blocky geometry and stark baked lighting, this really holds up in 2021. Coming from Dishonored, which was fluid & freeform, Thief initially alienated me with its focus on moment to moment movement across mere inches of floorboards, stone & carpet. Each level could be its own world and sneaking through hidden passages, between shadows over soft & hard surfaces has a beautiful rhythm.

The houses drew me in the most, especially the labyrinthine mansions with self-contained stories hidden in basements and attics, each mostly staffed by a bunch of drunk idiots. There is lore here that I couldn't follow and a vague plot I didn't care for, but the brief encounter with the robotic child was the most disquieting shit in recent memory.

Thief is a cat burglar simulator, so doesn’t really capture the sense of overwhelming doom that poverty instills in you (see Pathologic 2 for this), but Garret says his rent is late and I believe him. How often do game characters really worry about money? I usually despise loot hunting, as it sends me into anxious spirals (I flinch at glimpses of numerous pots or crates upon entering a new room in Skyrim) but the treasures here are so sparsely placed and mysterious, that I went through enormous strain to gather everything so Garret could pay his rent and spare a little for water arrows.

Fan missions are worth mentioning, as two decades worth of levels are there to download, many twisting the old tech in strange new ways. The campaign Thief 2x offers some glimpses of Hitman’s hierarchy of public & private spaces, which could have been an interesting direction for the series to take if it hadn’t become whatever bland cinematic experience Th4ef was.

Parasite Eve is a survival horror cinematic RPG based from a book by Hideaki Sena of the same name. Genre lines have been getting blurrier as the game industry has grown, and Parasite Eve certainly is an early culprit as it is easier to associate it with Capcom's popular franchise Resident Evil then with the Final Fantasy styled titles that Squaresoft were more known for at the time.

The story is a simple premise, yet unique. The protagonist Aya Brea is a rookie cop for the NYPD who unwittingly gets involved in a battle of evolution between humanity and a separate organism in everybody's cells known as mitochondria. Humans have been living in symbiosis with them for all this time, but Mitochondrion Eve has declared war, breaking this necessary truce.

No war would be concluded without epic battles to be waged, while perhaps there is nothing quite of that scale, the fights in Parasite Eve are at least engaging and tactical if lacking somewhat in the drama department. All the battles during the game are in real time and always in the same location on the map you are running through, unfortunately predictable while exploring. During battle Aya becomes confined to the location on the screen to duke it out, and sometimes these areas are very small leading to some frustration in dodging enemy attacks as there is literally no where to run.

To attack Aya uses guns of which she will get a large variety of as the game moves on, starting with a handgun but soon gaining access to machine guns, rifles and even grenade launchers, all of which can be customized at the NYPD's gun shop or later in the field using tools to swap stats from weapon to weapon or even her body armor. Before she can fire a bullet however, Aya has to wait for her ATB (active time bar) to fill up; when this is full she can perform an action.

Sci-fi horror is however nearly always too predictable and Parasite Eve falls right in line with that by giving Aya powers of the surreal sort. Like in the battle for real life, evolution of a species does not always go one way; those best suited to their environment merely survive the harsh challenge of the world. Eve is not the only Mitochondria to have evolved; Aya's have also upgraded themselves with the passing of time helping to give her powers by a burst of generated energy. These surreal abilities range from healing to attack and stat boost, acting essentially as magic spells that once again depend on the inevitable arrival of a full atb bar. Overall it is a fun system.

The lack of a map on certain later points in the game left nothing but puzzlement and frustration at needlessly running around looking for the objective area, the museum being the unfortunate level design I am referring to. The final boss sequence has a point of no return and is surprisingly hard in comparison with the rest of the game which almost resulted in an impassable wall through my experience. Yet the most devastating blow to the game however spawns right at the end of the title with an unnecessary and highly cheap chase scene in which Aya gets the chance to meet her maker if the creature so much as brushes against her, forcing the player to fight all of the last boss forms again, and possibly again with so much as a wrong turn.

Parasite Eve does one thing especially well and that is ooze style. The graphics, music and designs are excellent but the fmv's are what really show the theme of the cinematic RPG. Also, shout out to The amazing OST in this game. It uses a mixture of synth and classical instruments to create a creepy horror vibe but also fast paced and exciting when needed.

Overall the bar Square set for themselves was high and this is obvious in production values and an excellent material source, and while succeeding on many levels in creating a unique and thought provoking experience some minor game and level design flaws unfortunately get in the way of making this a run away experience, however what they did make was a very good game that any RPG or horror enthusiast should at least try.

+ Fantastic atmosphere.
+ Great story idea.
+ Fantastic OST.
+ Combat is fun.

- Final section can be frustrating.

A fantastic little platformer. A bit too hard for me but I can absolutely respect the craft that went into it.

All that said I found Celeste is fairly friendly to players of all levels in that when you do die you reload instantly and each screen is a new checkpoint making the game a series of short and fairly quick puzzle rooms. It really does bring about that, "just one more try feeling". I started the game just to try it and found myself still playing it 3 hours and 500 deaths later.

