2024
This game released at an oddly fitting time for me - in front of a weekend where I suffered an injury, where I just wasn't in much of a mood to talk to anyone. I was always planning to pick this up as I've been a fan of Dunkey for a while as well as Metroidvanias, but the timing of a game with no dialouge in a time where I had nothing else I could really do, just felt fitting.
So how exactly do you do a Metroidvania in this style? Well, you can go with a combat route, or a no combat route. This game went the no combat route, and relied more upon its puzzles to create engaging moments. This was somewhat of a disappontment to me at first, until I realized that this was where the game was just at its best.
Rather than obtaining "upgrades" or "abilities" that might help you inside or outside of combat, this game offers you tools that act as the keys to access new puzzles to begin with. Most of these puzzles tend to just be ways to find switches, or allow you to interact with the animals of the world to assist you in doing that yourself. And while the idea of a slinky, frisbee, or bubble wand don't exactly sound as thrilling as a wall jump, new beam, or special attack, where these tools differentiate themselves from traditional powerups is in how they are used to solve puzzles. In that regard, they do what traditional upgrades never really could in your classic Metroid titles. Upgrades being in the form of tools additionally makes where to go a true choice, as your health is more or less going to be the same in every area. Some paths are easier than others, but all are equally doable with the resources given.
One of the things that traditionally sells me on Metroidvanias is that I've always enjoyed solving mazes. So again, what I initially found to be more of a puzzle game with maze-like elements was something I worried would turn me off. Yet, the puzzles all felt different, and surprisingly clever. They made good use of timing, mistakes could lead to lost progress, keeping you on your toes, but they were never really frustrating. I never felt the need to look up a guide, and when I didn't know where to go, the Metroid instincts kicked in, and I started searching the map for possible new avenues, which always seemed to work.
Honestly, I didn't know what I was doing at first. I had no understanding of what the objective was, and I think that's fine initially. My favorite game in the genre, Hollow Knight, starts off in a similar way where you kinda find your footing and the story is there if you want it. Eventually, what you need to progress the game becomes clear here too. I appreciate a game that doesn't jam tutorials down your throat always, and lets you get right to things quickly.
That being said, I think I would've appreciated a controls menu or something. Even if they were basic, it actually took me a minute to figure out how to use the inventory with the X button. I wasn't certain what was and wasn't consumable, since the firecrackers, your first tool, is a consumable, and nothing else really is. I didn't instinctively understand what made an item selectable vs not, these were just things I came to understood later. I agree with the decision to keep the animals quiet as opposed to talking, but I do think there are ways to make this more clear without having to make tutorials that break up the pacing.
This game does have some forgiving elements, but it is not exactly consistent. For instance, when you unlock a door, it stays unlocked, even after death. The telephones work like benches do in Hollow Knight in this way, and there is no shade to pick up in this game either - you can just get right back to what you were doing before. Considering there are many things that can instantly kill you throughout the world, this is nice. But the problem is, some sections are counterintuitive to this design philosophy.
Namely, where you respawn in some areas can feel strangely punishing, especially in some of the water sections. You might respawn in a place where you have to backtrack to flip a switch to access the area that you were just in, for instance. Screen transitions can be a bit unfair as well. While instantly loading the next room can be seen cool and smooth, this can sometimes be a detriment to the player, as action is continuous from screen to screen. You will need to quickly react at times despite the screen transitioning, and falling too low on a vertical transition might result in a lot of wasted platforming. This is where the game can actually be unforgiving, depending on the situation.
If I had to guess the potential barrier for rookie gamers fully enjoying this game, it wouldn't be over completion, or figuring out where to go, but rather some not having the ability to do some of the challenges. Some of these platforming windows are quite tight, and often involve significant pressure.
Handheld mode on the Switch was noticeably a little bit tough for me - the player character is just a small little blob, and he fits inside walls (given by visual cue) and underneath cracks that you would only expect a morph ball to fit through. It is admittedly tough to see from a distance at times, as the game is quite dark. It made some of the pressure filled challenges things I had to just play on my TV.
Of course, the game does look really good. The visual style was a big reason I wanted to play it to begin with as well, as it looked unique. It does hold up in that regard. And I did come to appreciate the "bosses" as well, once I was in the appropriate physical setting to tackle them with precision, because that precision was definitely required.
I found that some bosses were quite unsettling, and that you really just wanted them to be over fast, or to find a way to sidestep them. As a blob with no attacking moves, you often can feel helpless, which is where the horror elements really shine, I suppose. Funnily enough though, whenever I did finish these battles, I never felt that they had overstayed their welcome. It was almost paradoxical in a sense, wanting nothing more than for them to be off your screen, and then being kind of sad when they would leave. The platforming in these moments was stressful, but it did feel like an appropriate test.
After big moments, it seemed like there was a strange mix on how backtracking worked. Sometimes there would be a convenient new exit, that would keep the flow of the game where you would want it to be, very much in a Metroid Dread type of style. At other times, there would be slower exits / escapes, depending on what tools you had at your disposal the whole time.
What I also wasn't much of a fan of were the dark sections on the map throughout the game. Not because they weren't fitting, but because they left holes on your map that you can't document. I found myself often returning to these areas when looking for new openings or having to mark them, just to ensure I try something different. I didn't end up going section by section in any organized manner, and it felt easier to just wander around until I felt like the appropriate time appeared to push in one direction. As a result, I didn't know which tool configuration was required for each segment of the map, all I know was it eventually worked. As a result, I think I would've just preferred the map to not have these holes, because I explored each area multiple times throughout the game, spaced just far enough between trips to forget minor details. Eventually, you get a tool to help with this, but it happens very late into the game. What I did like was that picking up new tools allowed for many shortcuts across the map to be found. This also acted as a clever way to make sections easier on a return visit, without just giving the player more health or defense.
So anyways, what are my thoughts? Well, it was a pretty calm playthrough for the most part. There was obviously a lot of love put into the game, and still many secrets for me to uncover if I choose. There's a lot of clever design here, and the puzzles all feel pretty unique despite me thinking that you can only make so many "relatively simple puzzles." But the game gets so much mileage out of all of its tools. Overall, it's a quick game that I would recommend to fans of the genre. It's something I'll consider replaying one day as well. But there's not much else to say on this without getting into a few minor spoilers at the end of this.
Things do get a little spooky near the end, and I will bring that up in a minor spoilers section below - if you happen to read this and want to avoid that, just keep in mind that the game will perhaps make you jump or feel uncomfortable a few times. I don't find it to be an overwhelming type of horror though. Just remember, you don't always have to engage with an enemy, and even without combat abilities: you won't always be the one without control.
== Spoilers ==
The reason why I say minor spoilers is because this game feels like above all else, its focus is just being a game. There are puzzles, exploration, platforming, and some intense moments. But at the end of the day, I am not sure what the premise is exactly. I'm not sure the game cares exactly what it is, or what it's message is supposed to be. It's just a fun few hours of gameplay. And maybe it doesn't really need to have a message. Perhaps that is the point, given that the game doesn't have dialogue. But if this was the case, I'm not exactly sure why it seemed to want to build up to something.
I mean, the game takes place in a giant well for some reason. That alone invokes some mystery about the setting to begin with. You follow a squirrel at times through much of the game, that always seems to be one step ahead. There are random shrieking sounds that you hear every once in a while throughout the game. And yes, it all leads up to something. But then when you finally do catch up to the squirrel, you get an in game clock timer as your reward. You get to jump down the bottom of the well, which takes you back to the top, in a seemingly never ending loop. You get to save after the ending credits, which is cool. But what exactly was the story? Well, I'm not sure what the point was. But it was a pretty fun eight hours nonetheless, that did help to brighten my weekend. Maybe I'm missing the message, or maybe there is more to find in the cryptic secrets of the world - this also wouldn't be surprising, given the attention to detail thus far. But maybe it's also okay for a game to just be pretty fun above all else, or to want more out of a player than just one credits roll. That is one of the cool things about these types of indie games: the developers often don't mind if not every secret or surprise is seen by everyone, but love giving the ones who work for them those rewards.
So how exactly do you do a Metroidvania in this style? Well, you can go with a combat route, or a no combat route. This game went the no combat route, and relied more upon its puzzles to create engaging moments. This was somewhat of a disappontment to me at first, until I realized that this was where the game was just at its best.
Rather than obtaining "upgrades" or "abilities" that might help you inside or outside of combat, this game offers you tools that act as the keys to access new puzzles to begin with. Most of these puzzles tend to just be ways to find switches, or allow you to interact with the animals of the world to assist you in doing that yourself. And while the idea of a slinky, frisbee, or bubble wand don't exactly sound as thrilling as a wall jump, new beam, or special attack, where these tools differentiate themselves from traditional powerups is in how they are used to solve puzzles. In that regard, they do what traditional upgrades never really could in your classic Metroid titles. Upgrades being in the form of tools additionally makes where to go a true choice, as your health is more or less going to be the same in every area. Some paths are easier than others, but all are equally doable with the resources given.
One of the things that traditionally sells me on Metroidvanias is that I've always enjoyed solving mazes. So again, what I initially found to be more of a puzzle game with maze-like elements was something I worried would turn me off. Yet, the puzzles all felt different, and surprisingly clever. They made good use of timing, mistakes could lead to lost progress, keeping you on your toes, but they were never really frustrating. I never felt the need to look up a guide, and when I didn't know where to go, the Metroid instincts kicked in, and I started searching the map for possible new avenues, which always seemed to work.
Honestly, I didn't know what I was doing at first. I had no understanding of what the objective was, and I think that's fine initially. My favorite game in the genre, Hollow Knight, starts off in a similar way where you kinda find your footing and the story is there if you want it. Eventually, what you need to progress the game becomes clear here too. I appreciate a game that doesn't jam tutorials down your throat always, and lets you get right to things quickly.
That being said, I think I would've appreciated a controls menu or something. Even if they were basic, it actually took me a minute to figure out how to use the inventory with the X button. I wasn't certain what was and wasn't consumable, since the firecrackers, your first tool, is a consumable, and nothing else really is. I didn't instinctively understand what made an item selectable vs not, these were just things I came to understood later. I agree with the decision to keep the animals quiet as opposed to talking, but I do think there are ways to make this more clear without having to make tutorials that break up the pacing.
This game does have some forgiving elements, but it is not exactly consistent. For instance, when you unlock a door, it stays unlocked, even after death. The telephones work like benches do in Hollow Knight in this way, and there is no shade to pick up in this game either - you can just get right back to what you were doing before. Considering there are many things that can instantly kill you throughout the world, this is nice. But the problem is, some sections are counterintuitive to this design philosophy.
Namely, where you respawn in some areas can feel strangely punishing, especially in some of the water sections. You might respawn in a place where you have to backtrack to flip a switch to access the area that you were just in, for instance. Screen transitions can be a bit unfair as well. While instantly loading the next room can be seen cool and smooth, this can sometimes be a detriment to the player, as action is continuous from screen to screen. You will need to quickly react at times despite the screen transitioning, and falling too low on a vertical transition might result in a lot of wasted platforming. This is where the game can actually be unforgiving, depending on the situation.
If I had to guess the potential barrier for rookie gamers fully enjoying this game, it wouldn't be over completion, or figuring out where to go, but rather some not having the ability to do some of the challenges. Some of these platforming windows are quite tight, and often involve significant pressure.
Handheld mode on the Switch was noticeably a little bit tough for me - the player character is just a small little blob, and he fits inside walls (given by visual cue) and underneath cracks that you would only expect a morph ball to fit through. It is admittedly tough to see from a distance at times, as the game is quite dark. It made some of the pressure filled challenges things I had to just play on my TV.
Of course, the game does look really good. The visual style was a big reason I wanted to play it to begin with as well, as it looked unique. It does hold up in that regard. And I did come to appreciate the "bosses" as well, once I was in the appropriate physical setting to tackle them with precision, because that precision was definitely required.
I found that some bosses were quite unsettling, and that you really just wanted them to be over fast, or to find a way to sidestep them. As a blob with no attacking moves, you often can feel helpless, which is where the horror elements really shine, I suppose. Funnily enough though, whenever I did finish these battles, I never felt that they had overstayed their welcome. It was almost paradoxical in a sense, wanting nothing more than for them to be off your screen, and then being kind of sad when they would leave. The platforming in these moments was stressful, but it did feel like an appropriate test.
After big moments, it seemed like there was a strange mix on how backtracking worked. Sometimes there would be a convenient new exit, that would keep the flow of the game where you would want it to be, very much in a Metroid Dread type of style. At other times, there would be slower exits / escapes, depending on what tools you had at your disposal the whole time.
What I also wasn't much of a fan of were the dark sections on the map throughout the game. Not because they weren't fitting, but because they left holes on your map that you can't document. I found myself often returning to these areas when looking for new openings or having to mark them, just to ensure I try something different. I didn't end up going section by section in any organized manner, and it felt easier to just wander around until I felt like the appropriate time appeared to push in one direction. As a result, I didn't know which tool configuration was required for each segment of the map, all I know was it eventually worked. As a result, I think I would've just preferred the map to not have these holes, because I explored each area multiple times throughout the game, spaced just far enough between trips to forget minor details. Eventually, you get a tool to help with this, but it happens very late into the game. What I did like was that picking up new tools allowed for many shortcuts across the map to be found. This also acted as a clever way to make sections easier on a return visit, without just giving the player more health or defense.
So anyways, what are my thoughts? Well, it was a pretty calm playthrough for the most part. There was obviously a lot of love put into the game, and still many secrets for me to uncover if I choose. There's a lot of clever design here, and the puzzles all feel pretty unique despite me thinking that you can only make so many "relatively simple puzzles." But the game gets so much mileage out of all of its tools. Overall, it's a quick game that I would recommend to fans of the genre. It's something I'll consider replaying one day as well. But there's not much else to say on this without getting into a few minor spoilers at the end of this.
Things do get a little spooky near the end, and I will bring that up in a minor spoilers section below - if you happen to read this and want to avoid that, just keep in mind that the game will perhaps make you jump or feel uncomfortable a few times. I don't find it to be an overwhelming type of horror though. Just remember, you don't always have to engage with an enemy, and even without combat abilities: you won't always be the one without control.
== Spoilers ==
The reason why I say minor spoilers is because this game feels like above all else, its focus is just being a game. There are puzzles, exploration, platforming, and some intense moments. But at the end of the day, I am not sure what the premise is exactly. I'm not sure the game cares exactly what it is, or what it's message is supposed to be. It's just a fun few hours of gameplay. And maybe it doesn't really need to have a message. Perhaps that is the point, given that the game doesn't have dialogue. But if this was the case, I'm not exactly sure why it seemed to want to build up to something.
I mean, the game takes place in a giant well for some reason. That alone invokes some mystery about the setting to begin with. You follow a squirrel at times through much of the game, that always seems to be one step ahead. There are random shrieking sounds that you hear every once in a while throughout the game. And yes, it all leads up to something. But then when you finally do catch up to the squirrel, you get an in game clock timer as your reward. You get to jump down the bottom of the well, which takes you back to the top, in a seemingly never ending loop. You get to save after the ending credits, which is cool. But what exactly was the story? Well, I'm not sure what the point was. But it was a pretty fun eight hours nonetheless, that did help to brighten my weekend. Maybe I'm missing the message, or maybe there is more to find in the cryptic secrets of the world - this also wouldn't be surprising, given the attention to detail thus far. But maybe it's also okay for a game to just be pretty fun above all else, or to want more out of a player than just one credits roll. That is one of the cool things about these types of indie games: the developers often don't mind if not every secret or surprise is seen by everyone, but love giving the ones who work for them those rewards.
2000
As a Gamecube era kid, the first Paper Mario game I ever played was Thousand Year Door, one of my favorite games of all time. I would next play Super Paper Mario on the Wii, and despite liking it and even seeing it as a worthy followup, I did feel like the decisions to forgo a RPG battle system was not a good one. At this point, I wasn't sure if TTYD was just a one-off to begin with, so I was delighted to accidentally find Paper Mario on the Wii Shop one day, a game that looked like it followed the exact same style of gameplay as TTYD.
Now I will be upfront in saying, and maybe it is due to nostalgia, I did not prefer the original over its sequel. However, it was more than worth playing. When it comes to single player games, more of a good thing is always a good thing. So while I preferred things like partner HP, no level cap, superguarding, the theater stage, and a more ambitious story, this game still stood out as one of my favorites.
Paper Mario of course established the formula, and it immediately landed on something special. While the overall story is a classic Mario saves Peach from Bowser plot, what really stands out here are the different chapters you go through. Each chapter has a unique setting and story to tell, that makes them all stand out compared to the rest. Chapters 4 and 7 in particular were standouts for me, and while I've never been a big fan of Chapter 6, it is still decently fun.
These settings are all brought to life by their unique cast of characters, and even objectives. All of these chapters have humorous moments and many have just completely absurd ideas, and while the in between chapter sequences aren't always the most fun, they provide welcomed breaks and their own touching moments from time to time.
Of course, Toad Town, or the hub, is also a big part of the game as well. Toad Town fixed an issue with Super Mario RPG in the sense that well, you have a home base. You don't access it through a world map, and while this hub serves as a place to shop, seek advice, train, and explore, it connects to all the places you need to go.
Having a place like this is great because it helps bring the world to life. All the toads have their own unique designs, and many share a rather cute name style (i.e. Tayce T. the chef, Russ T. the information expert) and as such, the world feels lived in. Things change throughout the town as the game progresses, and the Toad Town sewer system also serves as a way to fast travel to return to places once you unlock certain abilities.
While later entries in the series may have had some more ambitious ideas for chapters, and Paper Mario usually always sees you in some type of dungeon, all of them still feel distinct. Both of the first two chapters feel rather basic in concept, but the creativity really starts to pick up around the third chapter, where the setting takes a pretty drastic turn midway through.
While before I did say that the battle system can feel kind of empty compared to TTYD, I do think it can pose more of a challenge at times. Partner HP makes sense; however, not being able to use your partner to ever shield you makes Mario a bit more of a target. The inability to superguard gives you no outs when facing enemies that deal large amounts of damage. I opted to keep my HP intentionally low throughout a recent playthrough, and felt that this was a great way of creating additional challenge without having to try too hard to obtain it.
Despite being the first of its kind, Paper Mario feels like a complete game. With all the badges scattered around the world, upgrade blocks, star pieces, and even recipes, there's plenty to do for completionists, plenty of battle strategies to be explored, alongside some optional bosses to fight that are quite challenging. As such, all the features in TTYD that weren't present in the original feel truly like extras that went above and beyond. Paper Mario itself was not lacking. It is a perfect game to pick up and play for a week. It's not too short, you feel a sense of progression throughout the game, but it's not a huge commitment that'll take you quite a bit of time.
