Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was first released when I was a stupid kid playing video games. As such, I appreciated it at the time, but I did not have the level of admiration that most of its fans do. I had a similar experience with Persona 3, though I played that for the first time much later in my life than PM: TTYD.

And much like me playing Persona 3 Reload made me understand just why people loved Persona 3 in the first place, playing through the PM: TTYD remake brought that same level of understanding.

But while Persona 3 Reload was polished and cleaned to what could be argued as a sterile sheen, the PM: TTYD remake took nearly everything that people loved about the original TTYD and made it better. And that's why, between the two, PM: TTYD is the better remake.

The art direction is the perfect balance between the original iteration of PM: TTYD and the hardcore papercraft aesthetic of Paper Mario: The Origami King. The twenty years of video game graphic advancement since the original was released have allowed the developers to create the game "as you remember it". The battle stage is especially successful here. Any time I entered a battle without a player / enemy first strike, I was completely delighted as the set pieces unfolded themselves and then the characters would run in. That alone is one of the best "surprise and delight" moments I have experienced in any video game.

The new soundtrack is also successful, though it leans more toward the jazzy tunes of recent Paper Mario entries than the original. I absolutely love it. And for those who don't, they give you a badge that plays the original GameCube soundtrack instead. Perfect.

The cast of characters remains the most diverse in any video game bearing Mario's name. It is a reminder of how criminal it was when the series pivoted to no-name characters in later entries.

My only complaint - a minor one - is that there just wasn't enough new playable content. No new Pianta Parlor games, only two (admittedly amazing) new bosses... There could have been more. But so much more effort was put into the game's art direction and presentation that it makes up for it.

I desperately hope that Nintendo and Intelligent can push the formula further. I don't want a "PM: TTYD 2" - but what I do want is a game in the series with the same core philosophy of creating a diverse, lore-heavy, but most importantly believable Mario world. Where every character has something to say, where characters of different species interact in hilarious ways... I want the next game in the series to expand the Mario lore in ways we haven't seen before.

I don't put this in my top ten, but certainly in my "S Tier". My playthrough lasted approximately 40 hours - completing the main story, one full run through the Pit of 100 Trials, and defeating two of the game's three superbosses.

decided to just run through this one again real quick, i don't know if this is my fourth or fifth time playing it all the way through but it's a game that's stuck with me since i was a very young child. i had inherited my dad's NES to start out with gaming but on christmas 2003 i remember going downstairs to find a nintendo gamecube plugged into the television with the title screen for super mario sunshine radiating from it, and i remember it absolutely flooring me. if we were to tally up the combined hours i've sunk into this game since i was six years old it probably clears any rpg or multiplayer timesink i've ever played, it is just that good.

i think what it really comes down to is the movement mechanics, this is simply the cleanest and most responsive mario has ever felt. it takes almost everything from 64 (already a masterclass in character movement mechanics) and adds on the FLUDD system which softens a lot of the platforming for beginners but also allows for so much more freedom once you really know how to harness it for your own devices. spraying water and sliding faster to yr destination, flipping out of it into a triple jump and wallkick to gain height before using the hover nozzle to float over to a hard to reach area. when the moment to moment gameplay is so much damn fun it's really hard to criticize anything else.

even then i don't really think there's much to criticize here. the production design of the tropical paradise is so lush, the locations all instantly iconic to me, themes remixing classic mario music as well as original scores are all absolutely bangin, and the actual graphical quality still holds up to this day because of it's simple but strong art direction. sometimes, amidst all the chaos, it's nice to just relax and a enjoy this virtual vacation for a few minutes, sit at the beach with yr water gun, looking at the sunset and pondering what mess to clean up next.

anyway, that might have been slightly too poetic to say about a game staring a cartoon plumber cleaning gunk off a tropical island, but this game will always hold a special place in my heart, something i can instantly pick up and beat in just a couple days and it never gets old. for all the innovation of 64, the scope of galaxy, and the freedom of odyssey, it's sunshine that will always be the greatest to me.