The story follows Madeline, a young woman attempting to climb the mountain of Celeste to prove to herself she can. It actually has a deeper story and character elements than I expected and I actually quite liked a lot of the writing, some of it resonated with me as someone that does suffer from depression and anxiety and some of it was just actually quite humorous.

The game plays over 7 stages and has two bonus levels to play for those that want the challenge. My first run took me about 12 hours. Celeste also features a ton of collectibles in often secret or challenging places to work out how to get to. It's one of the aspects of the game I love, that some of the platforming is simply a puzzle to work out. The game is very simple yet hard to master. Celeste can wall climb for a short period, wall jump once and air dash once. That's pretty much it but the game just controls so well in dashing around the obstacles. Whenever I died it was because I had made a mistake in some way, I never felt Celeste was ever unfair.

Once the main game is finished if you find the collectible cassette tapes you can try the B or C sides of those levels. They are essentially remixed levels with the story sections removed and much harder. It was these I had to acknowledge I just wasn't good enough. I'm not a huge platformer fan or speedrunner but that's ok because Celeste has you covered. It has an assist mode which allows you to change the settings to either slow the gameplay down, give invincibility, infinite air dashes etc. allowing me to still play through and see all the content without feeling frustrated and I really appreciated this as it allows people of all skill levels to have fun which is what gaming is about to me.

(You can also play the original Celeste Classic game as an optional extra hidden in the main game I found cute. It was originally written for the Pico-8 virtual console in 2016 and is free to play online but including it was a nice touch.)

Despite all the praise I did find one of the levels just not that fun to play through in the middle section of the game and whilst I appreciate they tied in with the story and gave and extra challenge I just don't feel it really fit in well with the rest of the platforming design.

Still, overall Celeste is a fantastic game. I bought it due to it's critical acclaim and despite not being my genre of choice had a really good time with it and would recommend every one give it a try.

+ Tight platforming.
+ "Just one more go"
+ Surprisingly good little story and characters.
+ Fantastic accessibility options.

- One level I didn't really find fun.

Decided to work my way through a load of retro shoot'em ups, some new to me, some I haven't played in a while and coming back to Arrow Flash is kind of a disappointment.

The core thing I remembered about this game being cool is still cool is the good news. You control a ship that can also change into a mecha robot at the press of a button like one of the planes from Macross/Robotech. Each form has a variation that makes it worth using at different times. The robot form allows you to lock the satellite gun power ups that are around you to lock in place where as the ship form allows faster movement and for those guns to follow you in a trail instead. Each form also fires your main weapon differently which will also vary depending on one of three power ups (subtlety named I, II & III) as to the type of shot spread. So there is a decent variation to experiment with.

The issue with the game is simply that it's kinda boring. The six levels feel uninspired except for the first which at least looks pretty good with a cloud parallax scrolling effect and a cool giant battleship in the background. It just goes downhill from there with too much down time between enemy waves makes the game feel immensely slow and the levels get massively uninteresting with one part just being a black screen with a few neon wavey lines like they had to rush it out the door. The bosses are also pretty uninteresting. The 'Arrow Flash' special attack just wipes most bosses in a few hits from the robot variation and even without that I kid you not I just stayed on the middle left hand screen of the final boss and fired without getting hit. until it blew up.

All in all Arrow Flash has a couple of interesting ideas but overall is a bit of a forgettable experience. If you want a more interesting space themed shoot'em up on the Megadrive/Genesis choose Gleylancer.

+ Robot / Ship modes like Macross is really cool.

- Level design is uninspiring.
- The game is slow and kind of boring.

About thirty years too late to be presenting any fresh takes about Super Mario World, but here comes my thoughts regardless! This game's a classic, launching off the SNES and entering fierce competition with the contrasting Sonic 1 a year later.

Let's start out with the positives. The introduction of Yoshi is a nice touch, functioning as a power-up with his own unique rules such as being able to get him back after being hit or eating enemies for power-up variations. I quite enjoy the overworld's system of secret exits in tons of levels to unlock alternate routes, warps and secret worlds, and when I thought about it I'm actually shocked more games haven't really used this system given how popular Super Mario World was? Most games that use level selects are either pretty linear or have more direct branching paths (just look at Super Mario 3D World for example), rather than the complex web of exits that Super Mario World has. I will say though that, and this comparison will pop up a few times due to the games being connected and being my favorite 2D Mario (currently), I do prefer Super Mario Bros. 3's overworld. It doesn't have the complexity of exits, but the different ways you can tackle pathing is very interesting, and I always liked the way you could use items before entering levels.