One critique I often have of N64 games, especially as someone who grew up in the generation right after, is that I find them to just look really bad or unappealing. This game is the huge exception. Maybe it's because it was one of the later games in the life of the N64, but the paper aesthetic definitely plays a big role in this too. I almost wonder if this style was chosen because it would look really good on the N64 comparatively to other Mario games, but it also could have just been that the theme of the game was that as a game in the RPG genre, it needed to be focused on actually being a "story". Either way, it works well.
Furthermore, the music is just outstanding. Dare I say, it's potentially the best in the full series, even to date. I find that many of the highlights come from non-battle related themes, which is something I can't say about every game in the series. That being said, many of the best boss themes in the series come from this game as well.
So, is there anything else I prefer about this game over TTYD? Well, shout-out to the spin move. Why they got rid of it will forever remain a mystery to me. It makes traversing so much more enjoyable than it otherwise would've been, and might even be part of the reason why backtracking feels much lighter in this game. Overall, you only really notice it when returning to Toad Town after beating a chapter.
So overall, this is one of the most well made games I've played even still to do this day. By nature, it didn't seem to be a game that seeked to be much more than just a standard Mario game in RPG form, but the transition was practically perfect. There are hardly any low points, and still a lot of great moments. This game built a system from the ground up that got it completely right on its first attempt, and it makes sense while fans are still craving more games like it, even still today. I am still crossing my fingers for a sequel like it again in the future, and the TTYD remake is a great starting point if anything.
One Spoiler:
shoutout to gourmet guy
Now I will be upfront in saying, and maybe it is due to nostalgia, I did not prefer the original over its sequel. However, it was more than worth playing. When it comes to single player games, more of a good thing is always a good thing. So while I preferred things like partner HP, no level cap, superguarding, the theater stage, and a more ambitious story, this game still stood out as one of my favorites.
Paper Mario of course established the formula, and it immediately landed on something special. While the overall story is a classic Mario saves Peach from Bowser plot, what really stands out here are the different chapters you go through. Each chapter has a unique setting and story to tell, that makes them all stand out compared to the rest. Chapters 4 and 7 in particular were standouts for me, and while I've never been a big fan of Chapter 6, it is still decently fun.
These settings are all brought to life by their unique cast of characters, and even objectives. All of these chapters have humorous moments and many have just completely absurd ideas, and while the in between chapter sequences aren't always the most fun, they provide welcomed breaks and their own touching moments from time to time.
Of course, Toad Town, or the hub, is also a big part of the game as well. Toad Town fixed an issue with Super Mario RPG in the sense that well, you have a home base. You don't access it through a world map, and while this hub serves as a place to shop, seek advice, train, and explore, it connects to all the places you need to go.
Having a place like this is great because it helps bring the world to life. All the toads have their own unique designs, and many share a rather cute name style (i.e. Tayce T. the chef, Russ T. the information expert) and as such, the world feels lived in. Things change throughout the town as the game progresses, and the Toad Town sewer system also serves as a way to fast travel to return to places once you unlock certain abilities.
While later entries in the series may have had some more ambitious ideas for chapters, and Paper Mario usually always sees you in some type of dungeon, all of them still feel distinct. Both of the first two chapters feel rather basic in concept, but the creativity really starts to pick up around the third chapter, where the setting takes a pretty drastic turn midway through.
While before I did say that the battle system can feel kind of empty compared to TTYD, I do think it can pose more of a challenge at times. Partner HP makes sense; however, not being able to use your partner to ever shield you makes Mario a bit more of a target. The inability to superguard gives you no outs when facing enemies that deal large amounts of damage. I opted to keep my HP intentionally low throughout a recent playthrough, and felt that this was a great way of creating additional challenge without having to try too hard to obtain it.
Despite being the first of its kind, Paper Mario feels like a complete game. With all the badges scattered around the world, upgrade blocks, star pieces, and even recipes, there's plenty to do for completionists, plenty of battle strategies to be explored, alongside some optional bosses to fight that are quite challenging. As such, all the features in TTYD that weren't present in the original feel truly like extras that went above and beyond. Paper Mario itself was not lacking. It is a perfect game to pick up and play for a week. It's not too short, you feel a sense of progression throughout the game, but it's not a huge commitment that'll take you quite a bit of time.
One critique I often have of N64 games, especially as someone who grew up in the generation right after, is that I find them to just look really bad or unappealing. This game is the huge exception. Maybe it's because it was one of the later games in the life of the N64, but the paper aesthetic definitely plays a big role in this too. I almost wonder if this style was chosen because it would look really good on the N64 comparatively to other Mario games, but it also could have just been that the theme of the game was that as a game in the RPG genre, it needed to be focused on actually being a "story". Either way, it works well.
Furthermore, the music is just outstanding. Dare I say, it's potentially the best in the full series, even to date. I find that many of the highlights come from non-battle related themes, which is something I can't say about every game in the series. That being said, many of the best boss themes in the series come from this game as well.
So, is there anything else I prefer about this game over TTYD? Well, shout-out to the spin move. Why they got rid of it will forever remain a mystery to me. It makes traversing so much more enjoyable than it otherwise would've been, and might even be part of the reason why backtracking feels much lighter in this game. Overall, you only really notice it when returning to Toad Town after beating a chapter.
So overall, this is one of the most well made games I've played even still to do this day. By nature, it didn't seem to be a game that seeked to be much more than just a standard Mario game in RPG form, but the transition was practically perfect. There are hardly any low points, and still a lot of great moments. This game built a system from the ground up that got it completely right on its first attempt, and it makes sense while fans are still craving more games like it, even still today. I am still crossing my fingers for a sequel like it again in the future, and the TTYD remake is a great starting point if anything.
One Spoiler:
shoutout to gourmet guy
I've always had a bit of a strange relationship with The Legend of Zelda - it is a series that I recognize is objectively great - but I realize I haven't always had the patience for it. Yet because of its reputation, as well as me being a bit of a Nintendo enthusiast, I always have felt like it should be one of my favorite series ever.
The Breath of the Wild style initially felt like the answer for me - as such, Breath of the Wild felt so fresh and different compared to the previous 3D entries, and I appreciated that the game didn't force you to do anything. The choose your own adventure type of gameplay made it feel like the Zelda game I was always hoping for growing up, and as such, it pretty quickly became my favorite game in the series. While Zelda has traditionally been more about solving a series of puzzles, that wasn’t really my cup of tea, and while I know many Zeldas fans don’t agree at all, I prefer the heavier focus on exploration in this game, and like how they implemented shrines as a contrast.
Tears of the Kingdom, at first glance, feels like it should be another step closer toward becoming my ultimate Zelda adventure. It took the rather bland temples and bosses, and gave them a major buff in themeing and personality. The game does have a somewhat interesting storyline, and in comparison, it makes you realize that BOTW's story feels like a rather "default" Zelda story.
In an attempt to make things fresh while using the same map as BOTW, the game features 3 total layers to the map. Because the game realizes that there's a lot of navigation, the new runes give you the tools to make travel much less tedious than before, through new abilities like the ultrahand combined with the autobuild feature. Ascend makes many of the hidden discoveries of the world conveniently a one way trip, and recall allows for much easier exploration of the sky Islands. To round out these major new abilities, the fuse ability makes enemy drops much more valuable now and makes the average resource much more useful overall.
While the game was clearly made with convenience and even player creativity in mind though, I see many people feeling disconnected with this game. And this is something that happened to me too. I played about 40 hours back in May when the game launched - but oddly, it wasn't until December when I finally became motivated enough to actually finish the game. And I’ve noticed many people, even self proclaimed Zelda fans, have not come back to finish it yet, wondering if there is something just wrong with them due to the game’s reputation.
I've wondered why this is. Because in December, I had a lot of fun with the game. It's clearly a quality game. It improved upon a quality game. I enjoyed the resolution of the story and the ending felt impactful. So what's the issue here? Well, I have a theory. And it's that the game doesn't really do a strong job of getting players hooked.
Video games are a unique form of media, due to them being interactive. When you start playing a game, your expectation is that you're going to play. But many games seem to start off with many tutorials, and many cutscenes. It makes sense of course - you need to learn how to play - and you need to know what's going on.
But the problem with building up so much story information so early is that players often don't have a reason to care yet. Characters are ultimately ineffective if players don't yet feel a connection to them. Considering this game is a sequel though, of a popular game series nonetheless, it feels like Zelda is uniquely suited to get away with its slow opening since players likely want to see how Link and Zelda’s relationship has developed in the years after the calamity to begin with. But that’s where we reach a little bit of a dilemma.
If you’re going to start a game off with more story information, and advertise it as a direct sequel to the previous game, where players are somewhat expected to have a little bit of an idea of what’s going on even from the start, you need to treat the rest of the game like a sequel, in my eyes. And TOTK seemed to do that on a very inconsistent basis.
Some characters, like Purah, Impa, and Paya, have all had changes in their lives since the last game. Yet all the characters you interact with in the regional phenomena main quest seem to have little to no recollection of the things they talked to you about back in the first game. There is no mention of the divine beasts anywhere, which feels a little comedic. The irony here is that the divine beasts, in practically all the unfortunate circumstances facing the kingdom in this game, would’ve acted as a solution for the regional phenomena to begin with. Zora’s Domain is covered in sludge you say? Wouldn’t a controllable giant elephant that can cause excessive downpour in a specified area be useful right about now? It seems like the divine beasts and champions of the first game have been whitewashed out of the lore of the game. The reason why feels like they just wanted to make an easier plot, and the presence of things like the divine beasts would’ve made a simple plot make a little less sense, which is a bit disappointing.
The Sky Islands were advertised as a major feature of this game, but they only really seem relevant in the tutorial section of the game. Honestly this was a bit of a questionable decision since they really are not designed in an open way compared to The Great Plateau back in the first game. The game is an open world game, but this whole section acts in a linear fashion. In a sense, it loses out on the sense of wonder that I think many people felt when playing Breath of the Wild for the first time.
After the tutorial, there is not much reason to ever go back up to them again. Most islands just have like one treasure or something, but these treasures typically never feel like they're worth the hassle of getting there. You can use recall on rocks that fell from the sky as a way to get back up to the platforms from the ground, but after a few times of trying this, I eventually stopped caring and passed them up on my own accord. I just didn’t really care.
This went for other things as well - the koroks who needed help reaching their friends, helping the sign guy, and even going for treasure in the depths. I’m glad these features and sidequests were in the game for the Zelda enthusiasts who want to play for 300 hours and do absolutely everything - for me though, it just did not click enough, and that’s fine. But I do wish the game could’ve convinced me to do more.
The depths essentially acted as what the sky islands were advertised to be, pretty much doubling the size of the map. Overall I wasn’t a huge fan of them - I liked the exploration part of it, and a lot more powerful stuff could be found in the depths as well. But near the end of it all, I felt like I was going through the motions, only seeking out the next lightroot, just so I could complete the map. I wondered if it really mattered or if it was worth it, since really there were only limited things of interest down there, namely with the Yiga Clan and Kogha’s awkward boss fights.
All in all, my experience with this game was strange. I know it’s better than Breath of the Wild, and it feels ludicrous to even suggest that it isn’t. And maybe I am detracting from my experience with the game based upon lofty expectations, or penalizing it not on by its own merits, but because it's a sequel. But weirdly, I think I had more fun playing its prequel. And that’s not really a knock on Tears of the Kingdom - I really liked Breath of the Wild as well. The world was just not really a breath of fresh air anymore.
The thing that did stand out in comparison was just the story though. Similarly to Breath of the Wild, you can unlock special cutscenes through exploring the world map. The cutscenes were easier for me to find in this game, because they were all attached to a giant geoglyph that could be seen from the sky. Each geoglyph would contain a dragon tear that would initiate each scene. These functioned similarly to the memories of the first game, but with one major unfortunate difference. The tears of the kingdom were used to tell the story of the game - and as such, allowing players to see the cutscenes in any order takes away from the impact of the story, in my opinion. Seeing the cutscenes in an effectively random order worked in the first game, because the memories didn’t have a direct order like in the sequel. Link also had amnesia in that game - and this is actually a rather accurate representation of what regaining memories would be like. The tears were just different. They were naturally ordered.
Going to fight the final boss after experiencing the most intense build up (i.e. learning the story in the right sequence, and recently reaching the climax) would have been great in my mind, but that’s not to say that the ending wasn't a great experience. It took a bit more preparation than I was initially expecting - I realized I had to cook some new types of healing items, but once you are properly prepared, it is quite a thrilling closer all the way through to the end, with a satisfying enough conclusion. It definitely eclipsed Breath of the Wild in this regard, mainly due to the attempt of having a story this time. BOTW’s dark beast segment was “epic”, but not really “impactful”, in my mind. TOTK does deliver in this regard, and even has some other neat touches throughout the game that are story related. There is a permanent subtle change to the blood moon cutscene that occurs at a certain point in the game for instance, that is actually pretty cool when you think about it from a story perspective. It’s the type of stuff you expect from the developers of a franchise like this one.
So all in all, this was a worthy follow up. I think it is pretty clearly an improved game, and perhaps it will make going back to the original feel difficult, where all the new mechanics won’t be part of the gameplay. But I do think that the game probably could’ve been better if it acted more as a natural continuation of Breath of the Wild’s world. In many ways, it feels like Tears of the Kingdom kind of minimizes the world of the first game by just not acknowledging some, but not all, details that should’ve carried over. And this is fine in most cases - but when you are carrying over the exact same world and explaining the reason why the first game happened to begin with, I don’t think most veteran players will appreciate a lack of continuity, because it comes across as feeling like you wasted your time with the first game to begin with. That is what will happen without fail when a sequel essentially states that the threat of the first game was only a small part of an overarching issue. One might argue that some bought TOTK and never played through BOTW, but as mentioned before, BOTW’s story was not super deep or hard to understand to begin with. I think making a sequel was a fine idea, I just think it would’ve been better if they truly went all in on making it feel like one, rather than only going half way. You have to go with the all or nothing approach here, because anything else will result in a world that feels like an alternate timeline.
So a lot of this review was quite nitpicky, but admittedly, that’s what happens when the bar is high. Tears of the Kingdom was still an experience worth playing, and I don’t regret my time with the game. If I had truly gotten tired of the game, I definitely could've finished it up with much less than a hundred hours of logged playtime. I do hope that perhaps the next game tries out a different world if they continue going the open world route, however. I think there’s only so much that can be done with this part of the Zelda timeline. Regardless of direction, I'm excited to see what comes next, and excited to see if they end up taking the feedback that myself and many others are echoing as well. I think they will take everything into consideration, because certain things (not all) were changed from Breath of the Wild. I know it's going to be a great time regardless, but it's always nice to see talented developers still consider fan feedback :)
The Breath of the Wild style initially felt like the answer for me - as such, Breath of the Wild felt so fresh and different compared to the previous 3D entries, and I appreciated that the game didn't force you to do anything. The choose your own adventure type of gameplay made it feel like the Zelda game I was always hoping for growing up, and as such, it pretty quickly became my favorite game in the series. While Zelda has traditionally been more about solving a series of puzzles, that wasn’t really my cup of tea, and while I know many Zeldas fans don’t agree at all, I prefer the heavier focus on exploration in this game, and like how they implemented shrines as a contrast.
Tears of the Kingdom, at first glance, feels like it should be another step closer toward becoming my ultimate Zelda adventure. It took the rather bland temples and bosses, and gave them a major buff in themeing and personality. The game does have a somewhat interesting storyline, and in comparison, it makes you realize that BOTW's story feels like a rather "default" Zelda story.
In an attempt to make things fresh while using the same map as BOTW, the game features 3 total layers to the map. Because the game realizes that there's a lot of navigation, the new runes give you the tools to make travel much less tedious than before, through new abilities like the ultrahand combined with the autobuild feature. Ascend makes many of the hidden discoveries of the world conveniently a one way trip, and recall allows for much easier exploration of the sky Islands. To round out these major new abilities, the fuse ability makes enemy drops much more valuable now and makes the average resource much more useful overall.
While the game was clearly made with convenience and even player creativity in mind though, I see many people feeling disconnected with this game. And this is something that happened to me too. I played about 40 hours back in May when the game launched - but oddly, it wasn't until December when I finally became motivated enough to actually finish the game. And I’ve noticed many people, even self proclaimed Zelda fans, have not come back to finish it yet, wondering if there is something just wrong with them due to the game’s reputation.
I've wondered why this is. Because in December, I had a lot of fun with the game. It's clearly a quality game. It improved upon a quality game. I enjoyed the resolution of the story and the ending felt impactful. So what's the issue here? Well, I have a theory. And it's that the game doesn't really do a strong job of getting players hooked.
Video games are a unique form of media, due to them being interactive. When you start playing a game, your expectation is that you're going to play. But many games seem to start off with many tutorials, and many cutscenes. It makes sense of course - you need to learn how to play - and you need to know what's going on.
But the problem with building up so much story information so early is that players often don't have a reason to care yet. Characters are ultimately ineffective if players don't yet feel a connection to them. Considering this game is a sequel though, of a popular game series nonetheless, it feels like Zelda is uniquely suited to get away with its slow opening since players likely want to see how Link and Zelda’s relationship has developed in the years after the calamity to begin with. But that’s where we reach a little bit of a dilemma.
If you’re going to start a game off with more story information, and advertise it as a direct sequel to the previous game, where players are somewhat expected to have a little bit of an idea of what’s going on even from the start, you need to treat the rest of the game like a sequel, in my eyes. And TOTK seemed to do that on a very inconsistent basis.
Some characters, like Purah, Impa, and Paya, have all had changes in their lives since the last game. Yet all the characters you interact with in the regional phenomena main quest seem to have little to no recollection of the things they talked to you about back in the first game. There is no mention of the divine beasts anywhere, which feels a little comedic. The irony here is that the divine beasts, in practically all the unfortunate circumstances facing the kingdom in this game, would’ve acted as a solution for the regional phenomena to begin with. Zora’s Domain is covered in sludge you say? Wouldn’t a controllable giant elephant that can cause excessive downpour in a specified area be useful right about now? It seems like the divine beasts and champions of the first game have been whitewashed out of the lore of the game. The reason why feels like they just wanted to make an easier plot, and the presence of things like the divine beasts would’ve made a simple plot make a little less sense, which is a bit disappointing.