I’d like to apologize to everyone over the years who heard from me that Super Paper Mario wasn’t actually as bad as everyone made it out to be.

Perhaps this is a series destined to only have two games worth playing, both of them being the chronological first entries. Super Paper Mario, unlike its predecessors, is a game defined by occasional moments, rather than anything that can meld into a cohesive whole. Playing through it is like stirring water into oil. Yeah, you’ve got the part where you work off a debt, and the part where you play a Princess Peach dating sim, and the part where Mario dies and goes to the River Styx, but these are little more than sandbars peeking out from beneath a sludgy lagoon. You’d be hard-pressed to call them forgettable, but that’s only because it’s twice as difficult to remember anything else from the bulk of the game.

I think that the only reason I had fond memories of this to begin with stemmed from me being stuck at my elementary school “girlfriend’s" house every day after school with nothing to do besides play this or Cars (2006). She didn’t have too many Wii games, and I didn’t think of her the way that our moms wanted us to, which meant that it was going to be Super Paper Mario or nothing. A man dying of thirst will drink from the foulest stream. Honestly, the one thing I remember really liking at the time was the fake-out Underchomp fight where the game turns into Dragon Quest for three minutes before chucking you back into the platformer stuff. It’s good to know that I’ve been an insufferable Thousand-Year Door turn-based RPG purist since before I hit fifth grade.

I digress. The point to make here is that what I was once content to pass the time with as a child has since been revealed to be incredibly fucking boring through the lens of a new run through it. Honestly, I couldn’t even bring myself to finish it this time around. I managed before, when I was younger, and had lower standards, with literally nothing else to do. A decade and a half later and I had to bail before Chapter 6 hit.

There’s just so little to like and so little to do in the massive, sweeping valleys between the very brief peaks that this game has that makes it genuinely kind of tough to discuss. How many ways can I say “it’s just walking to the right and then walking to the left and then walking to the right again”, really? You go to a place, get told you need a thing, walk to the thing, get the thing, walk back to the place to deliver the thing, end of stage. Sometimes you don’t even get that much — the entire Sammer Kingdom is just knocking out way too many mooks across way too many rooms and then holding right for five straight minutes before you do one of another countless middling boss fights. With your mechanics reduced to little more than various flavors of jumping on a guy’s head, you can pretty much sleepwalk through every lengthy encounter by getting sufficient height and chaining incredibly easy bounces with less satisfying momentum than Super Mario Bros. for infinite damage.

I suppose what really got the hooks into its fans was the narrative, which I regret to say was not the sweeping, epic tale of love everlasting that I thought it was when I was ten. Maybe it’s the muted, reversed-instrument “dun dun DUN” score that sweeps over the emotional scenes that sells this as being grander and more impactful than it is. What really damns the entire overarching plot for me is that how few characters are actually permitted to be characters; you can end the game with twelve(!!!) supporting Pixls in your party, and I literally cannot remember the name of a single one of them save for Tippi. Where the previous two games usually had your partners reacting with dialog wholly unique to them in any given scene (meaning that if you really wanted to see all of the text in the game, it would necessitate something like at least eight different playthroughs), Tippi is virtually the only one ever allowed to speak. Partners in the previous titles would often talk for Mario — Mario is little more than a symbol in the vein of Mickey Mouse, you see, so he’s not actually allowed to speak in full sentences — which added personalized flavor to cutscenes based on who you had deployed at a given time; here, the entire burden falls squarely on the wings of your living mouse cursor, and she just isn’t interesting enough to pull that much weight.

The good moments here are genuinely impressive, and you could make the argument that they’re some of the better bits that the series has to offer, but they’re ultimately little more than that: moments. No greater implications, no cohesion, nothing to really sink your teeth into. It commits the cardinal sin of being immensely boring for the overwhelming duration of its runtime, and the vignettes hinting at a greater experience somewhere in here cannot possibly withstand the torrent of sluggish tree climbing sections nor toilet paper fetch questing nor infinite heavenly stair scaling.