The game doesn't FULLY utilize the SNES' power, unsurprising for a launch title, but Super Mario World is still a pretty looking game (even if I prefer SMB3's a bit more dusty, even "realistic" feel at times), and some parts of it particularly ooze quality such as Bowser's overworld or the Forest of Illusion. I really like the small touch of lightning flashes in the Bowser level overworld giving you a glimpse of the final boss! This game also does all the little things right, stuff like Peach in the final battle helping you out, that help elevate it beyond what would feel like bog standard New Super Mario Bros fare. This game clearly seeks to iterate on the NES Super Mario games and loves introducing new concepts such as springs, the aforementioned Yoshi, the cape's movement, and a toooooooon of gimmicks to mess around with. Super Mario World doesn't play it safe and when it is on, it is on! My favorite levels would probably be most of the Bowser levels, Forest of Illusion levels, Chocolate Island 2 (what a crazy cool gimmick!), Chocolate Island 3, and Ludwig's Castle off the top of my head.

This game had a lot of problems for me too, though, and when it was off it was pretty off. The most obvious thing that hurt a lot of the cool level design was the physic. Mario feels waaaaay floatier and loose compared to the NES titles, is this just me a thing? I hear a lot of people complain about SMB1 or even SMB3's physics, but when I was replaying SMB1 recently I was able to consistently bring myself to a halt on the edges of platforms and do crazy tricks. But in World, Mario retains much more of his momentum when he lands from a jump while also being floatier in the air. Great when you have lots of open space! Not so great whenever you jump on something small. I legitimately had an easier time with a bunch of the Bowser levels because they asked you to do daring, risky, precision platforming but onto large platforms than sometimes I had with simple "hit a block, jump on the block" stuff because it is so easy to slip off of one block if you get the momentum even a bit off.

Similarly, I would say I prefer the P-Speed of Super Mario Bros 3 to Super Mario World's dashing system. World feels a bit squished onto an SNES controller frankly, with both the power up and dash buttons on the same button leading to awkwardness if you want to both run and attack. You also basically want to be holding down dash 80% of the time, which can feel kinda weird to then also jump and led to me often letting go of dash to jump when I really shouldn't. You CAN just fat finger the dash with the jump and spin jump, but it often feels off and with the spin jump in particular not great. I also had a few troubles with my fingers being a bit big for the buttons for this, but I won't really dock points from the game for that because on the SNES (which it was designed for) the buttons were bigger and more spread out than a Pro Controller, so it'd work better with its intended design. P-Speed also feels more skillful, needing to find ways to keep up your momentum and plot out how to move and platform through a course, versus holding down a button. It also allows you to build it up while attacking and felt super smooth with the fire flower.

While the base graphical quality is solid, the game is sorely lacking in variety. The Ghosts Houses and Castles looking the same isn't the issue, but Donut Plains and Chocolate Island for example feel like they could easily be the same "area". It feels like for the main game at least the game has about 3-4 themes that it stretches out compared to the extreme variety of Super Mario Bros. 3 or some other platformers, without having a "unifying" feel that would make it be more logical. Valley of Bowser and Forest of Illusion not only had some of my favorite level design but were some of the only levels that had a truly unique aesthetic which I think really helped them stand out.

Thirdly the game has some VERY uneven level design, to the point by the end I was getting into a rhythm of liking about 2-3 levels fairly well then coming across one I rather disliked. Pretty much every castle level except for Iggy's, Ludwig's and Bowser's sucks. Lemmy and Larry's are probably the worst offenders here, the start of Lemmy's castle is just a needlessly annoying gimmick (and I don't think Ieven ended up clearing it the "right" way lol) which sours a fun latter half, while Larry's has a very boring snake block segment at the start that is RIDICULOUSLY easy but takes like a minute, which if you have to retry the level multiple times starts to feel like brain rot. Wendy's level also suffers from me finding the spin jump onto sawblades or wrecking balls unreliable, leading to frustrating deaths. Sunken Ghost Ship was also a level I disliked.

And while I know many people describe one of THE moments of Super Mario World as getting the cape...I gotta be honest, Donut Plains 1 is one of my least favorite levels in the entire game. The placement of the enemies feels all wrong! The start of the course clearly wants you to be able to get a cape from a Cape Koopa, then learn how to use it to fly, except they placed them in such a way that the enemies at the start will respawn super easily and make it tremendously annoying to do so! The entire level was annoying and actually one of the ones I had the most trouble with, on top of that I get the appeal of how the cape controls but I wasn't exactly a great fan. It does feel pretty nice whenever you get a very wide open space (unless there's enemies), but anything not meant for you to basically skip over everything feels trashy.

Unsurprisingly the story is very barebones and I don't think it has setpieces that match up to taking down Bowser's entire army in SMB3, but I did really enjoy all the little skits after clearing each castle. Were they necessary? Not at all. Were they one of those little things this game does quite well? Absolutely! I looked forward to seeing what each one would do, and of course this is the kind of thing that is enjoyably abusable in the SMW modding scene.

Overall, Super Mario World was a good game with some great highs and frustrating lows. It's easy for me to understand why people consider it a masterpiece, particularly anyone who really gels with the physics (watch people who REALLY know how to play this game and they can pull off soem crazy stuff!), but too much dragged it down for me for it to reach that level. I got half the exits in the game and it was fun enough I'll probably go back some day to get some more, though, so I'd say mission accomplished...and I'm pretty excited to play Yoshi's Island sometime soon. :)