The Sky Islands were advertised as a major feature of this game, but they only really seem relevant in the tutorial section of the game. Honestly this was a bit of a questionable decision since they really are not designed in an open way compared to The Great Plateau back in the first game. The game is an open world game, but this whole section acts in a linear fashion. In a sense, it loses out on the sense of wonder that I think many people felt when playing Breath of the Wild for the first time.
After the tutorial, there is not much reason to ever go back up to them again. Most islands just have like one treasure or something, but these treasures typically never feel like they're worth the hassle of getting there. You can use recall on rocks that fell from the sky as a way to get back up to the platforms from the ground, but after a few times of trying this, I eventually stopped caring and passed them up on my own accord. I just didn’t really care.
This went for other things as well - the koroks who needed help reaching their friends, helping the sign guy, and even going for treasure in the depths. I’m glad these features and sidequests were in the game for the Zelda enthusiasts who want to play for 300 hours and do absolutely everything - for me though, it just did not click enough, and that’s fine. But I do wish the game could’ve convinced me to do more.
The depths essentially acted as what the sky islands were advertised to be, pretty much doubling the size of the map. Overall I wasn’t a huge fan of them - I liked the exploration part of it, and a lot more powerful stuff could be found in the depths as well. But near the end of it all, I felt like I was going through the motions, only seeking out the next lightroot, just so I could complete the map. I wondered if it really mattered or if it was worth it, since really there were only limited things of interest down there, namely with the Yiga Clan and Kogha’s awkward boss fights.
All in all, my experience with this game was strange. I know it’s better than Breath of the Wild, and it feels ludicrous to even suggest that it isn’t. And maybe I am detracting from my experience with the game based upon lofty expectations, or penalizing it not on by its own merits, but because it's a sequel. But weirdly, I think I had more fun playing its prequel. And that’s not really a knock on Tears of the Kingdom - I really liked Breath of the Wild as well. The world was just not really a breath of fresh air anymore.
The thing that did stand out in comparison was just the story though. Similarly to Breath of the Wild, you can unlock special cutscenes through exploring the world map. The cutscenes were easier for me to find in this game, because they were all attached to a giant geoglyph that could be seen from the sky. Each geoglyph would contain a dragon tear that would initiate each scene. These functioned similarly to the memories of the first game, but with one major unfortunate difference. The tears of the kingdom were used to tell the story of the game - and as such, allowing players to see the cutscenes in any order takes away from the impact of the story, in my opinion. Seeing the cutscenes in an effectively random order worked in the first game, because the memories didn’t have a direct order like in the sequel. Link also had amnesia in that game - and this is actually a rather accurate representation of what regaining memories would be like. The tears were just different. They were naturally ordered.
Going to fight the final boss after experiencing the most intense build up (i.e. learning the story in the right sequence, and recently reaching the climax) would have been great in my mind, but that’s not to say that the ending wasn't a great experience. It took a bit more preparation than I was initially expecting - I realized I had to cook some new types of healing items, but once you are properly prepared, it is quite a thrilling closer all the way through to the end, with a satisfying enough conclusion. It definitely eclipsed Breath of the Wild in this regard, mainly due to the attempt of having a story this time. BOTW’s dark beast segment was “epic”, but not really “impactful”, in my mind. TOTK does deliver in this regard, and even has some other neat touches throughout the game that are story related. There is a permanent subtle change to the blood moon cutscene that occurs at a certain point in the game for instance, that is actually pretty cool when you think about it from a story perspective. It’s the type of stuff you expect from the developers of a franchise like this one.
So all in all, this was a worthy follow up. I think it is pretty clearly an improved game, and perhaps it will make going back to the original feel difficult, where all the new mechanics won’t be part of the gameplay. But I do think that the game probably could’ve been better if it acted more as a natural continuation of Breath of the Wild’s world. In many ways, it feels like Tears of the Kingdom kind of minimizes the world of the first game by just not acknowledging some, but not all, details that should’ve carried over. And this is fine in most cases - but when you are carrying over the exact same world and explaining the reason why the first game happened to begin with, I don’t think most veteran players will appreciate a lack of continuity, because it comes across as feeling like you wasted your time with the first game to begin with. That is what will happen without fail when a sequel essentially states that the threat of the first game was only a small part of an overarching issue. One might argue that some bought TOTK and never played through BOTW, but as mentioned before, BOTW’s story was not super deep or hard to understand to begin with. I think making a sequel was a fine idea, I just think it would’ve been better if they truly went all in on making it feel like one, rather than only going half way. You have to go with the all or nothing approach here, because anything else will result in a world that feels like an alternate timeline.
So a lot of this review was quite nitpicky, but admittedly, that’s what happens when the bar is high. Tears of the Kingdom was still an experience worth playing, and I don’t regret my time with the game. If I had truly gotten tired of the game, I definitely could've finished it up with much less than a hundred hours of logged playtime. I do hope that perhaps the next game tries out a different world if they continue going the open world route, however. I think there’s only so much that can be done with this part of the Zelda timeline. Regardless of direction, I'm excited to see what comes next, and excited to see if they end up taking the feedback that myself and many others are echoing as well. I think they will take everything into consideration, because certain things (not all) were changed from Breath of the Wild. I know it's going to be a great time regardless, but it's always nice to see talented developers still consider fan feedback :)
Paper Mario is so controversial and divisive at this point that I think fair and honest discourse surrounding the series is really difficult to come by. Typically you get categorized into one of two camps, and when allowing this to happen as a community, we effectively prevent ourselves from taking a look at the finer aspects of a game that was sent to the shadow realm long before its launch.
Paper Mario: Color Splash by all accounts had one of the worst reveal trailers I think I've ever seen from a video game. Not only did it look bland and uninspired, but it doubled down on a completely hated entry in the Paper Mario series in Sticker Star. Tone-deaf doesn't even begin to describe how poorly this trailer came across to the longtime fans of the series, and its presentation made it appear to be an afterthought to Nintendo if anything. It felt like more of a personal attack than anything else, and it left me wondering if I was even a fan of a series that I used to call my favorite of all time.
Initial concerns were rather warranted, and the game suffered immensely because of the decisions put into the combat system. This game was not a RPG, but like its predecessor, it very much pretended to be one. The battles, while better than Sticker Star, very much felt lifeless. Gamers often hate using consumable items because of the irrational fear that you might need something later, and that is the name of the game here. I often found that I could end every encounter on the first turn if I truly wanted. The battle was less about finding a way to defeat an enemy, and much more about finding out the minimal amount of resources you could use to do so. There were some instances where I wanted to run away from a battle that I could clearly win.
But the interesting thing about this game is that the more I looked into it, the more I kept getting surprised. The initial trailers gave me no hope it would be anything, but then I started seeing some signs of life.
I reluctantly ended up getting this game for Christmas in 2016, 4 years after Sticker Star. For Sticker Star, I wasn't aware of what the game was going to be like before playing, and I was massively disappointed as a result. But Color Splash ended up being the opposite: having zero expectations, I found myself surprised at how much I actually ended up enjoying the game. And I'm not saying that to just be nice either. The game didn't just have bright spots. I thought it was actually good. This is because while the battling system was not good, so much else was.
One of the features that stood out in the original trailer was the returning of a world map, like in Sticker Star. This resulted in many groans, but as I played the game, I realized that the world map was actually a great approach for this game.
Unlike in Sticker Star - each level really stood out. Each one had a distinguishing factor that made it completely unique from the other ones, and no idea really overstayed its welcome. Many of these were standard types of levels you would expect to see in a platformer game like this one, but many had more gimmicky themes. While Sticker Star felt like a RPG version of New Super Mario Bros, Color Splash seemed to have unique ideas not seen in other places.
Like the games that came before, the game was split into what we call "chapters". These chapters all had an overarching quest that spanned across multiple levels, that would justify taking you back and forth between them. This could include finding some sages, rescuing a "pet", going on a voyage, etc. But the challenges you would encounter in each individual world kept things pretty engaging. Admittedly, like in most Paper Mario games, the highlights really start hitting around the middle of the game, so you will miss out if you can't get through an early game that feels a little "safe".
Traditionally in Paper Mario games, you would enter a new chapter and it would have a main theme and a loosely related dungeon. The chapter would have to run with that one idea. Here, you could allow a story to still be told throughout the chapter, but it could take a place across many areas. Despite the fact that there was no connected map, the world did feel real. As such, the level variety in this game was a series best, and the overall pace of the game was very strong as well.
(Spoilers on these levels in the next paragraph).
The levels that stood out to me were the Dark Bloo Inn, The Golden Coliseum, The Sunset Express, pretty much all of the Fortune Island Voyage, Fort Cobalt, Cobalt Base, Sacred Forest, Mossrock Theater, and of course the Green Energy Plant. Many of these levels were not standard at all, and I loved the change in pace of each one.
Another thing I really liked about the game was the actual design of the levels. One thing this game and The Origami King later on both do better than the original trilogy is build an explorable world. Outside of the original Paper Mario, the first 3 games did have a tendency to overuse hallways a bit. It's something you don't always stop and notice in TTYD because that game is still quite engaging in other ways, but I do appreciate how Color Splash differed in this aspect.
Many didn't like the idea of a paint hammer, but in my mind, it was one of things that really took advantage of the fact that this is a Mario game. The colorless spots across each level incentivized players to explore the world, and that desire to finish painting Prism Island is actually what got me into most of my fights. Many I would try to avoid, but some I wouldn't be able to. These fights also at least gave your paint hammer more capacity as the game went on as well, still giving you some incentive to do them.
Levels could also be more vertical, and ironically, there were "Rescue Squad" Toads to rescue throughout the game that also incentivized exploration. These Toads frequently had a fun one liner, and they would help you later in your adventure and sometimes hint you on where you need to go next.
"Things" were still a part of this game like in Sticker Star, but they were a lot more tolerable this time around. The puzzles seemed less cryptic and the Toads at the Port Prisma docks were a massive help if you ever felt stuck. Often you could get an item you needed in the level you were supposed to use it in, which was nice. But there were still some occasions where the backtracking could be annoying (most notably having to redo The Cobalt Base for the secret prize).
The worst instance of backtracking came in Kiwano Temple - one of the weaker / slower levels in the game. Many of these levels had multiple exits like in Super Mario World, where Paint Star color would indicate which direction / chapter the exit would lead to. I was fine with this and even felt that many levels utilized alternative exits in interesting ways - this could be to use a prior level to open up a new part of a map later on after acquiring some new Things / Paint Stars, or simply to create a shortcut on the world map.
The issue with Kiwano Temple in particular was that the exits were placed right on top of each other at the end of a very slow paced dungeon that featured some depth perception issues at times. So this definitely wasn't a highlight in my eyes.
Speaking of world map shortcuts, they could come in use. But not really in a good news kind of way. Another lowlight of this game was the presence of a Shy Bandit, a Shy Guy who can actually delete the progress you had painting a level. In my first playthroughs I never had a problem with this character and felt that he wasn't a big deal, but in my recent one, I had two encounters where it was just not possible to run across the world map to stop him from draining color from a level in time. Luckily I wasn't going for 100% completion in this run, but it made me realize that this was a pretty lame addition for no reason.
This game seems to have a weird fascination with instant death chase sequences as well. I avoided most since I was prepared in my later playthroughs, but it can be kind of annoying. It feels hard to die, so this seems like the game's way of giving you a game over. At the very least, there tends to be a save block right before each instant death experience.
This applies in battles too, where not having the right Thing sticker doesn't just make a fight really hard like in Sticker Star, it turns the bosses into downright impossible to beat entities. This does distract from how shallow the combat really is, admittedly. I think the paint / color effect for enemies is cool to show how much HP is left, but I definitely miss the days where each Paper Mario enemy had a rather low amount of HP. It felt more like a game of strategy back then rather than a guessing game.
Unlike Sticker Star, charm is definitely here, but I won't lie, I don't understand why the Toads couldn't just have more unique designs. It's like they remembered part of what made the original games such a joy to exist in the world of, but only went halfway on addressing what Sticker Star was lacking.
It is frustrating to me. The game had potential to be really good, but it just skips out on the things that I would call necessary for a Paper Mario game - like an interesting story. These misses hold me back on giving it the praise that many newer fans would like to see from a big TTYD fan. As much as I want to say that Paper Mario is great like it used to be, I can't say that and feel like I'm being honest about it.
The writing in Color Splash wasn't really good as much as it was funny - the game makes you smile a lot, and more than the originals at that. After a while though, you realize that all the NPCs seem to be used as punchlines, and it makes the world feel less serious as a result. While it doesn't result in good world-building, I will admit that I still read every single Toad's dialogue from the largest rescue team upon each replay, and always chuckle at a few lines.
Humor is a very important part of these games given their heavy emphasis on text, but I think weirdly the game having a story creates a much more balanced set of NPCs where the genuinely funny characters feel like they aren't actually just trying too hard to be funny. This type of balance would be preferred.
I know a lot of completionists hate the Roshambo Temples, and perhaps there are too many of them. But admittedly, I felt like they were pretty cute for side content. It always made sense for a Paper Mario game, and weirdly it felt less in your face about the game being "paper" than other aspects of these games.
I think that covers just about everything. Overall, this is a mixed bag. There's a lot of bad here, but I would argue much more good is present, that just did not exist in Sticker Star. For those newer Paper Mario fans out there, yes I am a TTYD fan, but I've now willingly played this game 3 times. That has to count for something.
I will always want to bring up the good with this game - really, the game has so many memorable moments, and I think that is why I have many lasting memories with it. But I also have to bring up the disclaimer every time I hype the game up: it could have been so much more.
I have mentioned before that while I want Paper Mario to go back to being a RPG, there are things from this game I would like to see in this new hypothetical RPG. This includes the strong variety of places you go to, the pacing, exploration, and even humor. But the reason why it's not the other way around (a game like Color Splash with TTYD elements) is because where Color Splash goes wrong, it goes very wrong, and it just didn't have to be this way. It had a great template to build off of, and it chose to ignore the formula entirely.
Paper Mario: Color Splash was Sticker Star done right. Which is still a game that is far from perfect, but a game that is still worth talking about and potentially playing even in 2023 as I write this. Despite all it did right though, it will never truly be able to escape my constant thoughts about how it could've easily been so much better. For that, it gets a middle score, but not because the game is mid tier in any way. It is simply just the average of the good and the bad. It's a worthwhile time, and perhaps even underrated. But there will always be questions about why the game is how it is, and those questions are sadly more than warranted.
Paper Mario: Color Splash by all accounts had one of the worst reveal trailers I think I've ever seen from a video game. Not only did it look bland and uninspired, but it doubled down on a completely hated entry in the Paper Mario series in Sticker Star. Tone-deaf doesn't even begin to describe how poorly this trailer came across to the longtime fans of the series, and its presentation made it appear to be an afterthought to Nintendo if anything. It felt like more of a personal attack than anything else, and it left me wondering if I was even a fan of a series that I used to call my favorite of all time.
Initial concerns were rather warranted, and the game suffered immensely because of the decisions put into the combat system. This game was not a RPG, but like its predecessor, it very much pretended to be one. The battles, while better than Sticker Star, very much felt lifeless. Gamers often hate using consumable items because of the irrational fear that you might need something later, and that is the name of the game here. I often found that I could end every encounter on the first turn if I truly wanted. The battle was less about finding a way to defeat an enemy, and much more about finding out the minimal amount of resources you could use to do so. There were some instances where I wanted to run away from a battle that I could clearly win.
But the interesting thing about this game is that the more I looked into it, the more I kept getting surprised. The initial trailers gave me no hope it would be anything, but then I started seeing some signs of life.
I reluctantly ended up getting this game for Christmas in 2016, 4 years after Sticker Star. For Sticker Star, I wasn't aware of what the game was going to be like before playing, and I was massively disappointed as a result. But Color Splash ended up being the opposite: having zero expectations, I found myself surprised at how much I actually ended up enjoying the game. And I'm not saying that to just be nice either. The game didn't just have bright spots. I thought it was actually good. This is because while the battling system was not good, so much else was.
One of the features that stood out in the original trailer was the returning of a world map, like in Sticker Star. This resulted in many groans, but as I played the game, I realized that the world map was actually a great approach for this game.
Unlike in Sticker Star - each level really stood out. Each one had a distinguishing factor that made it completely unique from the other ones, and no idea really overstayed its welcome. Many of these were standard types of levels you would expect to see in a platformer game like this one, but many had more gimmicky themes. While Sticker Star felt like a RPG version of New Super Mario Bros, Color Splash seemed to have unique ideas not seen in other places.
Like the games that came before, the game was split into what we call "chapters". These chapters all had an overarching quest that spanned across multiple levels, that would justify taking you back and forth between them. This could include finding some sages, rescuing a "pet", going on a voyage, etc. But the challenges you would encounter in each individual world kept things pretty engaging. Admittedly, like in most Paper Mario games, the highlights really start hitting around the middle of the game, so you will miss out if you can't get through an early game that feels a little "safe".
Traditionally in Paper Mario games, you would enter a new chapter and it would have a main theme and a loosely related dungeon. The chapter would have to run with that one idea. Here, you could allow a story to still be told throughout the chapter, but it could take a place across many areas. Despite the fact that there was no connected map, the world did feel real. As such, the level variety in this game was a series best, and the overall pace of the game was very strong as well.
(Spoilers on these levels in the next paragraph).
The levels that stood out to me were the Dark Bloo Inn, The Golden Coliseum, The Sunset Express, pretty much all of the Fortune Island Voyage, Fort Cobalt, Cobalt Base, Sacred Forest, Mossrock Theater, and of course the Green Energy Plant. Many of these levels were not standard at all, and I loved the change in pace of each one.
Another thing I really liked about the game was the actual design of the levels. One thing this game and The Origami King later on both do better than the original trilogy is build an explorable world. Outside of the original Paper Mario, the first 3 games did have a tendency to overuse hallways a bit. It's something you don't always stop and notice in TTYD because that game is still quite engaging in other ways, but I do appreciate how Color Splash differed in this aspect.
Many didn't like the idea of a paint hammer, but in my mind, it was one of things that really took advantage of the fact that this is a Mario game. The colorless spots across each level incentivized players to explore the world, and that desire to finish painting Prism Island is actually what got me into most of my fights. Many I would try to avoid, but some I wouldn't be able to. These fights also at least gave your paint hammer more capacity as the game went on as well, still giving you some incentive to do them.
Levels could also be more vertical, and ironically, there were "Rescue Squad" Toads to rescue throughout the game that also incentivized exploration. These Toads frequently had a fun one liner, and they would help you later in your adventure and sometimes hint you on where you need to go next.
