I don't think I ever actually played these games until this remake. I've of course known about them and watched videos of them but it was nice to finally experience them myself.

These games honestly feel like the definition of 3D platformer in the sense that this is what I would imagine someone's first thought of bring a game like Mario into the third dimension. These levels feel very straightforward and not a lot of room to run around in but there's load of obstacles to get through and reach the end. It's also neat how a lot of levels have different objectives so adds to re-playability and depth. Also trying to break all the boxes is a very nice and simple second objective that's always feels great to try and go for even if you fail.

I will say all these games in the collection do feel mostly the same but that's because a lot of QOL stuff was added and it wouldn't make sense not to put it in the older stuff. The third game differently does add some curve balls with the special abilities there. So for the most part this collection is just going through a bunch of levels that luckily are all fun for the most part. There's some boss fights thrown in to add variety and they're all ok, maybe it would be better without them but they don't really out stay their welcome. One major change for the remakes besides the QOL is some physics changes which I personally can't tell since I never played the OGs but I thought it would be fair to bring up.

It's still worth checking out both for the fact it's a fun game but a cool history lesson on 3d Game design.