Count Bleck’s real name being Blumiere implies that he’s French, making him the most vile villain Nintendo has ever created.

[This review contains spoilers!]

Recently I was discussing with some friends what was the best remake ever made, and I genuinely struggled to think of an answer as to what would be my pick. However, that has now become the easiest question in the world for me: the best remake ever made is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo Switch. It’s hard to understate how hyped I was for this game ever since its first announcement, having watched its reveal trailer for over 200 times in the span of a month. It was one of my top 3 favorite games of all time, finally being brought back seemingly in the most faithful way possible.

And after finishing it 100% I can confirm that it was indeed brought back in the most faithful way possible. Even more so than the recent Super Mario RPG remake! It didn’t change a single character design, any gameplay element, any story beat, NOTHING! Everything was kept intact, just like it was in the original, even characters that had their designs altered in the years that followed. Not only did they keep everything intact, but they also managed the unthinkable feat of enhancing the charm of a game that already overflowed with charm, thanks to the improved presentation, with every single character (be it main or NPCs) having new animations when they speak and the cutscenes having a much more robust camerawork.

Speaking of presentation, the game looks stunningly gorgeous! The new dynamic lighting brings all the areas of the game to life in a way that’s a real treat to the eyes, be it the vibrant areas such as Petal Meadows or Glitzville, or the more moody locations, such as the predominantly pale Boggly Woods or the frigid Fahr Outpost. I always wondered how TTYD would look with the papercraft aesthetic of recent games in the series and, as expected, they’ve realized it flawlessly here. Some people complained about how every ground is overly shiny and reflective, but it doesn’t bother me at all.

As for the new quality of life changes, they remedied the biggest issue most people had with this game: the backtracking. While I myself never found it egregious, the changes they made surely make the game even more enjoyable, such as the new fast travel pipes in Rogueport to help with the side quests and the infamous General White hunt, and the pipe from Twilight Town to Creepy Steeple to alleviate the back and forth between both areas. There are other smaller tweaks scattered across the whole game that help to trim down the fat to improve the pace of the game even further.

The new UI looks CLEAN, too! It feels surreal to see a modernized version of the badge inventory in 2024, how I missed it so much... The badges are what truly make the battle system of the first two games so special, since you can make your own playstyle with them, offering huge variety for repeated playthroughs. And speaking of battles and UI, that’s one of the few complaints I have about this remake: navigating the menus during battles does feel a tad clunkier than in the original game. The battles themselves also play out slower, with more waiting time between each turn and changes like everything coming to a stop when the audience wants to throw something. I feel they also tweaked the stage hazards to disrupt the enemies much more often than Mario, which makes the game a bit easier.

That sluggish feeling is also present with the textboxes, since you can no longer speed through dialogue by mashing a button, unless it’s a dialogue you’ve read already, which, like, what’s the point then? That does impact a bit on the replayability of the game, but it’s such a minor blemish on a remake that I can say with 100% confidence makes the original nearly obsolete. It pains my heart to write that sentence given how TTYD is one of my favorite games ever, but that’s how phenomenal this remake is.

The other big new addition is the brand new soundtrack. While the recent Mario RPG remake opted to re-record its songs as faithfully as possible to the original game, the Paper Mario TTYD rearranged the entire soundtrack in the style of Origami King, with a bigger emphasis on live instruments and a more rock-oriented sound. Not only that, but they basically TRIPLED the length of the soundtrack, with a bunch of new songs added to each chapter to further enhance the impact of many scenes or areas, like variations of the main battle theme, new themes for bosses that used to share the same theme as another, each partner now having their own theme, new songs for several cutscenes in the game, etc.

