Alright alright so I just came from beating the game for the first time and I just decided to write a review for it already, not even time to get thoughts together. So let's just go ahead already.

Touhou is a franchise that I've had interest in for quite some time. The characters always intrigued me and the music especially sounded great. I've dabbled in some of the games, but only casually and having my fun with them before leaving to do something else. This time however I wanted to dedicate myself to finally at least beating one (There was that one time where I got through this one on easy mode, but come on now. It's easy mode .). Well here we are. After a good amount of tries, I finally beat a Touhou game, and it may honestly be one of the most satisfying things I've done in a video game. I felt my heart beating and I was scared but with enough focus I was able to beat the last stage. But anyways that's enough of my personal experience, what about the actual game?

The game itself is probably the most iconic one in the series. It's the first Windows game which basically means it's the first modern one over the PC-98 games. It's got the most iconic set of characters too, and same goes for the music. As a shooter though, and I know I haven't played many, let alone try to beat them, but I really loved my time with this game. I love the learning curve of trying to dodge stuff that seemed impossible to do when you saw someone in a video play the game. The game progresses with a really good flow, allowing you to adapt to it's growing difficulty. The bombs can be used as screen nukes to get rid of everything for a second so you can realign your shots or save your skin from death. Just know that it's ok to use these regularly since they come as a set with every life. One flaw with this game that gets fixed later down the road (It's the next game I think), is that you can't see your hitbox. Now in order to help you dodge everything on screen, your hitbox is a very tiny circle that's at like the center of your character. As long as nothing touches that circle, then you're good. However this game unfortunately doesn't teach you that so you'll probably be panicking for a minute until you exactly understand how the hitbox works.

I just wanna say that my hands still feel shaky after beating the game and I honestly don't know what I'm doing reviewing the game NOW, but hey I guess I just had to get it off my chest. I guess if you wanna get into the series, this probably ain't the one. I've heard people say 7 and 8 are better choices, but as it's own game, this was still very enjoyable.

Super Mario Land 2 has a lot of heart put into it, and for that alone I enjoyed it so much. It's nothing crazy, there are only 6 main worlds, 2 powerups, it's pretty easy and simple to get through, and really short, but I still really enjoyed this one.

I never played the first land game, but I have seen it in action, and what a graphical upgrade. Not only in terms of the looks, but in terms of settings as well. Mario Land 2 has one of, if not the best worlds for a Mario game to this day. A world where you go into a house as a mini Mario, a toy Mario world where you go up it with there being other toys inside as well, along with a water world with a submarine level, with other great choices as well. It's easily my favorite thing from this game.

The game only has 2 powerups with one being the established fire flower, and the other being the new rabbit power up, which lets you float down. I guess you could say it's just a worse tanooki suit, but I think it's used well throughout the game.

Before I go since I don't feel like I have too much to say on the game, I just got a funny question to ask. Where did Mario get a whole castle? How did Wario even get his hands on it. What was Mario doing, going out for a walk or something? It's just so funny, especially since this is Wario's first game which means that he just showed up here with no one knowing him, as an evil big version of Mario... I'm really sitting here thinking about the lore of Mario. I don't know if that's funny or sad.

There's something about Super Mario Bros. 3 that resonates with me and I don't exactly know what it is. I feel like the first Mario game gave the idea of what this franchise could do and also saved gaming in America back in the 80s, however Mario 3 fully shows what the franchise is all about and how fun it can be. The game is packed with so much new content that gave this franchise more of an identity and I love it for that alone.

But the game itself is also a great time as well and has aged so well after all of these years. Mario's controls feel identical to how he controls in later 2D games which shows how quickly Nintendo was able to hit it on the head. I love all the power ups. The Raccoon Leaf along with it's better, but rare Tanooki Suit have become some of the most iconic power ups in the franchise, and for good reason. They're the first power ups in Mario to allow you to fly, and to do it, you need momentum which can I just say feels really good to get in this game. I love how if you know the layout and know how to get a running start, you can blitz through some levels. I was able to do one myself in the playthrough and was so shocked with what I just did. With the other power ups though, you have the frog suit which can make traversing through water levels much easier and also pretty fun. There's the goomba shoe that let's you walk on rather unsafe enemies & objects, or what about the hammer suit which lets you throw a hammer out in an arc while also being able to spam it. The fire flower returns and I just love how there is so much variety, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. No, they all feel right at home here and I appreciate that. Along with your own inventory where you can stuff things in from the world map.

Speaking of the world map, I think it's done well here, especially for the first time in 1988. It's nonlinear and you can use things like the whistle to skip worlds, or the music box to make enemies on the world fall asleep, or the cloud to skip a level if it's too hard or you know you can easily progress somewhere else. The levels themselves are a joy and there's something about them that comforts me. I think it's how fast paced they are, along with how well they manage to convey a theme with what the level is about. Autoscrolls are introduced and I didn't dislike any of them, but I do feel that there were a little too many of them. Especially in the last world which is kind of weird. Be warned that there are a lot of maze levels in world 7 and you'll probably end up with a time up or two like I did if it's your first time. Also, the music is way too catchy. Any song feels like it could get stuck in your head.

At the end of the day, I feel like Mario 3 is just one of those games that had all the kids going crazy back then. I could just imagine conversations at a playground about someone finding out about how they found out about the whistles and being able to skip a world with it, or how they're stuck on some random level. The game itself has so much charm, and only strived to be bigger and better than it's predecessor's, and succeeded in doing so. I think it's easy to say that this is definitely one of the best if not the best game from that generation with what it did.