"Things" were still a part of this game like in Sticker Star, but they were a lot more tolerable this time around. The puzzles seemed less cryptic and the Toads at the Port Prisma docks were a massive help if you ever felt stuck. Often you could get an item you needed in the level you were supposed to use it in, which was nice. But there were still some occasions where the backtracking could be annoying (most notably having to redo The Cobalt Base for the secret prize).
The worst instance of backtracking came in Kiwano Temple - one of the weaker / slower levels in the game. Many of these levels had multiple exits like in Super Mario World, where Paint Star color would indicate which direction / chapter the exit would lead to. I was fine with this and even felt that many levels utilized alternative exits in interesting ways - this could be to use a prior level to open up a new part of a map later on after acquiring some new Things / Paint Stars, or simply to create a shortcut on the world map.
The issue with Kiwano Temple in particular was that the exits were placed right on top of each other at the end of a very slow paced dungeon that featured some depth perception issues at times. So this definitely wasn't a highlight in my eyes.
Speaking of world map shortcuts, they could come in use. But not really in a good news kind of way. Another lowlight of this game was the presence of a Shy Bandit, a Shy Guy who can actually delete the progress you had painting a level. In my first playthroughs I never had a problem with this character and felt that he wasn't a big deal, but in my recent one, I had two encounters where it was just not possible to run across the world map to stop him from draining color from a level in time. Luckily I wasn't going for 100% completion in this run, but it made me realize that this was a pretty lame addition for no reason.
This game seems to have a weird fascination with instant death chase sequences as well. I avoided most since I was prepared in my later playthroughs, but it can be kind of annoying. It feels hard to die, so this seems like the game's way of giving you a game over. At the very least, there tends to be a save block right before each instant death experience.
This applies in battles too, where not having the right Thing sticker doesn't just make a fight really hard like in Sticker Star, it turns the bosses into downright impossible to beat entities. This does distract from how shallow the combat really is, admittedly. I think the paint / color effect for enemies is cool to show how much HP is left, but I definitely miss the days where each Paper Mario enemy had a rather low amount of HP. It felt more like a game of strategy back then rather than a guessing game.
Unlike Sticker Star, charm is definitely here, but I won't lie, I don't understand why the Toads couldn't just have more unique designs. It's like they remembered part of what made the original games such a joy to exist in the world of, but only went halfway on addressing what Sticker Star was lacking.
It is frustrating to me. The game had potential to be really good, but it just skips out on the things that I would call necessary for a Paper Mario game - like an interesting story. These misses hold me back on giving it the praise that many newer fans would like to see from a big TTYD fan. As much as I want to say that Paper Mario is great like it used to be, I can't say that and feel like I'm being honest about it.
The writing in Color Splash wasn't really good as much as it was funny - the game makes you smile a lot, and more than the originals at that. After a while though, you realize that all the NPCs seem to be used as punchlines, and it makes the world feel less serious as a result. While it doesn't result in good world-building, I will admit that I still read every single Toad's dialogue from the largest rescue team upon each replay, and always chuckle at a few lines.
Humor is a very important part of these games given their heavy emphasis on text, but I think weirdly the game having a story creates a much more balanced set of NPCs where the genuinely funny characters feel like they aren't actually just trying too hard to be funny. This type of balance would be preferred.
I know a lot of completionists hate the Roshambo Temples, and perhaps there are too many of them. But admittedly, I felt like they were pretty cute for side content. It always made sense for a Paper Mario game, and weirdly it felt less in your face about the game being "paper" than other aspects of these games.
I think that covers just about everything. Overall, this is a mixed bag. There's a lot of bad here, but I would argue much more good is present, that just did not exist in Sticker Star. For those newer Paper Mario fans out there, yes I am a TTYD fan, but I've now willingly played this game 3 times. That has to count for something.
I will always want to bring up the good with this game - really, the game has so many memorable moments, and I think that is why I have many lasting memories with it. But I also have to bring up the disclaimer every time I hype the game up: it could have been so much more.
I have mentioned before that while I want Paper Mario to go back to being a RPG, there are things from this game I would like to see in this new hypothetical RPG. This includes the strong variety of places you go to, the pacing, exploration, and even humor. But the reason why it's not the other way around (a game like Color Splash with TTYD elements) is because where Color Splash goes wrong, it goes very wrong, and it just didn't have to be this way. It had a great template to build off of, and it chose to ignore the formula entirely.
Paper Mario: Color Splash was Sticker Star done right. Which is still a game that is far from perfect, but a game that is still worth talking about and potentially playing even in 2023 as I write this. Despite all it did right though, it will never truly be able to escape my constant thoughts about how it could've easily been so much better. For that, it gets a middle score, but not because the game is mid tier in any way. It is simply just the average of the good and the bad. It's a worthwhile time, and perhaps even underrated. But there will always be questions about why the game is how it is, and those questions are sadly more than warranted.
2022
For the first time ever, I skipped a Pokemon generation. Generation 8, that is. I didn't really want to, but it just looked...boring. A lot of people seemed to verify that I made the right decision. I thought I was going to do the same thing here to be honest, but when I saw all of the trailers, I saw promise.
My return to the Pokemon series actually started early when I caved and bought Legends Arceus. It was a surprisingly fantastic time. Enough that when I saw that a lot of elements from that game would be present in Scarlet & Violet, it made me want to play again. Had this been just another crack at the old Pokemon formula, I would not have tried it. But I saw a main series Pokemon game that was an open world adventure, featuring no tall grass / random encounters, that allowed you to just play how you wanted to play. That sounded great to me. The game would even go on to be reasonably fun. So why exactly did it fall quite a distance away from greatness?
Well, there were a lot of things in the way. It would be easy to me to start by listing the performance issues the game has. It is true that these issues are present and that it is absolutely embarrassing for a franchise like Pokemon to have these issues. But I don't want to make my review about that, but rather what the game tried to be. The only impact these issues will have on my score is that I won't give the game the benefit of the doubt if I am on the fence on my rating.
I bought this game because of Pokemon Legends Arceus. What I think made me enjoy that game so much was the fact that it actually was an immersive adventure. I ended up caring about the world because I felt like a character with a unique goal of filling out the first Pokedex. (which was actually reasonable in this game!) I felt like I was part of a dangerous and hostile world, which kind of makes sense in a world full of wild animals.
Generation 9 felt like it took some of that, but took some of it away as well. Despite the fact that Generation 9 had a true open world and Legends didn't, the world of Legends somehow felt more believable. The story was more focused for one, but also just the laws of the game world made more sense. Legends wasn't really a JRPG - it was an action adventure with JRPG elements. When you lost all of your Pokemon in that game, you didn't faint. You were just defenseless in a world full of animals that could attack you. That felt real. In that game if you were battling a wild Pokemon, nearby friends of it might join in and make battles even tougher.
The immersion in Violet feels completely shattered the second you realize that there is a set of rules the game has to play by. I can't tell you how many times other wild Pokemon would watch my battles, just to immediately leap at me after my fight ended. Like, these are wild Pokemon, are they not? Why would they wait patiently for your battle to end when they could all just jump you at once? Why can't the player move around or even bail on these wild encounters on their own accord? Couldn't you throw a Poke Ball without initiating a battle?
There are obvious reasons why this all didn't happen here. That's not what main series Pokemon is. However, I think if this is true, perhaps Pokemon is not fit to be this type of game.
I will still say that I think the game was better for being this type of game. Trying to fill out the Pokedex doesn't feel like a waste of time when you can actually see what you are engaging in before you go into the fight. This just makes for less randomized gameplay, and it actually turned me away from pre-determined trainer battles in favor of wild encounters. The beauty of this system is that you no longer have to play a linear path and potential replayability usually opens up when games make decisions like this.
Unfortunately, I think there was a missed opportunity in this regard because while the game doesn't really stop you from choosing the order you want to go in, it still does have an intended route. I think this was a bad decision.
Some battles in my playthrough were quite tough, while others were braindead easy. This is because the order I went in disagreed with the intended route of the devs. This slightly defeats the purpose of having an open world game.
I understand that it can be a lot of work to make a game that is more adaptive, but I think that GameFreak should be able to pull this off. There were many different challenges throughout the game between the gyms, titans, and star raids. I think it should've been pretty easy to make a tiered system where the game evaluates how strong the player should be based on how many things they have completed. If a player loses to a gym leader that has a Maschiff and come back later with more badges, perhaps the leader would then have a Mabosstiff at a higher level. Not only would this prevent players from cheesing certain fights, it would make the game feel like more of a real place where other trainers get stronger as you progress too.
One of the things that made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild work so well was the flexibility that the game gave you. While some areas in that game were more challenging than others, you would always have the necessary tools to beat any challenge because the game gave you those resources quite early in the game.
Scarlet & Violet had the opportunity to do the exact same thing, with the academy acting as the end of the tutorial. However, they locked certain travelling features behind the defeat of Titan Pokemon, which kind of felt like a bunch of unnecessary barriers. They locked one of the hardest Titans behind the surfing ability, which makes sense: harder challenges should be later in the game. But had they used an adaptive levelling system, this would not have been an issue and players could've just chose the order they wanted, which was a large purpose of changing the game to be how it is.
Passing by an area that you can't access yet interrupts the flow of this type of game, for no good reason. To gain these new abilities, Miraidon apparently just needs to eat a bite of a sandwich, which is part of a cutscene that plays about five different times with little variation. Like... really now? That's what it takes for you to be able to suddenly jump higher? This made me miss the Ride Pokemon from Arceus further - it made not having access to abilities less insulting because in those cases, you just didn't have a relationship with the appropriate ride Pokemon yet. I also felt that the actual ride mechanics were more smooth in Arceus as well.
Ironically, one of the glitches made the game better. This was Miraidon's ability to scale tall mountains with slight inclines, if you made him face the wall backwards. This was extremely useful and acted as a way to get me to the place I wanted to be more than a handful of times. The glide ability felt incredibly underwhelming because it just made executing this glitch more annoying, on top of just being worse than the fly from Legends. Additionally, water travel felt incredibly laggy.
I don't think the forced linearity really did anything to help the game. I understand that it is hard to make a story with adaptive level scaling and the ability to go where you want when you want, but they didn't even take advantage of this forced linearity. If you are going to make some things happen in order, at least have a plot related reason to do so.
It was hard to get hooked on this game until the very end because it didn't feel like much was happening to drive the plot. Having multiple different quests was cool and allowed you to take breaks from each quest while still progressing, but because the story of the game is largely dependent on all of those quests being finished, almost all of the uniqueness to the story of the game comes at the end where it just comes across as shoehorned in. I would've appreciated more of an effort to make the middle of the game more engaging, and like I mentioned earlier with all the different objectives, I think they could've found some set times to potentially introduce new things to the narrative, or to change the world a little.
I still did appreciate what they tried to do with the ending, but it did feel a little bit weird. The game is mainly open world with just a bunch of different tasks all at once. It didn't really embrace that. Rather, they decided thay they needed to fit a full Pokemon story in the last hour after the normal gameplay instead of building the story around said gameplay.
The ending was a cool premise but came across as a homework assignment that was started five minutes before the deadline. It did not even feel real, and I think it doesn't make up for what I saw as a less than engaging main game.
Because they were limited on what the story could be, they really tried to make the characters themselves memorable. This cast of gym leaders felt like the most unique yet, though ironically, the one whose quirk was that he is pretty boring compared to the rest was the one that stood out the most as the most interesting. The Elite Four was also a pleasant surprise, I'm not going to lie. The first member in particular made a strong impression that I find quite rare in Pokemon games, let alone ones from the modern era.
I was not very impressed by the Team Star bosses. At the end of these sections they really tried to introduce the backstory of these characters, but I think one thing they do not realize is that I really don't care about characters I just met five minutes ago. These characters wait in their section the entire game for you to appear, you beat them, and then their scene plays. They might as well be ordinary trainers to the player, but the game treats them as extra important. It does not feel earned. I immediately remember feeling this way about Lily early in Generation 7. When a game tries hard to show a character is important, it almost makes you naturally dismissive. Genuine care about a character in almost any form of media typically happens because you realize that you like the character in some way - not because you feel you are supposed to like them.
Comparatively to X/Y, the friend group ended up being somewhat likeable in my opinion. I was especially surprised to really like Arven by the end of the game - he is handled in almost the opposite way of the star captains, I think.
The exception to liking the main supporting cast was Nemona; she felt like perhaps the most one dimensional rival yet. Rivals are supposed to be battling rivals of course, but when thinking back to characters like Silver, Barry, Bianca, and Hugh, all wildly different rivals for that matter, they all had a personality trait that made them who they were. Nemona's quirk was that she really liked battling. That is completely uninteresting for a rival. Like yes, that was her purpose for existing. It's practically a prerequisite to being a rival. She just doesn't feel like a real character as such. Just a robot that was programmed to do and say certain things, or an AI that really wants to tell you how much it likes battling Pokemon.
One of my other complaints is a quick one: targeting Pokemon on the overworld was infuriating at times. I would look directly at them, press the button, and nothing would appear. Having a feature to tell you which Pokemon you have already caught is great, especially in games where trying to complete the Pokedex doesn't feel like a waste of time. I just wish the feature was accessible 100% of the time, and it isn't because of how picky the camera / ZL is.
I also thought the auto battle mechanic was pretty pointless. This would be one of those things that is a harmless addition, maybe even good for specific players (like shiny hunters apparently), but they forced you to use it in the Team Star hideout areas. They just felt like such a waste of time. I understand they needed more things for the map, but there are better ways to utilize the map than forcing players to use a weird mechanic just to justify development time spent on it.
Terastalizing was another gimmick that I wasn't super in to, but it was better than Z-moves or Dynamaxing. The monotype thing was interesting, and at least trying to explain the idea in the late/postgame made the game a little bit more memorable. Frankly, I wish they had just kept mega evolutions still, but that's just me.
One other comment that doesn't fit anywhere else, but probably needs to be said: this is just about the most underwhelmed I've ever been by a Pokemon soundtrack. There were very few memorable songs, and a lot of the themes you just have to get right were misses for me, notably the gym battle theme.
I'm really torn. I would be lying if I said the game was never fun, or that it didn't do anything that I wanted the series to try. There is an interview that the game has your player take in the late game, where they ask you a question that is a layup for the main character: Do you like Pokemon?
Frustratingly, I sat at the screen and had to think about it for a little bit. It's complicated really. It is possible to care about something and be disappointed still, or feel that it could be so much more. I don't say it out of pleasure, but the series has fell off a cliff since the end of Generation 5. I understand that going from the DS to a home console is a hard change to make and makes living up to your potential harder. I just don't buy that a franchise like Pokemon can't get there.
The good news is that I think the series is actually on an upswing again. I had more fun with this game than Generation 7, the last games I played. I think I liked it more than X/Y too, though it was close.
I actually appreciate that Generation 9 tried to be something different from the games that came before it and a lot of the changes it made I think should be series staples moving forward. However, I don't think it is there yet. And that's okay. Everything needs work. Some good foundational pieces were established here, and I do think there is a lot room for improvement. At the very least, I am a little bit interested to see what happens next now.
My return to the Pokemon series actually started early when I caved and bought Legends Arceus. It was a surprisingly fantastic time. Enough that when I saw that a lot of elements from that game would be present in Scarlet & Violet, it made me want to play again. Had this been just another crack at the old Pokemon formula, I would not have tried it. But I saw a main series Pokemon game that was an open world adventure, featuring no tall grass / random encounters, that allowed you to just play how you wanted to play. That sounded great to me. The game would even go on to be reasonably fun. So why exactly did it fall quite a distance away from greatness?
Well, there were a lot of things in the way. It would be easy to me to start by listing the performance issues the game has. It is true that these issues are present and that it is absolutely embarrassing for a franchise like Pokemon to have these issues. But I don't want to make my review about that, but rather what the game tried to be. The only impact these issues will have on my score is that I won't give the game the benefit of the doubt if I am on the fence on my rating.
I bought this game because of Pokemon Legends Arceus. What I think made me enjoy that game so much was the fact that it actually was an immersive adventure. I ended up caring about the world because I felt like a character with a unique goal of filling out the first Pokedex. (which was actually reasonable in this game!) I felt like I was part of a dangerous and hostile world, which kind of makes sense in a world full of wild animals.
Generation 9 felt like it took some of that, but took some of it away as well. Despite the fact that Generation 9 had a true open world and Legends didn't, the world of Legends somehow felt more believable. The story was more focused for one, but also just the laws of the game world made more sense. Legends wasn't really a JRPG - it was an action adventure with JRPG elements. When you lost all of your Pokemon in that game, you didn't faint. You were just defenseless in a world full of animals that could attack you. That felt real. In that game if you were battling a wild Pokemon, nearby friends of it might join in and make battles even tougher.
The immersion in Violet feels completely shattered the second you realize that there is a set of rules the game has to play by. I can't tell you how many times other wild Pokemon would watch my battles, just to immediately leap at me after my fight ended. Like, these are wild Pokemon, are they not? Why would they wait patiently for your battle to end when they could all just jump you at once? Why can't the player move around or even bail on these wild encounters on their own accord? Couldn't you throw a Poke Ball without initiating a battle?
There are obvious reasons why this all didn't happen here. That's not what main series Pokemon is. However, I think if this is true, perhaps Pokemon is not fit to be this type of game.
I will still say that I think the game was better for being this type of game. Trying to fill out the Pokedex doesn't feel like a waste of time when you can actually see what you are engaging in before you go into the fight. This just makes for less randomized gameplay, and it actually turned me away from pre-determined trainer battles in favor of wild encounters. The beauty of this system is that you no longer have to play a linear path and potential replayability usually opens up when games make decisions like this.
Unfortunately, I think there was a missed opportunity in this regard because while the game doesn't really stop you from choosing the order you want to go in, it still does have an intended route. I think this was a bad decision.
Some battles in my playthrough were quite tough, while others were braindead easy. This is because the order I went in disagreed with the intended route of the devs. This slightly defeats the purpose of having an open world game.
I understand that it can be a lot of work to make a game that is more adaptive, but I think that GameFreak should be able to pull this off. There were many different challenges throughout the game between the gyms, titans, and star raids. I think it should've been pretty easy to make a tiered system where the game evaluates how strong the player should be based on how many things they have completed. If a player loses to a gym leader that has a Maschiff and come back later with more badges, perhaps the leader would then have a Mabosstiff at a higher level. Not only would this prevent players from cheesing certain fights, it would make the game feel like more of a real place where other trainers get stronger as you progress too.
One of the things that made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild work so well was the flexibility that the game gave you. While some areas in that game were more challenging than others, you would always have the necessary tools to beat any challenge because the game gave you those resources quite early in the game.