Since the game’s release, the reception to that soundtrack has been sorta positive, but I’ve seen a bunch of mixed comments as well. As for me, I love it. Yeah, as someone who has played the original countless times there’s some songs I feel the OG versions are better, but there’s many that I feel are on par or even an improvement. They all feature additional sections at the point they’d originally loop, so it’s evident the arrangers put a lot of care and effort into injecting more life into all these songs. That can be said about the whole game, really: it’s a beautiful labor of love of the developers for this game that’s clearly as treasured by fans as it is by themselves.

My favorite new arrangement is the one for Fahr Outpost. The original song is this very experimental synth track, kinda alien, kinda erratic, but the new arrangement transforms that weirdness into this moody and atmospheric piece, almost foreboding in a way, with a new section added at 0:44 that gives me chills everytime I listen to it, which fits perfectly thematically with this small isolated village covered by snow for socially recluse Bob-ombs that want to bury their war past. Fahr Outpost was never a particularly memorable area from the game, but this new arrangement for its theme transformed it into one of my favorite areas. When I first got there in the remake I just stood motionless for some minutes, mesmerized by this song, contemplating it.

My only small complaints regarding the soundtrack are related to the new compositions they made for this remake. They’re all solid songs, but some can feel a bit out of place in the segments they play, and they mostly go for new melodies instead of taking inspiration from songs from the original game, so they give this “Origami King scrapped track” vibe. A big example would be the new theme they made for the Atomic Boo fight, which is a banger yeah, but it just feels like a Origami King boss battle track, without any TTYD-ness injected into it. This game is also chock-full of references to Paper Mario 64 and I gotta admit I was expecting some remixes from it after seeing the main title theme get a new arrangement, but no, that’s literally the only remix from that game in this remake.

Now something new that was clearly inspired by the N64 game are the credits. In the original TTYD they were honestly kinda bland, being simply some screenshots accompanied by the silhouette of the characters walking around in the background. Not even the song stood out. I kinda wish they’d make a new credits sequence like the parade from Paper Mario 64, but knew it was unlikely... BUT! Turns out I was wrong! Because they did EXACTLY THAT! It was a treat to see a bunch of fun interactions between the lovely cast of this game, to the sound of a new medley inspired by the songs of each chapter. That got more than a few tears of happiness from my eyes, gotta admit :’)

There’s very little brand new content in the remake, but what is there is INCREDIBLE, such as the two new bosses. Both of them feel like the devs trying to explore new grounds with the combat system of the game, introducing fun and unique mechanics like attacks that drain your FP, having to alternate between jump and hammer attacks based on the stance of the enemy, using stage hazards to their advantage... It almost feels like a tease of what we can expect from a next game in the series that’ll finally bring it back to its roots, which has been a dream of mine for some years. And on that end...

Paper Mario TTYD being remade means much more than simply that, because the Paper Mario series became something completely different after the release of this game, with several interviews confirming that it wouldn’t return to the RPG format, how they couldn’t create unique characters or modify pre-existing ones anymore, and yet, here we are! The game that is the complete antithesis of everything the Mario brand stood for for over a decade now got a remake that didn’t sanitize a single thing about it, with an intense marketing campaign focusing on those aspects that make it such an unique game in the Mario canon and that were completely absent from recent games.

One could say “but it’s just because it’s a remake! that doesn’t mean the mandates are over!”, but you gotta remember even the Mario & Luigi remakes for the 3DS had some elements sanitized, even though they’re considerably less bolder than TTYD, so I do believe there has been a change of mindset inside Nintendo when it comes to allowing the Mario brand to be more creative once again. Mario Wonder and the Peach game are also proof of that, with both of them trying a bunch of new things, especially when it comes to character designs.

