A great RPG, but it falls into the same Larian pitfall where Act 1 is frontloaded with so much good, eye-catching and interactive elements that the 2 other acts feel weaker by comparison, it's most apparent heading into Act 3 where the side quests get a lot weaker and the combat scenarios - especially the companion quests - get a lot worse with probably some of the worst I've played in this style of combat.

Outside of those pacing and content issues, there's still a lot of memorable characters, settings, quests, and dialogue here alongside a dynamic, fun system that rewards the player for experimentation.

My wife mentioned that it's been a while since she's seen me really dive into a long session of gaming. I told her that between work and things to do around the house I've been trying some smaller games or short sessions. So, she said she'll take care of all things domestic for the weekend, encouraging me to relax and indulge myself in gaming, like in the old days. With that, I finally delved into an Xbox franchise I'd been eyeing for some time.

To my surprise, I enjoyed it a lot more than anticipated. While at first, the story didn't really grab me and I had a hard time remembering, or even caring for, the different characters, everything started to click for me by the end. On the other hand, the gameplay was very engaging, and it was what kept me glued to the game when everything else didn't click with me. All in all, it was very fun and helped me feel like a kid again. I can't wait to try out the rest of the franchise and see where the story is headed.

*Played the game on the Nintendo Switch.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is always an enigma as both a game and a product. I grew up with playing Mario 1 over the years and I played lots of Mario 3 (though I never did complete that one yet...). Mario 2 was always the one I only played the first few levels and then moved on to Mario 3. Now that I finally played it, I can say that Mario 2 is just average.

As the story goes, there was an attempt to release Lost Levels (jp Mario 2), however Nintendo of America realized it was dogwater hard for Americans and didn't feel confident it selling it. Thus, Nintendo of Japan used another game Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic as a basis by just taking away its original elements in order to adapt it into a Mario game. A Super Sentai to Power Rangers situation in the form of a game. Though personally, I think it was overall for the best since Lost Levels is a dogwater game due to its difficulty.

Mario 2 despite being a reskin of another game does a lot for building the series. The first big takeaway being the amount of new enemies introduced in this game with Shy Guys, Ninji, Pokey, and Birdo being the stand-outs as they became permanent main-stay enemies in the Mario series. The second is the amount of playable characters introduced. While Mario controls the same and Luigi plays the same way he does in Lost Levels, Mario 2 gives us a playable Blue Toad (who is fast, but has the weakest jump height), and Princess Toadstool (who is the slowest, though has her iconic floating dress). Somehow, this worked so well that they didn't even change it when they did it again in Super Mario 3D World two decades later. Finally, it introduced the climbing mechanics and desert levels which became Mario staples.

As for gameplay, there are in total of 20 levels with seven worlds that end with a specific boss fight. The levels feel more like puzzles since over half of them involve Mario collecting keys in order to unlock doors to complete stages, some having Mario go inside cave dungeons that have him goes through several elevated levels, and a few have Mario rely on using obstacles and enemies to have Mario traverse the levels. The big new element added is the ability to grab items and enemies and throw them. It does as you expect as throwing anything can kill any enemy and damage the bosses. Though to balance it, Mario can't kill enemies with a stump anymore. Despite that, Mario 2 gameplay loop is pretty fun for the most part... if you can get use to the movement.

The big reason why Mario 2 got this score is simply the movement of Mario and the other characters. Mario 1 had Mario feel pretty heavy which made some of the tighter platforms much more difficult. Mario 2 is the opposite as Mario feels much more lighter, but feels way more slippery. This led to me over-jumping where I fell into the pits or I slip off platforms because Mario felt slippery to land. This is even worse with Luigi since he is slippery by design. For that, my enjoyment of levels were hurt by the movement the characters feel though that might be reflexes on my part since I played more Mario 1 and 3 for many years.

To end on a positive note, I like all the music. They are charming and short, with my favorite being the character select theme.

In conclusion, American Mario 2 is definitely the better game than Lost Levels, though I only thought it was an okay game since the movement hurt my enjoyment on it. Still, a pretty decent follow-up to Mario 1, though not a true full-on sequel due to it being a reskin of another game. An overall 3/5.

*Replayed this version of Dragon Quest 1 three times. Yes, I wanted to replay this game due to the June 2024 Direct.

DQ1 is the grandfather of all JRPGs and is a game that created Japan's national treasure. This version of DQ1 is ported over from the mobile version which is based on the Super Famicom version which is essentially the first remake of DQ1 from the NES. I decided now to just replay this version since I know it will probably be the last time in light of the DQ1+2 HD-2D Remake.

DQ1 is pretty bare-bones as it is the first of its kind. You got the goal to head to Charlock's Castle and defeat the Dragonlord. However, to get to Charlock's Castle, you'll need some specific items in to make a bridge to arrive to it. There is also the sidequest of saving the Princess of Tantegal, though you can hilariously ignore her for the whole game. Though to even know any of this, you'll need to rely on the nameless npcs to give you hints on the items you need and the locations to go to. Thankfully, mostly all the npcs do provide useful information which makes traversing Alefgard easy.

Combat is turn-based and is pretty barebones. You got your Hero who can attack and uses spells. It's not much, but it gets the job done. Though, you are going to see lots of combat as the main way to make the game easier to grind meticulously which absolutely slow the pacing down. Personally, since levels up in early JRPGs feel more impactful, I do have dopamine whenever I grind and get the satisfaction of getting a level up. A good tip I can say is to utilize the four corners of Alefgard to each individually level up five levels which are enough to help you be strong enough to defeat the Dragonlord.

The visuals are definitely the thing that could be a make or break, especially in comparison to other versions. The backgrounds themselves are fine, though the 2D character models looks... off. The monster designs are still classic Toriyama, though I noticed that some enemies have poses that should have them holding something, but they don't. It's especially egregious as recolors of earlier monsters actually shows them holding their weapons and shields properly. It really does tell how much they rushed the port.

Music is unfortunately the midi versions of the song, though I still enjoyed the few music that the game provides with Alefgard, the Dragonlord's second form, and the ending theme being the standouts.

Overall, DQ1 on Switch is an alright port of the original, albeit flawed with the visuals and the rushed nature of the port. It's a pretty convenient way to play DQ1, though I feel the HD-2D Remake might probably dwarf it in terms of visuals and quality. Solid 3.5/5.