This achieved its goal of featuring adult humor in spades, but as a 3D platformer made by Rare, only Donkey Kong 64 is worse than it.

Look, I know that everyone complains about the sheer amount of collectibles, but I dropped the game as early as Jungle Japes because just moving around isn't nearly as fun as in the Banjo games.

The eternal childhood struggle of trying to get past Expert 4, cooling off by playing the easier difficulties or party games, then doing it all over again... that is an experience which Banana Mania outright refused to replicate.

I think the level design here isn't quite as good as in the first game, but this has so much more content that I couldn't possibly score it lower.

As a kid, I aimlessly explored this game's hub worlds rather than actually trying to progress through the story. I think that's the best way to describe its quality.

This may seem stupid to say, but when I think hard about it, this is as good of a revival for 2D Mario as Sonic Mania is for 2D Sonic.

I know what you're thinking. "You gave New Super Mario Bros. the same score as motherfucking Super Mario World? Are you kidding me?"
No, I am not.

With how much I loved the first NSMB, I was very hyped for this one... but somehow it just didn't hit me the same way.

Yep, I scored this lower than Sunshine, even though it has better controls.
I have a hard time describing my thoughts about it, but perhaps I just didn't feel its magic, not even when I was playing it in childhood.

I am thoroughly convinced that the D-pad controls and inferior artstyle are the only problems with this. Fix them, and it would be better than the original, which is quite the damn feat to accomplish.

Is it bad that the vast majority of hours I spent on this game were just listening to its amazing music through the sound test menu?
Platform fighters aren't a hardcore appeal for me, after all.

Perhaps the only kart racer that really came close to dethroning Crash Team Racing, aside from that game's own Nitro Fueled remake.

This might the best game that could have been recommended to me out of a "hidden gems" thread. A very simple but also very enjoyable roguelite, with a surprise banger of a soundtrack as a cherry on top.

I don't want to make the judgement call too early because a literal third of this game has yet to be finished... but Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal fucking wish they could be this good.

Sometimes, a game doesn't need to be innovative in order to be good.