As I grew up with Mario 3 and Mario World and both remain two of my favorite games of all time I fear I am nearing the time of falling into the boomer "this isn't the "insert thing here" I grew up with" stance. Cause Mario Wonder isn't the Mario I grew up with that Mario is gone. For good and for bad, there are absolutely brilliant stretches of levels here but there's also a lot of badge and extra levels that add a bit of bloat and ultimately don't stack up to the best levels. But I can't believe how many of the new enemies are fantastic, the hit rate is pretty crazy honestly, Condarts, Outmaways, Maw-Maws, Missile Megs, Seeker Bullet Bills, Armads, and Konks are all new enemies I really enjoyed both mechanically and design wise. I just wish it pushed those new enemies, as well as new powerups, and level mechanics I really enjoyed even farther iteratively than it does. I would love to see Nintendo follow up on this really quickly Galaxy 2 style, really push even further what they have here.

Ultimately my highest praise and harshest criticism is one phrase I said probably a dozen times over the course of playing thru Wonder: I can't wait to see what we can do with this enemy/block/mechanic/theme in Mario Maker 3.

Honestly holds up better than I was expecting, was ready for the combat to be excruciating, but walked away higher on it than after playing it when it came out. It's really the combat encounters and level design that are lackluster as opposed to the feel of the combat itself. The combat has a little something, it's not perfect but you can see the foundations of where they take it with Quantum Break and Control. But it's obviously way more about the story, world, and atmosphere and all are still really good.

Joins Doom 1 and 2 and Quake as older FPS's I was playing for the first time ever in the 2020's I ended up really enjoying after not being sure how they'd hold up going in to them. And similar to those other 3 one of my favorite parts of Perfect Dark is the level design, it's not as smart or secret filled as the others but games and level aren't designed the way anymore. I don't mean that purely negatively in regards to modern gaming but there's a sprawling, winding nature to the design of levels in this era that just is fantastic when done right. Also the tone, world building, and soundtrack are all great as well.