The credits of this remake even say “...AND YOU!” in the Special Thanks section, so they’re listening. They know what the fans have been yearning for all these years. The fact they chose this game to be the final announcement of a Nintendo Direct shows how much they’re aware how important this game is, not just to fans, but to the Mario franchise as a whole. And more than ever it fills me with hope to see a brand new Paper Mario game in the same vein as the first two, with the same marvelous combat system and no more restraints when it comes to creative characters, locales and dialogue.

I imagine if Paper Mario indeed follows that route, it won’t have the technical limitations of the first two games, such as the segmented areas with loading zones between each screen, it’ll probably be a more expansive world like in The Origami King, which is completely fine by me, since the exploration of that game is a blast. That will make this remake feel even more special, because we got to see the classic Paper Mario format modernized in 2024. Yes I know this is a weird tangent that might not even make sense for some people, but it is extremely fascinating to me.

With all that said, the Paper Mario TTYD remake is a dream come true that not even the most optimistic side of me could have ever dreamed of. I genuinely felt emotional many times playing this game, in awe that I was playing a modern version of one of the games that’s most dear to my heart. I know they thanked us in the credits of the game, but if there’s anyone who should say thank you it's me. Thank you SO MUCH for remaking a masterpiece into a new masterpiece, Intelligent Systems <3

After playing Super Mario USA (Super Mario Bros. 2) for so many years, I wondered why I have never played the original FDS game that starred non-Mario characters. I always heard people call it inferior but was curious if it truly was.

Dream Factory Doki Doki Panic in many ways is impressive that a team could take a platformer formula and make it more expansive with more emphasis on verticality. It’s not about jumping on enemies but picking up various items and enemies. The game sacrifices level count for this only having 20 levels. Not only that but it has four different characters with different stats really making each level feel different for the benefits and disbenefits a character can have. There’s also a boss in many stages with a lot of them being Catherine (Birdo) which can feel a bit repetitive. They also make you fight three Mousers in a playthrough and it never gets challenging. The game is pretty easy too, especially once you learn the ins and outs of it.

It should be discussed right now that I think the hate of there being no run button is a bit exaggerated. Yes it is nice to have a run button that was later added in the Mario version but the game is really well paced and designed without it. Outside of a shortcut or two being impossible without the run button, I never really felt like I needed one. I think a lot of the vertical level design helps with the notion of not needing it. Now this will always be a preference and me saying that is not gonna convince most or even all people but I just wanted to express that the game is completely enjoyable without one.

In the end it’s just what you expect if you have already played the Mario version, so it’s a pretty fun game and you’ll find lots of differences here like the music being more limited and even some new songs, Phantos not activating in the room you get the key, unlimited continues, and loading times cause it ain’t an FDS game without those. Though there is one other thing that does kind of suck. You see, you can’t see the ending without beating it with every character. Every character is on their own path to the end so once you do one playthrough, it’s back to the beginning with someone else. While Dream Factory is fun, trying to do four playthroughs just to see a small ending feels like a very poor way to extend the runtime. The most positive thing I can say about it is it’ll help you master every character but this is something I’m glad stayed with this entry.

Is Dream Factory a footnote in the history of Nintendo that will probably stay as just a footnote and nothing else? Ehh kind of? It’s such a weird feeling because it is still a very good game but the multiple playthroughs kind of hurts the curiosity and idk if doing just one playthrough would satisfy a player enough to warrant doing it. Mario USA is just easier to play nowadays as well due to that not having licensing issues. It’s even gotten remakes on the SFC and GBA. There’s better ways to play the game now so while I have my defenses, it’s hard to recommend you all to see this game till the end. It feels bittersweet writing this but that’s just how it is sometimes. This is still a must play if you’re looking for FDS games or wanting to see all of the history regarding the game but otherwise, it’s a footnote in gaming and sometimes that's not a fully bad thing to witness.

If there's one thing that can be said about the average Backloggd user, it's that they likely have Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles in their top five games. I can't say that's too surprising, because I too think it's the perfect platformer, and expands brilliantly on every mechanic and design concept of the previous three games. It's so good, in fact, that the entire series earned an extended rest until 2016's Sonic Mania. Yup, it's hard to believe but there were no Sonic games between 1994 and 2016! It's a little something called "going out on top."