Scarlet & Violet had the opportunity to do the exact same thing, with the academy acting as the end of the tutorial. However, they locked certain travelling features behind the defeat of Titan Pokemon, which kind of felt like a bunch of unnecessary barriers. They locked one of the hardest Titans behind the surfing ability, which makes sense: harder challenges should be later in the game. But had they used an adaptive levelling system, this would not have been an issue and players could've just chose the order they wanted, which was a large purpose of changing the game to be how it is.
Passing by an area that you can't access yet interrupts the flow of this type of game, for no good reason. To gain these new abilities, Miraidon apparently just needs to eat a bite of a sandwich, which is part of a cutscene that plays about five different times with little variation. Like... really now? That's what it takes for you to be able to suddenly jump higher? This made me miss the Ride Pokemon from Arceus further - it made not having access to abilities less insulting because in those cases, you just didn't have a relationship with the appropriate ride Pokemon yet. I also felt that the actual ride mechanics were more smooth in Arceus as well.
Ironically, one of the glitches made the game better. This was Miraidon's ability to scale tall mountains with slight inclines, if you made him face the wall backwards. This was extremely useful and acted as a way to get me to the place I wanted to be more than a handful of times. The glide ability felt incredibly underwhelming because it just made executing this glitch more annoying, on top of just being worse than the fly from Legends. Additionally, water travel felt incredibly laggy.
I don't think the forced linearity really did anything to help the game. I understand that it is hard to make a story with adaptive level scaling and the ability to go where you want when you want, but they didn't even take advantage of this forced linearity. If you are going to make some things happen in order, at least have a plot related reason to do so.
It was hard to get hooked on this game until the very end because it didn't feel like much was happening to drive the plot. Having multiple different quests was cool and allowed you to take breaks from each quest while still progressing, but because the story of the game is largely dependent on all of those quests being finished, almost all of the uniqueness to the story of the game comes at the end where it just comes across as shoehorned in. I would've appreciated more of an effort to make the middle of the game more engaging, and like I mentioned earlier with all the different objectives, I think they could've found some set times to potentially introduce new things to the narrative, or to change the world a little.
I still did appreciate what they tried to do with the ending, but it did feel a little bit weird. The game is mainly open world with just a bunch of different tasks all at once. It didn't really embrace that. Rather, they decided thay they needed to fit a full Pokemon story in the last hour after the normal gameplay instead of building the story around said gameplay.
The ending was a cool premise but came across as a homework assignment that was started five minutes before the deadline. It did not even feel real, and I think it doesn't make up for what I saw as a less than engaging main game.
Because they were limited on what the story could be, they really tried to make the characters themselves memorable. This cast of gym leaders felt like the most unique yet, though ironically, the one whose quirk was that he is pretty boring compared to the rest was the one that stood out the most as the most interesting. The Elite Four was also a pleasant surprise, I'm not going to lie. The first member in particular made a strong impression that I find quite rare in Pokemon games, let alone ones from the modern era.
I was not very impressed by the Team Star bosses. At the end of these sections they really tried to introduce the backstory of these characters, but I think one thing they do not realize is that I really don't care about characters I just met five minutes ago. These characters wait in their section the entire game for you to appear, you beat them, and then their scene plays. They might as well be ordinary trainers to the player, but the game treats them as extra important. It does not feel earned. I immediately remember feeling this way about Lily early in Generation 7. When a game tries hard to show a character is important, it almost makes you naturally dismissive. Genuine care about a character in almost any form of media typically happens because you realize that you like the character in some way - not because you feel you are supposed to like them.
Comparatively to X/Y, the friend group ended up being somewhat likeable in my opinion. I was especially surprised to really like Arven by the end of the game - he is handled in almost the opposite way of the star captains, I think.
The exception to liking the main supporting cast was Nemona; she felt like perhaps the most one dimensional rival yet. Rivals are supposed to be battling rivals of course, but when thinking back to characters like Silver, Barry, Bianca, and Hugh, all wildly different rivals for that matter, they all had a personality trait that made them who they were. Nemona's quirk was that she really liked battling. That is completely uninteresting for a rival. Like yes, that was her purpose for existing. It's practically a prerequisite to being a rival. She just doesn't feel like a real character as such. Just a robot that was programmed to do and say certain things, or an AI that really wants to tell you how much it likes battling Pokemon.
One of my other complaints is a quick one: targeting Pokemon on the overworld was infuriating at times. I would look directly at them, press the button, and nothing would appear. Having a feature to tell you which Pokemon you have already caught is great, especially in games where trying to complete the Pokedex doesn't feel like a waste of time. I just wish the feature was accessible 100% of the time, and it isn't because of how picky the camera / ZL is.
I also thought the auto battle mechanic was pretty pointless. This would be one of those things that is a harmless addition, maybe even good for specific players (like shiny hunters apparently), but they forced you to use it in the Team Star hideout areas. They just felt like such a waste of time. I understand they needed more things for the map, but there are better ways to utilize the map than forcing players to use a weird mechanic just to justify development time spent on it.
Terastalizing was another gimmick that I wasn't super in to, but it was better than Z-moves or Dynamaxing. The monotype thing was interesting, and at least trying to explain the idea in the late/postgame made the game a little bit more memorable. Frankly, I wish they had just kept mega evolutions still, but that's just me.
One other comment that doesn't fit anywhere else, but probably needs to be said: this is just about the most underwhelmed I've ever been by a Pokemon soundtrack. There were very few memorable songs, and a lot of the themes you just have to get right were misses for me, notably the gym battle theme.
I'm really torn. I would be lying if I said the game was never fun, or that it didn't do anything that I wanted the series to try. There is an interview that the game has your player take in the late game, where they ask you a question that is a layup for the main character: Do you like Pokemon?
Frustratingly, I sat at the screen and had to think about it for a little bit. It's complicated really. It is possible to care about something and be disappointed still, or feel that it could be so much more. I don't say it out of pleasure, but the series has fell off a cliff since the end of Generation 5. I understand that going from the DS to a home console is a hard change to make and makes living up to your potential harder. I just don't buy that a franchise like Pokemon can't get there.
The good news is that I think the series is actually on an upswing again. I had more fun with this game than Generation 7, the last games I played. I think I liked it more than X/Y too, though it was close.
I actually appreciate that Generation 9 tried to be something different from the games that came before it and a lot of the changes it made I think should be series staples moving forward. However, I don't think it is there yet. And that's okay. Everything needs work. Some good foundational pieces were established here, and I do think there is a lot room for improvement. At the very least, I am a little bit interested to see what happens next now.
Mario Kart Super Circuit is Super Mario Kart done right. It is completely baffling to me that people have SMK rated higher on this site. I feel like it has got to be bias against handheld games. Anyways, let's go over what made it a massive upgrade.
It all starts with the track variety. While both games had 20 flat 2D courses, the rosters do not feel comparable at all.
Where there were 4 Mario Circuits in SMK, all with the exact same background, MKSC had 3 unique circuits, each representing a different character, much like MK64. Luigi Circuit was the first rainy course in the series, featuring many turns and shortcuts with some puddles to dodge for good measure.
Sequel tracks were handled In a much more innovative way as well. While there were 3 Donut Plains and Ghost Valley levels in SMK, one might not even realize they are on one of the special cup sequel levels in this game until they're told afterward.
Boo Lake acts as a traditional haunted boardwalk stage (being one of the best at that with its ramps and alternate paths). Broken Pier on the other hand acts as a shortcut focused followup that doesn't follow the same naming convention at all.
The parks are your new versions of the Donut Plains levels and it is astounding just how much better they are in my opinion. While Riverside Park does a good job of showing how ramps and shortcuts will work in the rest of the game like a good mushroom cup course should, its special cup counterpart Lakeside Park breaks the game with them. The best part is that these stages have their own similar, yet unique songs. Riverside is chill, while Lakeside is anything but with its volcano eruption.
The Bowser Castle levels are most similar to SMK on the premise that they are numbered still. In their defense, it is hard to make these lava levels anything but a BC in the Mario world. What I will say though is these are massively upgraded over the SNES versions, and just overall way more fun to play. BC2 is fun with its path splits later in the lap. BC4 has one of the most interesting minimaps you will ever see. BC3 is blue for some reason, and is a very racing lines oriented course with a fun shortcut. And BC1 well.... it's still more interesting than SNES BC1?
The difference between the Choco Islands and Sunset Wilds might be the most obvious case of the game just being an upgrade. While similar in appearance in some ways, Sunset Wilds has ten times the personality, with all the camping shy guys and changing sky.
Then there's Snow Land. Maybe it's not the most interesting of tracks, but it was another big upgrade over Vanilla Lake on the premise that there were no ice blocks alone.
Of course there are a few other fun courses as well that weren't really tied to a SMK course to begin with. Sky Garden was almost like a daytime take on Rainbow Road, taking place in the clouds among beanstalk. Cheese Land was definitely a fun idea, taking place on the moon with all the mice. These levels stick out in your memory.
Of course, Ribbon Road was also one of the first tracks in the series that I saw as a complete standout. Outside of the staple Rainbow Roads, this course was really the first to just make the statement that a track can really be any abstract idea. This course was the precursor to some of the most popular courses in series history, like Waluigi Pinball or Music Park. It redefined what MK courses could and even should be.
A lot of people are nostalgic for MK64's Rainbow Road. GBA Rainbow Road was the exact opposite of that, and I think it was so much better for it. While MK64's RR left a lot of time for reflection, the GBA course will be completed by the time you get halfway into a lap of the 64 version if you take the time to master it. The guardrails don't guard you from falling anymore. They act as invites for adventure. With how mushrooms and ramps stack in this game, it makes for a crazy experience and perhaps my favorite time trial in any MK game. They knew exactly what they were doing with this one and it was so fun because of it.
I think the game had a quite underrated soundtrack as well. Ribbon Road, Sunset Wilds, Cheese Land, Sky Garden, and the Parks stand out to me.
SNES tracks also return. They exist I guess. Personally, they don't add much for me. It's hard to say they're hurting anything though. My biggest issue with them is the unlocking criteria. Getting 100 coins in a cup to unlock them is fine. Great even. But having to do it on a 2nd playthrough of a cup is annoying. And then you have to do it on every engine class. Yikes.
The tracks are more enjoyable for me in this game though. Mainly because I hated the obstacles on these courses and for the most part, they are gone (with exceptions going to Vanilla Lakes ice blocks). They are probably scaled too small but they feel better to play here in my opinion. It also helps that MKSC mechanics help out a little here.
One of my biggest complaints about SMK is that acceleration amongst the fastest characters is horrific. This game finds a much better balance, the course hazards feel more fair, and the AI actually uses the same item system that you do. Bowser and DK feel strong to use, but aren't too overpowered in races. It makes for a much more fun time in my opinion.
Content wise the game is very good for its era. 10 cups is quite a bit, and going for 100% is quite challenging. The GP mode ranking system got introduced in this game, and getting 3 stars on cups is actually quite challenging and really makes you master the controls in order to achieve. This makes the Grand Prix mode much more engaging to me because I feel a sense of urgency when trying to get the best rank.
Quick Run was a desperately needed feature for a handheld Mario Kart game. It is what it sounds like it is. While that sounds simple enough, not every entry would have this feature in future games.
I never got to play this game with friends growing up because I played it on my DS. However, I finally got to experience it with Switch online, which was awesome. I never realized how red shells truly operated in this game when you threw them back. I'm not sure if them targeting behind is better, but it was certainly interesting even if it only occurred in this game.
Battle mode was admittedly mediocre, but fun enough in its own right. Playing as a bob-omb after elimination was very funny, and getting squished by a thwomp for last place finishes in races was too.
This isn't the best MK of all time. It might be the most underrated however. A lot of people are very dismissive of it because it was a handheld follow-up to their favorite console MK. Make no mistake though - MKSC is a good time, and surprisingly replayable. It's not a popular take for sure, but I find it to be more enjoyable than MK64. While MK64 was the founder of the more modern manual mini turbo system found in MKDD and MKDS, MKSC was the game that mastered the mechanics of the original. It is a fully realized version of the original MK game, and even though no game has been like it since, I think it is good that we got what I see as a solid version of where it all began.
It all starts with the track variety. While both games had 20 flat 2D courses, the rosters do not feel comparable at all.
Where there were 4 Mario Circuits in SMK, all with the exact same background, MKSC had 3 unique circuits, each representing a different character, much like MK64. Luigi Circuit was the first rainy course in the series, featuring many turns and shortcuts with some puddles to dodge for good measure.
Sequel tracks were handled In a much more innovative way as well. While there were 3 Donut Plains and Ghost Valley levels in SMK, one might not even realize they are on one of the special cup sequel levels in this game until they're told afterward.
Boo Lake acts as a traditional haunted boardwalk stage (being one of the best at that with its ramps and alternate paths). Broken Pier on the other hand acts as a shortcut focused followup that doesn't follow the same naming convention at all.
The parks are your new versions of the Donut Plains levels and it is astounding just how much better they are in my opinion. While Riverside Park does a good job of showing how ramps and shortcuts will work in the rest of the game like a good mushroom cup course should, its special cup counterpart Lakeside Park breaks the game with them. The best part is that these stages have their own similar, yet unique songs. Riverside is chill, while Lakeside is anything but with its volcano eruption.
The Bowser Castle levels are most similar to SMK on the premise that they are numbered still. In their defense, it is hard to make these lava levels anything but a BC in the Mario world. What I will say though is these are massively upgraded over the SNES versions, and just overall way more fun to play. BC2 is fun with its path splits later in the lap. BC4 has one of the most interesting minimaps you will ever see. BC3 is blue for some reason, and is a very racing lines oriented course with a fun shortcut. And BC1 well.... it's still more interesting than SNES BC1?
The difference between the Choco Islands and Sunset Wilds might be the most obvious case of the game just being an upgrade. While similar in appearance in some ways, Sunset Wilds has ten times the personality, with all the camping shy guys and changing sky.
Then there's Snow Land. Maybe it's not the most interesting of tracks, but it was another big upgrade over Vanilla Lake on the premise that there were no ice blocks alone.
Of course there are a few other fun courses as well that weren't really tied to a SMK course to begin with. Sky Garden was almost like a daytime take on Rainbow Road, taking place in the clouds among beanstalk. Cheese Land was definitely a fun idea, taking place on the moon with all the mice. These levels stick out in your memory.
Of course, Ribbon Road was also one of the first tracks in the series that I saw as a complete standout. Outside of the staple Rainbow Roads, this course was really the first to just make the statement that a track can really be any abstract idea. This course was the precursor to some of the most popular courses in series history, like Waluigi Pinball or Music Park. It redefined what MK courses could and even should be.
A lot of people are nostalgic for MK64's Rainbow Road. GBA Rainbow Road was the exact opposite of that, and I think it was so much better for it. While MK64's RR left a lot of time for reflection, the GBA course will be completed by the time you get halfway into a lap of the 64 version if you take the time to master it. The guardrails don't guard you from falling anymore. They act as invites for adventure. With how mushrooms and ramps stack in this game, it makes for a crazy experience and perhaps my favorite time trial in any MK game. They knew exactly what they were doing with this one and it was so fun because of it.
I think the game had a quite underrated soundtrack as well. Ribbon Road, Sunset Wilds, Cheese Land, Sky Garden, and the Parks stand out to me.
SNES tracks also return. They exist I guess. Personally, they don't add much for me. It's hard to say they're hurting anything though. My biggest issue with them is the unlocking criteria. Getting 100 coins in a cup to unlock them is fine. Great even. But having to do it on a 2nd playthrough of a cup is annoying. And then you have to do it on every engine class. Yikes.
The tracks are more enjoyable for me in this game though. Mainly because I hated the obstacles on these courses and for the most part, they are gone (with exceptions going to Vanilla Lakes ice blocks). They are probably scaled too small but they feel better to play here in my opinion. It also helps that MKSC mechanics help out a little here.
One of my biggest complaints about SMK is that acceleration amongst the fastest characters is horrific. This game finds a much better balance, the course hazards feel more fair, and the AI actually uses the same item system that you do. Bowser and DK feel strong to use, but aren't too overpowered in races. It makes for a much more fun time in my opinion.
Content wise the game is very good for its era. 10 cups is quite a bit, and going for 100% is quite challenging. The GP mode ranking system got introduced in this game, and getting 3 stars on cups is actually quite challenging and really makes you master the controls in order to achieve. This makes the Grand Prix mode much more engaging to me because I feel a sense of urgency when trying to get the best rank.
Quick Run was a desperately needed feature for a handheld Mario Kart game. It is what it sounds like it is. While that sounds simple enough, not every entry would have this feature in future games.
I never got to play this game with friends growing up because I played it on my DS. However, I finally got to experience it with Switch online, which was awesome. I never realized how red shells truly operated in this game when you threw them back. I'm not sure if them targeting behind is better, but it was certainly interesting even if it only occurred in this game.
Battle mode was admittedly mediocre, but fun enough in its own right. Playing as a bob-omb after elimination was very funny, and getting squished by a thwomp for last place finishes in races was too.
This isn't the best MK of all time. It might be the most underrated however. A lot of people are very dismissive of it because it was a handheld follow-up to their favorite console MK. Make no mistake though - MKSC is a good time, and surprisingly replayable. It's not a popular take for sure, but I find it to be more enjoyable than MK64. While MK64 was the founder of the more modern manual mini turbo system found in MKDD and MKDS, MKSC was the game that mastered the mechanics of the original. It is a fully realized version of the original MK game, and even though no game has been like it since, I think it is good that we got what I see as a solid version of where it all began.
1992
To start things off, I want to proclaim myself as a certified Mario Kart addict. Anyone who knows me can attest to this. The first impression of seeing a 1 star review is going to be that I'm being needlessly harsh, but I want to attempt to explain myself. SMK is the first game in my favorite video game series of all time and I will be forever grateful for what it was the foundation of.
My game reviews are about the games themselves and what they bring to the table. Not their impact, how good they were at the time, whether they are underrated, overhated, if there are fun mods of them, etc.
Clearly, there were challenges in creating a go-kart racing game in the early 90s. I'm not denying that one bit. But that is a disadvantage to SMK as a game.
As a Mario fan in general, I tell almost everyone who hasn't played it to go play Super Mario World. While 2D sidescrollers are easier to make, the fact is, that game still holds up today. That game I genuinely believe is a lot better than any attempt to follow it up. It's fun.
As an even bigger fan of Mario Kart, I realize I have not ever recommended SMK to any new fan whatsoever. It's not that it was simply outdone by its sequels. It's that it isn't very fun.
