The world does not talk about Super Mario Bros. enough. Yes, everyone and their ancestors talks endlessly about the franchise it spawned - even the cultural importance of this starting entry - but I don't think there's enough widespread discussion about the actual game itself. Namely... that it's a pretty fun game in its own right!

One thing this game does really well is bring the "Super" factor into the gameplay. The original Mario Bros was a never-ending, single-screened plumbing graveyard shift of a game, but SUPER Mario Bros injects it with so much more flavor and adventure. A run button to control the speed and height of your platforming. Unique levels with secrets and power-ups for safe insurance. Wrapped into a playlist that you can marathon towards a genuine ending.

I always admired the challenge of this game. How you can plan every sprint and jump to both bypass the trickiest pits and plow through sections you're already familiar with. Dare I say, it's one of the few Mario games where I was genuinely invested in keeping my power ups to stand a better chance against late game foes, collecting coins and farming for lives, just so I could survive the rest of the road.

I'd say the most primitive things that hold back this starting entry are visual variety and some fine tuning with the controls. There's a reason that 1-1 theme is iconic, cause you're gonna experience it about 20+ times over from start to finish. And while I think the inclusion of a run button and momentum-driven mechanics are the real heart of the gameplay, it's not the smoothest it could be. Mario goes from a walk to a sprint in a seemingly geared fashion that throws me off pretty easily, hard to really set yourself reliably from a safe hop to a long jump without some blurred line in the engine messing you up.

But, cmon. For one of the most important video games in history, it's a damn good showcase of Nintendo's original talent and the potential and appeal of Mario going forward. Especially now when every new platformer is either crazy, speedy, or plain kaizo, it's nice to unwind with a straightforward game with simple mechanics to master and levels that are challenging enough but also open enough to just jungle gym around at your own pace. Maybe Mario would be more Super from this point on, but if there was one game that had to show the world the Super factor of gaming, I'm glad it turned out to be this one.

I liked Love! It's cool to thread the needle of your tiny 16-pixel man across levels so complex. Gives me the feeling of when I'd see diagrams on paper or buildings in the distance and imagine little guys doing platforming on them.

Honestly though, when the game isn't trying to shred your character to pieces, my favorite levels are the more open and abstract ones where you can just roam and get a feel for the unique architecture. The cave resembling a monster was a personal highlight. But for the most part, what you see is what you get. A minimalist platformer about preparing to die. Some tough death traps, some pretty cool scenery, some really interesting gimmicks... without much deliberation on any of these areas. Short and sweet. "Love" may not refer to how I personally feel about the game, but the miniscule craftsmanship of what they pulled in just a dozen or so levels is where the namesake really is.

A platformer that asks, "What if you could speedrun your wildest dreams?", and absolutely hits it out of the park (specifically the uncanny amusement park that your MC prolly once went to as a for real human).

Lunistice marries tight triple jumping and running momentum action with peaking and fragmented obstacle courses, resulting in an excellent speedrun-focused collect-a-thon. Has a really lovely mood of hopping around in dreams of places or memories you had in the past - with platforms feeling so disjointed and out of reach that may not initially look like they fit a coherent course... yet they totally do. Also love that the level design has both numerous opportunities for shortcuts while also weaving secret collectible areas so fluidly into its main paths. It's the kind of game where whether you're playing it fast, casually, or for completion, there's a continuous sense of momentum that you can always maintain.

It can be a real tough game to master its completion routes. I think the worst offender would have to be some of the collectible crane placements. Some of which are pretty well thought out for both guiding newbies and facilitating a fluent completionist route, while a handful of them are really easy to miss because of how they go against the intended flow. Frankly, nothing bites more than getting every feasible route down only to realize you missed one single crane just as you reached the exit. But getting past the grievances of S Rank perfectionism, the vibe and fluidity of the platforming here is unmatched. I've played plenty of speedy, earthly, and insanely difficult platformers, but rarely have I felt one as dreamy, snacky, and seamless to play as Lunistice.

Really looking forward to that DLC update. Also, Mario Galaxy wishes it had spin-jump platforming this excellent. Yeah, I said it.