Of course, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is two games in one, or rather two halves made whole again. Thanks to the power of Lock-On Technology™, it's literally one game's contents stacked on top of another with a few additional bug fixes, layout changes, and music swaps thrown in for good measure. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles both have value on their own, but it's hard not to argue that Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the definitive way to play.

Levels are utterly massive, with single acts taking just as long to complete as full zones in previous Sonic games, and yet they never feel like they overstay their welcome. Tails and Knuckles come with their own unique movesets that open additional pathways inaccessible to Sonic, and similar to Sonic 2, special stage portals are scattered throughout levels rather than being an end-of-stage reward for keeping your rings. What you end up with is a game that takes multiple runs to see completely, and each subsequent jog through S3&K's 13 zones feels better than the last. I touched on the importance of exploration in Sonic games without losing sight of the game's pacing, how finding new paths and hidden areas should continue to push you forward, and I think Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the absolute zenith of this design philosophy in the Sonic series. There's always something new to find, but the game just flows in a way that discovery never comes at the expense of progress.

The zones themselves look incredible, with much more richly detailed sprites than anything seen in the series prior. Mid-act set pieces help change the flow and appearance of levels, like Robotnik's bombing run on Angel Island casting the rest of the level in flames, or an attack from the Death Egg heating up the previously cooled off interior of Lava Reef. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is well known for its cutscenes, which tell a story quite effectively without relying on dialog to give context to character actions or plot twists. Even small details in the backgrounds of levels help flesh out the narrative, like statues of Sonic in the upper portion of Hydrocity serving as an early hint of Sonic's prophesized arrival on the island. This focus on story never gets in the way of the game itself and actually does a remarkably good job at making the adventure feel big. I praised Sonic 1's gradual transition from natural to industrial locations for how it makes you feel like you're working your way from the outskirts of South Island towards the heart of Robotnik's headquarters, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles takes that concept and runs with it. Each Zone features an interstitial cutscene that connects the previous level to the next, making you feel like you're actually chasing Robotnik across the island rather than popping up in unrelated locations because video games. Indeed, the entire premise of the story is built off the back of Sonic 2, with Sonic and Tails following the decommissioned Death Egg in their biplane as it crashes on Angel Island. All of this adds so much character, I don't think you can really go back and do a retro style Sonic game anymore and chunk out these narrative elements. It's one of those things that was done so well it effectively becomes part of the series DNA, an expectation rather than a one-off.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles also features my favorite boss battles in the series. Each encounter offers something unique, and are a fair deal more threatening than those in Sonic 2 while still being intuitive enough so as to not be roadblocks. I also really enjoy the mid-bosses and think it was a smart idea to add these as a way to break up each act. In terms of pacing, these serve as climaxes to the first act as well as pallet cleansers, giving Sonic a reason to stop and plant his feet for a second before transitioning into the next act. This is far more effective than simply having him run through a goal post and fading to black, and actually quite necessary given that doing so after a 4 minute level would just kind of feel awkward.

The blue sphere special stages are perhaps the best in the classic series. I've previously commented on how Sonic special stages are just technical showpieces that Sonic Team couldn't be bothered with actually making fun, but I think blue spheres actually manages to be a good time while still looking impressive. If you smack another cart on top of Sonic & Knuckles you can access a new mode where blue sphere levels are randomly generated. I don't recall the exact number of possible permutations, but there's enough content there that you could go grey before completing them all. And yet, there was a period of my life where I would run through a few of them each day just to see how many I could knock out. I love blue spheres. I'm a danger to myself an others.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is such an incredible game. Thanks to fans, there's also Sonic 3 Complete and Angel Island Revisted which add various tweaks and improvements to the base game, and I think both are definitely worth checking out. It's fun to play around with Complete's restoration of the original intended level order, and AIR provides so many granular options for tweaking the Sonic 3 experience that you can more or less build your perfect version of the game. Plus it has wide screen sport and the music is crystal clear. The Michael Jackson-like voice samples found in many tracks have all their compression removed, it is almost startling how clear they sound. However, I don't want to get too into the weeds on either of these games. Suffice it to say, I think they're worth checking out.