When I started playing this game, I gravitated toward using Toad / Koopa Troopa because they were easier to use. They felt the most manageable in a game that felt slippery and hard to control. As I became a veteran of the series, I wanted to go back to SMK and at least try to learn it to some degree of competency. It's then that I learned that Bowser was my go to character, because he was fast and I could set the best times with him.
SMK is really hard for beginners. Drifting is much more difficult than in later games and it is easy to spin out if you're turning too much. One of the realizations I made that made the game significantly easier for me was that a hop out of a turn could steady your momentum and keep you moving straight.
Once I learned these intermediate level fundamentals, I was able to set much better times in Time Trials, but it came at a cost. It made my results worse at the game overall.
Now how does that even make sense!?
Well, it's because of consistency. After learning how to actually drift instead of being a noob Toad / Koopa turn only player, I could never go back to playing like I used to play. Those characters are built for players who are afraid to drift. But I knew how now. I essentially unlearned how to play those characters.
Bowser and DK are the best characters in this game, but their acceleration is unbelievably, impossibly terrible. What this means is that if you mess up at all, you're losing a ton of time. On paper, this should make them a high risk, high reward kind of character, which is not a bad thing for a game necessarily. But the issue I really have with the game at large is that the track design really makes it so mistakes feel largely unavoidable until you're a top level player, and there's only so few of those in the world. The road to getting there is quite demotivating and something I will admittedly never try.
There are 20 tracks in this game, but there are only 8 types of courses, based on the levels from my beloved Super Mario World.
The Vanilla Lake maps feature extremely inconveniently placed ice blocks everywhere. The slippery road makes driving through these stages a slog and rarely are you going to finish races without hitting a few in some form.
The Bowser Castle stages, namely BC2 and BC3, are rough. BC2 has some awkward path splits with Thwomps to punish you for wrong decisions. The dead end might have been funny one time, but is a little silly. BC3 is a course that I think would be a nice in a modern MK game, but in here, it suffers from some "SMK Problems". The most notable is that there is a part of the track that is mandatory to go through with 4 Thwomps hanging above. And nothing is stopping them from all being down at the same time, completely blocking the road, even in TT mode.
Even the hazards that don't stop you in your tracks completely, such as Donut Plains' monty moles, result in massive time losses. Forced offroad sections on the Choco Island and Koopa Beach stages can be slightly irritating as well. Rainbow Road is fun for a lap, but when the Thwomps start coming down, things get rough.
I actually really enjoyed the Ghost Valley maps, because they felt like courses with no nonsense or offroad. GV3 in particular was still quite challenging, but felt like a true test of my driving ability.
The edges of the courses are unforgiving as well compared to later games. Sometimes it feels like you fall off when you aren't supposed to. But hey, it makes sense to punish players for being too much off the center of the road.
One of the coolest quirks of the game is how the feather item is used. As a racing item it is exclusive to this game, and acts as the main way of pulling off shortcuts. Many courses were designed with this item in mind, and it felt awesome to hop a wall or pull off some cuts with it. I don't think it would work quite as well in future titles either.
There's nothing wrong with stage hazards in general but in a game where the acceleration of the top combination is absolutely terrible and avoiding everything is quite difficult (including the AI items as well), it makes for a game where I feel much more capable of winning by accepting that I will make mistakes, and using Toad and refusing to drift.
This is a shame because it actively feels like the game is discouraging me from trying to get better. The game is more fun to drive with Bowser, no question. But when you combine all the hazards with slow acceleration combos, it is irritating.
I'm aware that this is my fault and I could overcome it by putting in more time and grinding the game. I am aware that a lot of it comes down to me being bad even. But there are still a few things to point out here:
1) I am confident that I'm better at this game than most people who have nostalgia for it. Comparatively to a lot of other games, the time investment required to move up the ranks is just not really worth it to me for a game that is essentially a solo activity. There are much more enjoyable games to Time Trial.
2) I can still respect the players who did take the time to master the game. This is an incredibly technical MK game requiring a lot of skill to drive well. I understand that I will never "fully understand" the beauty of the game's mechanics unless I played it more.
3) I still can judge the game for not believing it is worth that effort.
It is non debatable that SMK is one of the hardest MK games and one of the most skill based games. But that does not make it necessarily more competitive than the later, easier titles in the series.
One of the reasons I adore the Mario Kart franchise so much is the player to player interaction and strategies used in the gameplay. In a game that is either to be played in TT or in a 1v1 setting, motivation to improve must come from within. 1v1s are moreso extensions of TTs where consistency matters rather than truly a game where you truly interact with your opponents a lot. As someone who is well above average at SMK, most of my time in 1v1s is still spent ensuring I don't mess up.
Even outside of the hazards, the courses in this game are a major problem. Not only are all these track types repeated, the ones they chose are relatively plain. While Donut Plains 1 and Donut Plains 2 were polar opposites in Super Mario World, they look exactly the same in Super Mario Kart, with DP2 just acting as a more difficult version. The course selection in this game is just horrendous compared to every other MK game and when combining this factor with the incredible high barrier to competency, it is an easy turn off.
The tracks didn't have to be this way either. While there were limitations due to the era, Mario Kart Super Circuit, what truly is the real SMK successor rather than MK64, showed you can come up with an interesting set of twenty 2D courses. You just need to try a little harder to distinguish them. The courses in SMK were so plain that adding all of them to MKSC as retro courses debatably made the game less enjoyable to me just because I spent less time on the new courses as a result.
It's no surprise that nobody is listing SNES courses as their most wished for courses in the MK8DX Booster Course Pass, and a big reason for that is they aren't very memorable.
To summarize, SMK has a lot of limitations. Even if it was a revolution for its time, 2 players being the maximum size for multiplayer, extreme difficulty, and bland courses just don't make for a game that is very fun to revisit. My suggestion is that if you really want to play the content of this game as someone who hasn't played it before but is curious about it, you might as well just try out Super Circuit. If you like the mechanics of that game enough, you can unlock SMK content and play it there. If you don't like Super Circuit that much, then I can say rather confidentially that SMK just likely won't be for you. That can be true without it taking away from what the game did accomplish as well.
My game reviews are about the games themselves and what they bring to the table. Not their impact, how good they were at the time, whether they are underrated, overhated, if there are fun mods of them, etc.
Clearly, there were challenges in creating a go-kart racing game in the early 90s. I'm not denying that one bit. But that is a disadvantage to SMK as a game.
As a Mario fan in general, I tell almost everyone who hasn't played it to go play Super Mario World. While 2D sidescrollers are easier to make, the fact is, that game still holds up today. That game I genuinely believe is a lot better than any attempt to follow it up. It's fun.
As an even bigger fan of Mario Kart, I realize I have not ever recommended SMK to any new fan whatsoever. It's not that it was simply outdone by its sequels. It's that it isn't very fun.
When I started playing this game, I gravitated toward using Toad / Koopa Troopa because they were easier to use. They felt the most manageable in a game that felt slippery and hard to control. As I became a veteran of the series, I wanted to go back to SMK and at least try to learn it to some degree of competency. It's then that I learned that Bowser was my go to character, because he was fast and I could set the best times with him.
SMK is really hard for beginners. Drifting is much more difficult than in later games and it is easy to spin out if you're turning too much. One of the realizations I made that made the game significantly easier for me was that a hop out of a turn could steady your momentum and keep you moving straight.
Once I learned these intermediate level fundamentals, I was able to set much better times in Time Trials, but it came at a cost. It made my results worse at the game overall.
Now how does that even make sense!?
Well, it's because of consistency. After learning how to actually drift instead of being a noob Toad / Koopa turn only player, I could never go back to playing like I used to play. Those characters are built for players who are afraid to drift. But I knew how now. I essentially unlearned how to play those characters.
Bowser and DK are the best characters in this game, but their acceleration is unbelievably, impossibly terrible. What this means is that if you mess up at all, you're losing a ton of time. On paper, this should make them a high risk, high reward kind of character, which is not a bad thing for a game necessarily. But the issue I really have with the game at large is that the track design really makes it so mistakes feel largely unavoidable until you're a top level player, and there's only so few of those in the world. The road to getting there is quite demotivating and something I will admittedly never try.
There are 20 tracks in this game, but there are only 8 types of courses, based on the levels from my beloved Super Mario World.
The Vanilla Lake maps feature extremely inconveniently placed ice blocks everywhere. The slippery road makes driving through these stages a slog and rarely are you going to finish races without hitting a few in some form.
The Bowser Castle stages, namely BC2 and BC3, are rough. BC2 has some awkward path splits with Thwomps to punish you for wrong decisions. The dead end might have been funny one time, but is a little silly. BC3 is a course that I think would be a nice in a modern MK game, but in here, it suffers from some "SMK Problems". The most notable is that there is a part of the track that is mandatory to go through with 4 Thwomps hanging above. And nothing is stopping them from all being down at the same time, completely blocking the road, even in TT mode.
Even the hazards that don't stop you in your tracks completely, such as Donut Plains' monty moles, result in massive time losses. Forced offroad sections on the Choco Island and Koopa Beach stages can be slightly irritating as well. Rainbow Road is fun for a lap, but when the Thwomps start coming down, things get rough.
I actually really enjoyed the Ghost Valley maps, because they felt like courses with no nonsense or offroad. GV3 in particular was still quite challenging, but felt like a true test of my driving ability.
The edges of the courses are unforgiving as well compared to later games. Sometimes it feels like you fall off when you aren't supposed to. But hey, it makes sense to punish players for being too much off the center of the road.
One of the coolest quirks of the game is how the feather item is used. As a racing item it is exclusive to this game, and acts as the main way of pulling off shortcuts. Many courses were designed with this item in mind, and it felt awesome to hop a wall or pull off some cuts with it. I don't think it would work quite as well in future titles either.
There's nothing wrong with stage hazards in general but in a game where the acceleration of the top combination is absolutely terrible and avoiding everything is quite difficult (including the AI items as well), it makes for a game where I feel much more capable of winning by accepting that I will make mistakes, and using Toad and refusing to drift.
This is a shame because it actively feels like the game is discouraging me from trying to get better. The game is more fun to drive with Bowser, no question. But when you combine all the hazards with slow acceleration combos, it is irritating.
I'm aware that this is my fault and I could overcome it by putting in more time and grinding the game. I am aware that a lot of it comes down to me being bad even. But there are still a few things to point out here:
1) I am confident that I'm better at this game than most people who have nostalgia for it. Comparatively to a lot of other games, the time investment required to move up the ranks is just not really worth it to me for a game that is essentially a solo activity. There are much more enjoyable games to Time Trial.
2) I can still respect the players who did take the time to master the game. This is an incredibly technical MK game requiring a lot of skill to drive well. I understand that I will never "fully understand" the beauty of the game's mechanics unless I played it more.
3) I still can judge the game for not believing it is worth that effort.
It is non debatable that SMK is one of the hardest MK games and one of the most skill based games. But that does not make it necessarily more competitive than the later, easier titles in the series.
One of the reasons I adore the Mario Kart franchise so much is the player to player interaction and strategies used in the gameplay. In a game that is either to be played in TT or in a 1v1 setting, motivation to improve must come from within. 1v1s are moreso extensions of TTs where consistency matters rather than truly a game where you truly interact with your opponents a lot. As someone who is well above average at SMK, most of my time in 1v1s is still spent ensuring I don't mess up.
Even outside of the hazards, the courses in this game are a major problem. Not only are all these track types repeated, the ones they chose are relatively plain. While Donut Plains 1 and Donut Plains 2 were polar opposites in Super Mario World, they look exactly the same in Super Mario Kart, with DP2 just acting as a more difficult version. The course selection in this game is just horrendous compared to every other MK game and when combining this factor with the incredible high barrier to competency, it is an easy turn off.
The tracks didn't have to be this way either. While there were limitations due to the era, Mario Kart Super Circuit, what truly is the real SMK successor rather than MK64, showed you can come up with an interesting set of twenty 2D courses. You just need to try a little harder to distinguish them. The courses in SMK were so plain that adding all of them to MKSC as retro courses debatably made the game less enjoyable to me just because I spent less time on the new courses as a result.
It's no surprise that nobody is listing SNES courses as their most wished for courses in the MK8DX Booster Course Pass, and a big reason for that is they aren't very memorable.
To summarize, SMK has a lot of limitations. Even if it was a revolution for its time, 2 players being the maximum size for multiplayer, extreme difficulty, and bland courses just don't make for a game that is very fun to revisit. My suggestion is that if you really want to play the content of this game as someone who hasn't played it before but is curious about it, you might as well just try out Super Circuit. If you like the mechanics of that game enough, you can unlock SMK content and play it there. If you don't like Super Circuit that much, then I can say rather confidentially that SMK just likely won't be for you. That can be true without it taking away from what the game did accomplish as well.
2019
After not being certain which of the first 2 games I liked more, Luigi's Mansion 3 ended up going with the mixed approach. A lot of people saw it as a return to form by going with one main building. I was initially really stoked that the location of the game was in a haunted hotel. I thought that idea sounded incredible.
What we actually got felt quite a lot like Dark Moon - though the game was not quite episodic, the floors of the hotel act as a way of splitting the game up and creating levels. I was not someone who disliked Dark Moon for the level based layout, and felt that at times, it allowed for sharper moment to moment gameplay than the first game. However, I felt disappointed with how levels were implemented in Luigi's Mansion 3 after hoping it could work out better, as a result of not being booted out of levels when finishing tasks.
When I think of the potential the hotel had, I was thinking that you could add a lot of verticality to the level design, somewhat like the first game. I thought that the story (a hotel vacation) could give the gameplay something unique to brag about. But in the end, the progression is incredibly linear for an exploration focused game. When you finish a "level" you go up one floor. Floors are completely separated from the rest of the hotel, unlike in the original game. The game felt predictable as a result.
Each floor did have themes, and some of them were fun. But overall it didn't make up for what I felt was a missed opportunity in game design. The feel of the mansion in the original far exceeds the environments this game provides.
Not only did it not match up with the original, I believe Dark Moon had better moment to moment gameplay. This game felt weirdly sluggish to me, and at times I felt like my time was being wasted. Many boss fights have unskippable cutscenes, even if you've seen them before. The run meter feels annoying - and worst of all, the combat feels dumbed down.
The new big feature in this game was being able to slam ghosts for massive damage. The game has been built around this feature, making it not really optional. All ghosts have more HP as a result, and the objective really always turns into slamming ghosts. I much preferred the chase in the other games, and struggling to hold on to them as they tried to escape. In Dark Moon especially, the added jump you could do while vacuuming a ghost allowed you to skillfully escape situations where you would lose hold of the ghost. In this game, capturing ghosts feels almost telegraphed. After X amount of damage, you always lost certain ghosts, and as a player, it feels like you have less control. Overall, the "combat" just felt dumbed down, and not matching Dark Moon, or the original for that matter. Battles are easy, and the last boss was not particularly great or memorable in my opinion either.
Overall, I find this to be the weak point of the series. Dark Moon felt more engaging to me, and the first one had an "it" factor that is hard to describe, but anyone who has played it understands what I mean. As a standalone game however, Luigi's Mansion 3 is a fine game, with a lot of love put into it. It has the classic Nintendo charm.
Visually, it is one of the best looking games on the Switch. The presentation is awesome. There's just enough quirk that the game feels alive. I love how the ghosts interact with Luigi. Whether that's just typical trolling or throwing water polo balls at him. The moment in the game I remember looking back on laughing was on one of the later floors, climbing to the top of the staircase. Everything appears to be operating normal, until Luigi approaches. His reaction to the scenario was just so Luigi that it's not even funny.
In summary, the game is alright. It's not particularly memorable to me. Years later, I can't even remember anything from the OST. It was kind of disappointing to me because while there's nothing truly wrong with it, it felt like a game that just exists. I had enough fun in one playthrough and have no desire to replay it, but that's okay. It was cool that they even put a new Luigi's Mansion on Switch, and while I'm left thinking the game had much higher potential, it was pretty much what I was expecting all along.
What we actually got felt quite a lot like Dark Moon - though the game was not quite episodic, the floors of the hotel act as a way of splitting the game up and creating levels. I was not someone who disliked Dark Moon for the level based layout, and felt that at times, it allowed for sharper moment to moment gameplay than the first game. However, I felt disappointed with how levels were implemented in Luigi's Mansion 3 after hoping it could work out better, as a result of not being booted out of levels when finishing tasks.
When I think of the potential the hotel had, I was thinking that you could add a lot of verticality to the level design, somewhat like the first game. I thought that the story (a hotel vacation) could give the gameplay something unique to brag about. But in the end, the progression is incredibly linear for an exploration focused game. When you finish a "level" you go up one floor. Floors are completely separated from the rest of the hotel, unlike in the original game. The game felt predictable as a result.
Each floor did have themes, and some of them were fun. But overall it didn't make up for what I felt was a missed opportunity in game design. The feel of the mansion in the original far exceeds the environments this game provides.
Not only did it not match up with the original, I believe Dark Moon had better moment to moment gameplay. This game felt weirdly sluggish to me, and at times I felt like my time was being wasted. Many boss fights have unskippable cutscenes, even if you've seen them before. The run meter feels annoying - and worst of all, the combat feels dumbed down.
The new big feature in this game was being able to slam ghosts for massive damage. The game has been built around this feature, making it not really optional. All ghosts have more HP as a result, and the objective really always turns into slamming ghosts. I much preferred the chase in the other games, and struggling to hold on to them as they tried to escape. In Dark Moon especially, the added jump you could do while vacuuming a ghost allowed you to skillfully escape situations where you would lose hold of the ghost. In this game, capturing ghosts feels almost telegraphed. After X amount of damage, you always lost certain ghosts, and as a player, it feels like you have less control. Overall, the "combat" just felt dumbed down, and not matching Dark Moon, or the original for that matter. Battles are easy, and the last boss was not particularly great or memorable in my opinion either.
Overall, I find this to be the weak point of the series. Dark Moon felt more engaging to me, and the first one had an "it" factor that is hard to describe, but anyone who has played it understands what I mean. As a standalone game however, Luigi's Mansion 3 is a fine game, with a lot of love put into it. It has the classic Nintendo charm.
Visually, it is one of the best looking games on the Switch. The presentation is awesome. There's just enough quirk that the game feels alive. I love how the ghosts interact with Luigi. Whether that's just typical trolling or throwing water polo balls at him. The moment in the game I remember looking back on laughing was on one of the later floors, climbing to the top of the staircase. Everything appears to be operating normal, until Luigi approaches. His reaction to the scenario was just so Luigi that it's not even funny.