I could talk about this game forever. At the same time, it's also one that I find difficult to discuss in a focused or nuanced way, because every time I start to describe one element I like it ends up reminding me of another I enjoy just as much, and then my thoughts just become scattered until I'm gushing incoherently about how much I love this game. I just think it's that good. I mean, I like Sandopolis for chrissake. Even people who give this a 5 out of 5 would tell you they don't like Sandopolis. That could've been the whole review and it'd give you just as good an idea of how great I think Sonic 3 & Knuckles is without wasting your whole morning on this essay.

Also, it's pronounced high-draw-city. It's not a city! It clearly looks like an aqueduct that's carrying water to Marble Garden, which is the ruins of an ancient city. It's also a water level that focuses on being fast, Hydrocity is a play on the word "velocity!" Yes I know Yuji Naka said it's actually Hydro City, but he made Balan Wonderworld, are you seriously going to tell me that's who you trust!? I will punch you in the nose if you say "Hydro City" to me, I promise you this.

The strangest 3D Mario game in my opinion: simply the presence of voice acting or the fact that the entire game takes place in a single island makes Sunshine a very unique 3D Mario. Aside from the general weirdness it's a really fun game, until you start trying to complete it fully.
The 100% completion in Sunshine is simply frustrating, it highlights some level design choices that I struggle to understand even years after beating the game.
So I would only recommend the game if you're not going for the 100% completion as it made my experience considerably worse

It's my opinion that to fully appreciate what this game is you have to be a little obsessed with the whole Mario 64 mythology that has been built up throughout the years. Lost builds both real and fake, never ending reports of players finding eerie and unfitting elements in such a classic game that pretty much always has eyes on it, the rise of analog horror fueling a new wave of atmosphere and nostalgia focused content - everything plays a part in it.

I often see the argument that the new generation of internet users is "making horror not scary", pointing out how the Backrooms now resembles the SCP Foundation and blaming them for the mascot horror trend that has produced some less than stellar cash grabs. While I personally don't enjoy the "personalization AI" theory and many other concepts that are a bit too far off from reality... so what?

I think that, when faced with a company such as Nintendo, who has the tightest grip on what Mario is and how you should be experiencing at every second of their games with the sole intent of fueling more dollars into their bank accounts, the boldest thing you can do is create something that is cringe. Something that doesn't make sense - or rather, only makes sense to you, at a certain mindset and point in time. Become unmonetizable. Make Mario have the hyper realistic bloody eyes if you want. It's your game.

In a climate where games preservation pretty much /has/ to overlap with piracy to be effective, I think making a rom hack like this that takes elements from real old SM64 builds and combining them with fanmade concepts and rumors old and new is fantastic. It's taking this game that is held to such high standards as "the beginning of 3D gaming" or whatever and getting weird with it.

After 20+ stars of playing, it becomes impossible to differentiate what is real, fake, old or new. It's eerie and comforting and nostalgic and innovative and any other feelings that it makes you feel. It can always be "that deep". It's oddly exciting to get to play something that wasn't ready to be shown to you. Some of the maps even kill you after a certain amount of time to prevent you from seeing the unfinished content. I think that's awesome. Games don't come out of thin air ready, they go through multiple iterations and what you get from the store is the cleanest, most sanitized and marketable version.

I think Mario should run through 5 identical castle lobbies until he goes through 3 fake paintings in a row and eventually reaches a huge cake with an equally huge star - which is actually a quicksand trap that kills him instantly. I'm glad someone else agrees.