In summary, the game is alright. It's not particularly memorable to me. Years later, I can't even remember anything from the OST. It was kind of disappointing to me because while there's nothing truly wrong with it, it felt like a game that just exists. I had enough fun in one playthrough and have no desire to replay it, but that's okay. It was cool that they even put a new Luigi's Mansion on Switch, and while I'm left thinking the game had much higher potential, it was pretty much what I was expecting all along.
A lot of people say this game is a fine game, just a bad Paper Mario game. I don't say this to be a hater by any means, but I believe it is just a bad game. A lot of people like to naturally play devil's advocate, but it's important to remember that not everything deserves the benefit of the doubt. It's not that Sticker Star is different - Super Paper Mario proved that you could change the formula and still produce a good Paper Mario game, and Color Splash even proved that you could do it with Sticker Star's formula - this game just wasn't it.
I've seen posts where people try to hype up one aspect of every Paper Mario game. Almost every single time by default I see people point to Sticker Star's soundtrack as its best feature in these lists, and to me, this is all the evidence I need that it was a trainwreck. I appreciate a good game OST, but I see it as the icing on the cake. If you're hyping up a OST like this, I feel like it is because there is nothing else to point out first. Besides that point, I think it is also the weakest soundtrack in the Paper Mario series even to date as well. I'm not willing to give it points here.
I played and hit 100% completion for this game. I replayed it years later to see if my opinion changed. I gave it every possible chance to prove something to me while keeping an open mind. My overwhelming takeaway is that the game has absolutely no identity whatsoever. It has no idea what it is even is trying to be - it feels very much like a game that was originally something else, was stripped down at the last second, and was expected to just sell. This would explain how you can have Bowser not talk at all in the game, or why the areas were so bland and uninspired.
A lot of people's first criticism of this game is the lack of story, or that the characters suck. While I agree, I believe that these aspects of games can be overrated. There are plenty of alternative avenues to go with for good stories, but gameplay is exclusively a video game thing. Unfortunately, the gameplay may just be my biggest complaint for the game.
Nobody likes using inventory in video games - we naturally like to save things for later, even if later never comes. This game really forces you to deal with that by attacking exclusively with disposable attacks. Battles don't provide experience in this game to top it off, making battles feel like not just a chore, but a straight up hindrance.
While regular battles are not enjoyable, boss fights are somehow worse. I criticized Super Paper Mario for having lame bosses, but the bosses in this game are straight up a waste of time. Each boss is effectively impossible to beat or incredibly time consuming unless you have the right 'Thing'. Things are real world objects that you collect throughout the game, that aren't paper. They essentially act as cheat codes in boss fights.
The 'thing' that is insulting about this system is that boss battles are not testing player skill or growth in any way whatsoever - they're simply testing whether or not you have an object that cheeses the fight, and it's rarely ever satisfying to win in this manner, because you feel like you didn't do anything. Sometimes you get into these fights without knowing what it is you need, and you just waste your whole inventory trying to figure out what it is. A lot of time it is not obvious what you need, or it is very easy to miss one of the things you need. This whole system just turned me off of the game completely.
What was funny about this game is that they said the original games were too hard for younger people to pick up, yet I highly doubt a younger audience is going to understand how to problem solve in this game to begin with. It feels like a bad excuse. Trial and error is rarely fun in video games, and there's quite a bit of it here. Blue doors honestly make the thing sticker thing even more confusing.
I absolutely despise Kersti, the main ally of the game. She effectively does all the talking for you in the game, but comes across as yelling at you the whole time. There's no way to get away from her, because the game is dependent on her for conveying what is happening at all times.
Level design was as bland as it gets - grassland, desert, forest, snowland, jungle, lava stage. Rarely are there ever unique quirks about the stages. The best level in the game to me was by far the Enigmansion - it was the only time I felt I was playing a level that had some sort of thought put into it.
I could complain about so many minor things with this game, but I don't really want to waste more time discussing its shortcomings. I can get over a game having weaknesses - rarely is anything ever perfect. But for me to remember a game fondly, I at least need something that I did like about it. When I think of most games, even games I just thought were ok, there's at least some aspect of them I can usually find. At its worst, Sticker Star is an uninspired rip off of a formerly great franchise. At its best, you are simply passing time.
I don't want to hate on this game, but I have no choice but to dislike it. There just simply isn't anything that makes it stand out whatsoever. I don't hate change for the sake of being change - but if you're going to change, you need to give me something at the very least to appreciate. This unfortunately was something that Sticker Star failed to do.
This will go down as the Paper Mario game I pretend just never happened. Color Splash at first looked like more of the same, but very quickly into that game you realize that so much more effort and love was put into it. I could have forgiven Sticker Star's flaws, because I did do it with its sequel. The sequel had good qualities though, and that is ultimately the difference between a flawed game and an actual waste of time.
I've seen posts where people try to hype up one aspect of every Paper Mario game. Almost every single time by default I see people point to Sticker Star's soundtrack as its best feature in these lists, and to me, this is all the evidence I need that it was a trainwreck. I appreciate a good game OST, but I see it as the icing on the cake. If you're hyping up a OST like this, I feel like it is because there is nothing else to point out first. Besides that point, I think it is also the weakest soundtrack in the Paper Mario series even to date as well. I'm not willing to give it points here.
I played and hit 100% completion for this game. I replayed it years later to see if my opinion changed. I gave it every possible chance to prove something to me while keeping an open mind. My overwhelming takeaway is that the game has absolutely no identity whatsoever. It has no idea what it is even is trying to be - it feels very much like a game that was originally something else, was stripped down at the last second, and was expected to just sell. This would explain how you can have Bowser not talk at all in the game, or why the areas were so bland and uninspired.
A lot of people's first criticism of this game is the lack of story, or that the characters suck. While I agree, I believe that these aspects of games can be overrated. There are plenty of alternative avenues to go with for good stories, but gameplay is exclusively a video game thing. Unfortunately, the gameplay may just be my biggest complaint for the game.
Nobody likes using inventory in video games - we naturally like to save things for later, even if later never comes. This game really forces you to deal with that by attacking exclusively with disposable attacks. Battles don't provide experience in this game to top it off, making battles feel like not just a chore, but a straight up hindrance.
While regular battles are not enjoyable, boss fights are somehow worse. I criticized Super Paper Mario for having lame bosses, but the bosses in this game are straight up a waste of time. Each boss is effectively impossible to beat or incredibly time consuming unless you have the right 'Thing'. Things are real world objects that you collect throughout the game, that aren't paper. They essentially act as cheat codes in boss fights.
The 'thing' that is insulting about this system is that boss battles are not testing player skill or growth in any way whatsoever - they're simply testing whether or not you have an object that cheeses the fight, and it's rarely ever satisfying to win in this manner, because you feel like you didn't do anything. Sometimes you get into these fights without knowing what it is you need, and you just waste your whole inventory trying to figure out what it is. A lot of time it is not obvious what you need, or it is very easy to miss one of the things you need. This whole system just turned me off of the game completely.
What was funny about this game is that they said the original games were too hard for younger people to pick up, yet I highly doubt a younger audience is going to understand how to problem solve in this game to begin with. It feels like a bad excuse. Trial and error is rarely fun in video games, and there's quite a bit of it here. Blue doors honestly make the thing sticker thing even more confusing.
I absolutely despise Kersti, the main ally of the game. She effectively does all the talking for you in the game, but comes across as yelling at you the whole time. There's no way to get away from her, because the game is dependent on her for conveying what is happening at all times.
Level design was as bland as it gets - grassland, desert, forest, snowland, jungle, lava stage. Rarely are there ever unique quirks about the stages. The best level in the game to me was by far the Enigmansion - it was the only time I felt I was playing a level that had some sort of thought put into it.
I could complain about so many minor things with this game, but I don't really want to waste more time discussing its shortcomings. I can get over a game having weaknesses - rarely is anything ever perfect. But for me to remember a game fondly, I at least need something that I did like about it. When I think of most games, even games I just thought were ok, there's at least some aspect of them I can usually find. At its worst, Sticker Star is an uninspired rip off of a formerly great franchise. At its best, you are simply passing time.
I don't want to hate on this game, but I have no choice but to dislike it. There just simply isn't anything that makes it stand out whatsoever. I don't hate change for the sake of being change - but if you're going to change, you need to give me something at the very least to appreciate. This unfortunately was something that Sticker Star failed to do.
This will go down as the Paper Mario game I pretend just never happened. Color Splash at first looked like more of the same, but very quickly into that game you realize that so much more effort and love was put into it. I could have forgiven Sticker Star's flaws, because I did do it with its sequel. The sequel had good qualities though, and that is ultimately the difference between a flawed game and an actual waste of time.
2007
When I played this game for the first time, I was going in with lofty expectations - TTYD was my favorite game of all time, and I was expecting something that was just as great. In my first playthrough, I enjoyed myself quite a bit, despite thinking it was worse. I didn't really realize that this was effectively the end of the Paper Mario I grew up with at the time, but after cycling back to the original and as I grew up, I developed some unfair disdain for this game's existence. After finally reaching acceptance on the future of the series, I went back to replay this game and I was shocked to realize that it was better than I remembered it.
When Sticker Star arrived, I think all the hate for this game effectively disappeared. We realized how much worse it could get, and realized that its core, Super Paper Mario still felt like 90% of what made a real Paper Mario game. Eventually, I think the hype actually got out of control to the point where the word "masterpiece" started to get thrown around in conversations. The game has quite a few attributes that I would describe as the best in the series, so it makes sense. However, it is important to remember that something worse being introduced does not rid the original subject of all its flaws.
In terms of its narrative, Super Paper Mario tried a little bit more than TTYD did. It was also noticeably more quirky, and in many ways, ahead of its time. When replaying Chapter 3-4, it was actually hard to believe that this game was released in 2007. It's not like TTYD wasn't known for these attributes either - SPM just exceeded it in these categories.
With this all being said, Super Paper Mario was a step behind its predecessor in many ways, and to larger degrees than where TTYD was behind it. Gameplay of course was a pretty big disappointment. Opting to not have battles in a series known for being a RPG was bold - but I didn't actually hate the decision for the majority of the game. Battles in any RPG could be tedious on occasion, and the game still felt pretty nice as a RPG-Platformer hybrid. Puzzle solving isn't really great, and relies on switching to 3D most of the time, and the 3D timer is quite irritating as well. I believe they didn't want getting through the game to be too easy (it is easy to walk past enemies in 3D), but realistically if a section is too hard, players can just wait for the 3D timer to reload before attempting anyways).
Where the gameplay all falls apart is in the boss battles though - something about having a 15 second boss fight just felt so incredibly wrong and unsatisfying. Even though this is a low point for the game, I am willing to look past it because it is still relatively fun to play. Comparatively speaking though, it doesn't stack up to its predecessors here.
The Pixls, or the new partners, were also a very big letdown. All of them had a pretty memorable opening moment where you meet them, but after that, they are essentially tools for the rest of the game, similar to HMs in Pokemon. All interesting dialogue really goes out the window outside of your main partner, Tippi, and the partners don't feel developed at all. This is disappointing considering TTYD took great leaps to make the partners interesting, even outside of their own chapters. Characters in general are strange in this game. There are a lot of good ones, but the side characters in Flipside, the hub town, feel rather lifeless. There is nothing wrong with them or their text, but they just seem very generic to the point where I found myself not really talking to them. I didn't have a reason to not engage much either, it just kind of didn't happen much.
The music in this game is outstanding, and I don't just say that lightly about most games. The noticeable improvements were in the overworld areas, which makes sense, since you don't have a battle theme in this game that interrupts the areas. But they did an outstanding job with these level themes. Special shoutout to Gloam Valley, an absolute banger.
There wasn't a single chapter that had nothing to like about it - Chapter 7-3 pushed it a little bit, but it is manageable still. How they use Chapter 6 is quite interesting as well. In terms of content, this is the best game in the series. Plenty of collectibles and challenges will keep you busy well beyond the credits. Getting from place to place is not too much of a hassle either thanks to the return pipe item and convenient locations for all the chapters.
Some of the greatest strengths of the game can turn into weaknesses at times. The game is maybe a little too quirky at times - to the point where it asks you to do sometimes ridiculous tasks just for the sake of it seeming ridiculous. This includes requesting you to get a pen and paper out to write down a 30 letter password, or running in a hamster wheel for nearly 10 minutes of game time. There is some humor in the shock value until you realize that well, it's serious.
The story is nice, but overrated. It has some twists throughout the game that you likely won't expect, and I think that makes people overreact to just how strong the narrative is. For a Mario game, it is spectacular, yes. But if I had to make a comparison, the story feels to be quite a bit closer to fanfiction than a published story.
I said earlier that this game shouldn't get points for being better than Sticker Star. But I have to remain consistent: it shouldn't lose points for being worse than TTYD. Super Paper Mario might go down as the only truly unique Paper Mario game. It was never done before and never done after. It still has a special place in my heart.
While not what I was initially looking for, it has all the essentials that the first 2 games established. It has 8 unique chapters which their own interesting stories, it still has a tattle log, it still has the Pit of 100 trials, and partners, Merlon, etc. It proved that you can make something unique that is still definitely a "Paper Mario" game. But most importantly, it has an identity, and I think that is important for games that dare to be different. If you are going to break the mold, do so confidently and take some risks. This was accomplished with Super Paper Mario. 15 years later, it is easy to look back and to appreciate it as a result. I'm okay with not getting another game like it, yet I'm still happy it happened.
When Sticker Star arrived, I think all the hate for this game effectively disappeared. We realized how much worse it could get, and realized that its core, Super Paper Mario still felt like 90% of what made a real Paper Mario game. Eventually, I think the hype actually got out of control to the point where the word "masterpiece" started to get thrown around in conversations. The game has quite a few attributes that I would describe as the best in the series, so it makes sense. However, it is important to remember that something worse being introduced does not rid the original subject of all its flaws.
In terms of its narrative, Super Paper Mario tried a little bit more than TTYD did. It was also noticeably more quirky, and in many ways, ahead of its time. When replaying Chapter 3-4, it was actually hard to believe that this game was released in 2007. It's not like TTYD wasn't known for these attributes either - SPM just exceeded it in these categories.
With this all being said, Super Paper Mario was a step behind its predecessor in many ways, and to larger degrees than where TTYD was behind it. Gameplay of course was a pretty big disappointment. Opting to not have battles in a series known for being a RPG was bold - but I didn't actually hate the decision for the majority of the game. Battles in any RPG could be tedious on occasion, and the game still felt pretty nice as a RPG-Platformer hybrid. Puzzle solving isn't really great, and relies on switching to 3D most of the time, and the 3D timer is quite irritating as well. I believe they didn't want getting through the game to be too easy (it is easy to walk past enemies in 3D), but realistically if a section is too hard, players can just wait for the 3D timer to reload before attempting anyways).
Where the gameplay all falls apart is in the boss battles though - something about having a 15 second boss fight just felt so incredibly wrong and unsatisfying. Even though this is a low point for the game, I am willing to look past it because it is still relatively fun to play. Comparatively speaking though, it doesn't stack up to its predecessors here.
The Pixls, or the new partners, were also a very big letdown. All of them had a pretty memorable opening moment where you meet them, but after that, they are essentially tools for the rest of the game, similar to HMs in Pokemon. All interesting dialogue really goes out the window outside of your main partner, Tippi, and the partners don't feel developed at all. This is disappointing considering TTYD took great leaps to make the partners interesting, even outside of their own chapters. Characters in general are strange in this game. There are a lot of good ones, but the side characters in Flipside, the hub town, feel rather lifeless. There is nothing wrong with them or their text, but they just seem very generic to the point where I found myself not really talking to them. I didn't have a reason to not engage much either, it just kind of didn't happen much.
The music in this game is outstanding, and I don't just say that lightly about most games. The noticeable improvements were in the overworld areas, which makes sense, since you don't have a battle theme in this game that interrupts the areas. But they did an outstanding job with these level themes. Special shoutout to Gloam Valley, an absolute banger.
There wasn't a single chapter that had nothing to like about it - Chapter 7-3 pushed it a little bit, but it is manageable still. How they use Chapter 6 is quite interesting as well. In terms of content, this is the best game in the series. Plenty of collectibles and challenges will keep you busy well beyond the credits. Getting from place to place is not too much of a hassle either thanks to the return pipe item and convenient locations for all the chapters.
Some of the greatest strengths of the game can turn into weaknesses at times. The game is maybe a little too quirky at times - to the point where it asks you to do sometimes ridiculous tasks just for the sake of it seeming ridiculous. This includes requesting you to get a pen and paper out to write down a 30 letter password, or running in a hamster wheel for nearly 10 minutes of game time. There is some humor in the shock value until you realize that well, it's serious.
The story is nice, but overrated. It has some twists throughout the game that you likely won't expect, and I think that makes people overreact to just how strong the narrative is. For a Mario game, it is spectacular, yes. But if I had to make a comparison, the story feels to be quite a bit closer to fanfiction than a published story.
I said earlier that this game shouldn't get points for being better than Sticker Star. But I have to remain consistent: it shouldn't lose points for being worse than TTYD. Super Paper Mario might go down as the only truly unique Paper Mario game. It was never done before and never done after. It still has a special place in my heart.
While not what I was initially looking for, it has all the essentials that the first 2 games established. It has 8 unique chapters which their own interesting stories, it still has a tattle log, it still has the Pit of 100 trials, and partners, Merlon, etc. It proved that you can make something unique that is still definitely a "Paper Mario" game. But most importantly, it has an identity, and I think that is important for games that dare to be different. If you are going to break the mold, do so confidently and take some risks. This was accomplished with Super Paper Mario. 15 years later, it is easy to look back and to appreciate it as a result. I'm okay with not getting another game like it, yet I'm still happy it happened.
2020
My thoughts on this game really are just about what you would expect from a well made fan game: the changes from the actual mainline Pokemon games are superb, while not feeling entirely unique in the process. This is still more than enough for a really good experience.
First things first, I want to talk about something that this game does that I've wanted out of a Pokemon game for a very long time: it changes up wild Pokemon on pretty much every route. What this results in is an early game that is much more interesting and less slow than most standard Pokemon games. I've grown beyond tired of seeing the same Pokemon showing up on half the routes in the game, and as a result of this, I feel like in a replay I would get to choose a much different team than I was expecting going into things.
This is achieved by having a regional dex of about 500 Pokemon. It's utterly baffling to me that they don't do this in more games, but it kept things feeling quite fresh.
While this solves a lot of problems that most Pokemon regions encounter, it doesn't fix everything. Because the game has the relatively linear nature that most Pokemon games have, there are a lot of Pokemon that you won't be able to capture until mid to late game. Because there are so many Pokemon, it's impossible to really introduce all of them at a time when teambuilding still feels reasonable in the story. By the time some new Pokemon were encountered, my team was beyond set in the stone. Each route having new Pokemon is a perk that loses its effect over time.
Some of the damage here is negated by the level adjustments. Difficulty usually feels about right because important trainers in the game have teams that are based on the level of your highest Pokemon. This is good for keeping difficulty fair, but also for forcing players to go with a full team of 6 approach.
I've theorized that maybe the best way to build a Pokemon game would be to split it into two main non linear sections. The first section could act as a team building phase where all wild Pokemon in the game are accessible, but would require hefty exploration. The second part could be focused on your Pokemon League challenge, which might make more sense when your team is getting stronger anyway. Gym Leaders having level 12 Pokemon never made sense anyway. The adaptive level adjustments in this game could maybe fit this approach pretty well and give a ton of flexibility in team building.
If you fight all the trainers in the game, your Pokemon League challenge will result in using and facing off against Pokemon level 90 and above. That was awesome, and all movesets are truly available as a result.
In terms of features / choices, there was a lot of good here. HMs exist but are incredibly efficient / quick and based on if you have Pokemon that could learn the move, rather than forcing them to waste a move slot. 1 time use items are used once a battle, and don't disappear permanently after the battle is over.
Mega evolution is also in the game, the best and only good gimmick GameFreak came up with after Generation 5. The inclusion of Chanseys on routes, like the doctors in Gen 5 are also a nice way to make longer routes with more difficulty. I would've liked to see even more of them. Pokemon is more fun when the challenge is based on strategy for battles, not just going through a gauntlet with little access to healing. Spending resources never feels good in any game, even when you can afford it.
Gym battles were unique in that each gym had its own gimmick that changed things up quite a bit. To be honest it seemed annoying because all your expected advantages were usually wiped out, but I didn't downright hate it because it was unique. The last gym especially had an unexpected one.
The mix of gen 3 / 4 graphics was nostalgic even if what you would expect for a mod. I can't really give the game credit for reusing some assets because it didn't innovate that much in that regard, but it looked nice. I can compliment the map itself though.
The map is utilized in a thoughtful way. There is a large focus on underground travel once you have been somewhere the first time, and that allows for pretty quick travel even without flying, without disrupting a first time playthrough. Getting around is not a hassle whatsoever and often I found that they use the underground in clever ways to get you to certain points at certain times without you noticing that you took a shortcut.
I wasn't a big fan of the AI because it straight up knows your moveset and as such, does not act like a normal, rational player. I had my suspicions, but there was a moment where they swapped out Pokemon when logically speaking, it would've had no reason to know it was at a disadvantage. I like rational AI, not all knowing AI.
Finally, story. It was okay - I think at times it took itself a little too seriously, but I can't give it a knock for trying to come up with something interesting. There was a little too much text for a Pokemon game in some cutscenes. I appreciate a good story, and I think Hoopa was the right Pokemon to choose to focus on. Admittedly I think my own bias here is that this is a mod, and something I played when I had a couple of minutes to spare, rather than being something I was invested in like a traditional RPG. This story may be great for some others, but typically I play Pokemon fan games for just some quick, addictive, gameplay.
The characters aren't particularly interesting and I found that some were big characters because of how often they showed up rather than based on first impression. But they were certainly better than some actual Pokemon characters. The character definitely has some plot armor, I'll just leave it at that.
All things considered, there's a lot more good than bad here, and this was incredibly well polished for a mod. While I wasn't looking for a grand story here per say, there were lots of other benefits that were convenient that I also covered earlier. It makes this an easy recommend to someone looking for a fun Pokemon mod they can take on the go.
First things first, I want to talk about something that this game does that I've wanted out of a Pokemon game for a very long time: it changes up wild Pokemon on pretty much every route. What this results in is an early game that is much more interesting and less slow than most standard Pokemon games. I've grown beyond tired of seeing the same Pokemon showing up on half the routes in the game, and as a result of this, I feel like in a replay I would get to choose a much different team than I was expecting going into things.
This is achieved by having a regional dex of about 500 Pokemon. It's utterly baffling to me that they don't do this in more games, but it kept things feeling quite fresh.
While this solves a lot of problems that most Pokemon regions encounter, it doesn't fix everything. Because the game has the relatively linear nature that most Pokemon games have, there are a lot of Pokemon that you won't be able to capture until mid to late game. Because there are so many Pokemon, it's impossible to really introduce all of them at a time when teambuilding still feels reasonable in the story. By the time some new Pokemon were encountered, my team was beyond set in the stone. Each route having new Pokemon is a perk that loses its effect over time.
Some of the damage here is negated by the level adjustments. Difficulty usually feels about right because important trainers in the game have teams that are based on the level of your highest Pokemon. This is good for keeping difficulty fair, but also for forcing players to go with a full team of 6 approach.
I've theorized that maybe the best way to build a Pokemon game would be to split it into two main non linear sections. The first section could act as a team building phase where all wild Pokemon in the game are accessible, but would require hefty exploration. The second part could be focused on your Pokemon League challenge, which might make more sense when your team is getting stronger anyway. Gym Leaders having level 12 Pokemon never made sense anyway. The adaptive level adjustments in this game could maybe fit this approach pretty well and give a ton of flexibility in team building.
If you fight all the trainers in the game, your Pokemon League challenge will result in using and facing off against Pokemon level 90 and above. That was awesome, and all movesets are truly available as a result.
In terms of features / choices, there was a lot of good here. HMs exist but are incredibly efficient / quick and based on if you have Pokemon that could learn the move, rather than forcing them to waste a move slot. 1 time use items are used once a battle, and don't disappear permanently after the battle is over.
Mega evolution is also in the game, the best and only good gimmick GameFreak came up with after Generation 5. The inclusion of Chanseys on routes, like the doctors in Gen 5 are also a nice way to make longer routes with more difficulty. I would've liked to see even more of them. Pokemon is more fun when the challenge is based on strategy for battles, not just going through a gauntlet with little access to healing. Spending resources never feels good in any game, even when you can afford it.
Gym battles were unique in that each gym had its own gimmick that changed things up quite a bit. To be honest it seemed annoying because all your expected advantages were usually wiped out, but I didn't downright hate it because it was unique. The last gym especially had an unexpected one.
The mix of gen 3 / 4 graphics was nostalgic even if what you would expect for a mod. I can't really give the game credit for reusing some assets because it didn't innovate that much in that regard, but it looked nice. I can compliment the map itself though.
The map is utilized in a thoughtful way. There is a large focus on underground travel once you have been somewhere the first time, and that allows for pretty quick travel even without flying, without disrupting a first time playthrough. Getting around is not a hassle whatsoever and often I found that they use the underground in clever ways to get you to certain points at certain times without you noticing that you took a shortcut.
I wasn't a big fan of the AI because it straight up knows your moveset and as such, does not act like a normal, rational player. I had my suspicions, but there was a moment where they swapped out Pokemon when logically speaking, it would've had no reason to know it was at a disadvantage. I like rational AI, not all knowing AI.
Finally, story. It was okay - I think at times it took itself a little too seriously, but I can't give it a knock for trying to come up with something interesting. There was a little too much text for a Pokemon game in some cutscenes. I appreciate a good story, and I think Hoopa was the right Pokemon to choose to focus on. Admittedly I think my own bias here is that this is a mod, and something I played when I had a couple of minutes to spare, rather than being something I was invested in like a traditional RPG. This story may be great for some others, but typically I play Pokemon fan games for just some quick, addictive, gameplay.
The characters aren't particularly interesting and I found that some were big characters because of how often they showed up rather than based on first impression. But they were certainly better than some actual Pokemon characters. The character definitely has some plot armor, I'll just leave it at that.
All things considered, there's a lot more good than bad here, and this was incredibly well polished for a mod. While I wasn't looking for a grand story here per say, there were lots of other benefits that were convenient that I also covered earlier. It makes this an easy recommend to someone looking for a fun Pokemon mod they can take on the go.
2020
Don't want to start this review off by acting too edgy, but this game made me really question what separates a video game from other forms of media. While it has a ton going for it, I came away from the game feeling that it actually abandoned its own gameplay at the expense of a rather intense, yet touching narrative. At the very least, there is good reason as to why it ultimately goes down this route.
Just a warning, if you think anything and everything is a spoiler, I'd be cautious of this review. I'm not leaking any specific story details, but rather discussing the nature of the game and its priorities.
The biggest reason why it makes sense to be a video game is that there are branching paths and unique endings. It is rather difficult to actually realize you are choosing a specific ending because the game doesn't seem to treat them as a huge deal in the moment, which makes the routes all seem more genuine as opposed to just being "endings". You're choosing your story naturally. This is something you can't really do in a movie, for instance.
The reason the game abandons its gameplay in the end is because quite frankly, the side of the story that is more focused on gameplay is done serving its purpose in the last few hours of the game. There is legitimate narrative reason for this, and you realize that the gameplay if anything, is mainly a distraction in every possible sense from a greater narrative that takes priority over all else.
My issue with gameplay playing second fiddle is that I actually enjoyed the battle system that they set up quite a bit. I felt there was a lot of missed potential and that the end of normal Omori gameplay just ends well before you even realize it. My favorite part of most RPGs is the mid to late game combat and dungeons, because I enjoy playing with OP characters with lots of abilities unlocked. It all ends too quickly here.
Additionally speaking, I felt that the pacing was not the best as well. You are battling either way too little or way too much. Again, there may be fine narrative based reasons for this, but I would've preferred less enemies per area and maybe another extra area. The last main area with encounters also dragged on for an eternity, which I guess makes sense when considering the ending has practically no battling or anything at all. It just doesn't make for the most fun experience overall.
One other thing that bothers me quite a bit is that based on what route you do end up choosing, some things are inaccessible to you. If you are playing for the first time, I recommend making multiple save files every time a "section" ends, if you want to do everything. This is not a game you can finish 100% with 1 file, pretty much. As such, there are going to be some places / bosses that I don't think I'll ever get to do.
Up to this point, I've given a lot of critique, but I still consider 4 stars to be a very good score. I want to also sell people on why they should play this game. Like I mentioned, I really enjoyed the combat system, because it isn't plain, and the emotion system it uses is cool. But this isn't why you choose to play Omori.
You choose to play Omori because of the narrative, and while at times it is very difficult to endure, it is good. There are a lot of things and little decisions I could rave about, but I don't want to spoil people on story details.
Just a warning: the beginning of the game doesn't make much sense, and feels a little bit slow. Just get through the first section, and keep going for a bit before being quick to judge. The first part of the game does an excellent job at introducing you to the characters and what they are like. What comes later really makes you care about them and the story, and that is what will keep you hooked until the end.
Overall, it was really a good time. At the end of the day, I don't care whether or not it is a video game, because it was fun and enjoyable. While I wanted more use out of the battle system, the game is clearly committed to a bigger narrative, and that is understandable. It may not be for the faint of heart, but it's a good time, has a great soundtrack, and does a really good job telling a story about dealing with trauma. If this all interests you, I recommend it for that narrative alone.
Just a warning, if you think anything and everything is a spoiler, I'd be cautious of this review. I'm not leaking any specific story details, but rather discussing the nature of the game and its priorities.
The biggest reason why it makes sense to be a video game is that there are branching paths and unique endings. It is rather difficult to actually realize you are choosing a specific ending because the game doesn't seem to treat them as a huge deal in the moment, which makes the routes all seem more genuine as opposed to just being "endings". You're choosing your story naturally. This is something you can't really do in a movie, for instance.
The reason the game abandons its gameplay in the end is because quite frankly, the side of the story that is more focused on gameplay is done serving its purpose in the last few hours of the game. There is legitimate narrative reason for this, and you realize that the gameplay if anything, is mainly a distraction in every possible sense from a greater narrative that takes priority over all else.
My issue with gameplay playing second fiddle is that I actually enjoyed the battle system that they set up quite a bit. I felt there was a lot of missed potential and that the end of normal Omori gameplay just ends well before you even realize it. My favorite part of most RPGs is the mid to late game combat and dungeons, because I enjoy playing with OP characters with lots of abilities unlocked. It all ends too quickly here.
Additionally speaking, I felt that the pacing was not the best as well. You are battling either way too little or way too much. Again, there may be fine narrative based reasons for this, but I would've preferred less enemies per area and maybe another extra area. The last main area with encounters also dragged on for an eternity, which I guess makes sense when considering the ending has practically no battling or anything at all. It just doesn't make for the most fun experience overall.
One other thing that bothers me quite a bit is that based on what route you do end up choosing, some things are inaccessible to you. If you are playing for the first time, I recommend making multiple save files every time a "section" ends, if you want to do everything. This is not a game you can finish 100% with 1 file, pretty much. As such, there are going to be some places / bosses that I don't think I'll ever get to do.
Up to this point, I've given a lot of critique, but I still consider 4 stars to be a very good score. I want to also sell people on why they should play this game. Like I mentioned, I really enjoyed the combat system, because it isn't plain, and the emotion system it uses is cool. But this isn't why you choose to play Omori.
You choose to play Omori because of the narrative, and while at times it is very difficult to endure, it is good. There are a lot of things and little decisions I could rave about, but I don't want to spoil people on story details.
Just a warning: the beginning of the game doesn't make much sense, and feels a little bit slow. Just get through the first section, and keep going for a bit before being quick to judge. The first part of the game does an excellent job at introducing you to the characters and what they are like. What comes later really makes you care about them and the story, and that is what will keep you hooked until the end.
Overall, it was really a good time. At the end of the day, I don't care whether or not it is a video game, because it was fun and enjoyable. While I wanted more use out of the battle system, the game is clearly committed to a bigger narrative, and that is understandable. It may not be for the faint of heart, but it's a good time, has a great soundtrack, and does a really good job telling a story about dealing with trauma. If this all interests you, I recommend it for that narrative alone.
I've stopped purchasing Mario sports titles, because since the mid 2000s, everything they've put out has either been low effort, or one of the sports that don't interest me that much. I've never been a huge fan of real world soccer, but Mario Strikers has always been different. What I got was a game I've had fun with, and a revisiting of the type of gameplay that I've missed for over a decade now, but I came out of the experience wanting more.
I don't want this to come across as a knock, but it's definitely my least favorite game in the series to date. I can't exactly put my finger on why, but perhaps it has to do with my expectations. One thing that has bothered me since day 1 is the control scheme, which acts in complete opposition of the originals. Even after finishing the hard mode cups, I still occasionally slip up and pass instead of shoot, and I miss using the shoulder buttons for lobs. What makes this issue particularly frustrating is that there is no option to change your controls. If you're going to switch the controls around for a sequel, fine - but please give me the option to adjust it to what I'd prefer to use.
My next big issue is pretty subjective - but the content leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not the type of person to really complain about a character roster, and we'll get back to that, but the stadium options have left me pretty disappointed. One thing that I've always liked about Mario spinoffs is that they've never an exact replica of what they're mimicking. The stages in the original and Charged all felt quite unique, and we're not getting that at all here.
Admittedly, I was never super big on stage gimmicks, outside of Crystal Canyon in Charged, but I wish that they did more than a bunch of slightly altered backgrounds. When you played in the Konga Coliseum in the original, you noticed it. Same goes as other favorites such as Crater Field, Bowser Stadium, or The Classroom - none of these were particularly gimmicky, but they were unique. Charged added a great soundtrack on top of its stages, and I was hoping to see that added on to.
The new remixes are okay. I don't hate them, but at the end of the day, they're remixes of songs we already know, and I wouldn't even call them upgrades. They're essentially edgy Strikers versions that feel like they remind you of that fact every 20 seconds. The original songs in Charged were really appreciated for me. I understand a lot of others probably like them, but they're just not for me.
I also don't really understand the idea of the opening to each game whatsoever - stadiums essentially appear out of thin air, and are floating in space. I guess it is an attempt to feel epic, and that it doesn't really matter at the end of the day, but I just feel like creative energy could've been used in other places.
Moving on to actual issues, I want to talk about gameplay next. There's a lot of things I don't particularly like. The decision to merge hits and slide tackles is one I don't really like, because there are plenty of opportunities where I feel like I could go for a steal without hitting the opposition, but it forces me to. Slide tackles were the more satisfying approach to going for a change of possession in the older games, and the few times you get one in this game just doesn't do it for me over having a dedicated button.
The decision to get rid of Megastrikes was a welcome one. Going back to the original formula in the Gamecube entry feels like a much better compromise that doesn't force awkward motion controls on you.
The decision to get rid of allies results in some mixed feelings for me. More team customization is welcome, and ally abilities were getting a little out of hand in Charged, but I do kind of miss them and the idea of the main captains having their own teams and not facing themselves every other match.
Of course, the big change in this system is now every member of a team can go for a Hyperstrike, given they pick up the orb that appears, much like Smash Balls in Smash Bros. I don't know if I prefer this over the original game, because it felt like you could defend against Superstrikes by just putting more defensive emphasis on captains, outside of the broken Super Team. In this game, you can't do it at any time, but gaining access almost can feel like luck at times. Sometimes I feel like when I'm down possessions I feel like I'm planning around obtaining an orb and saving my items for that, and I'm not sure that's good for the game if it is a common issue.
There are a few other things that don't feel great about the game either. Things feel a little bit off - character selection is painfully slow, the timer seems to be desynced (noticeable especially on buzzer beater goals), and what actually constitutes a goal seems to be questionable. There have been a few instances where the ball seems to have crossed the line entirely, but a point is not rewarded.
Probably my biggest gripe with gameplay is that overtime is capped at 2 minutes. Soccer is a low scoring game especially at high levels, so it's infuriating to me that they messed with overtime. Many of my best memories with the originals are the overtime games that went on for way too long. Those were always the most intense matches. In this game, there's literally no benefit to tying - in cup mode, you just replay the match again. It would literally be better if overtime decided it! Most likely this change was adjusting to the era of online play, but why not have an option? It is so easy to include that kind of feature.
The last gameplay topics I want to discuss are the hit system and goalies. I was skeptical about the item system at first, with team specific boxes, until I realized that they appear as penalties for hitting defenseless players. With that being said, I still don't really like this change. It incentivizes hitting opponents and giving them an item much more when there is no immediate punishment. Maybe they wanted it to be this way, but I don't like the idea of hits being this incentivized.
Goalies definitely feel tamer in this game. Don't get me wrong, I understand Boom Boom fits a Mario game more but I do miss Kritter - he was a bit of a badass. I miss the OP goalies that would just completely deck anyone who dared to mess with him. Boom Boom seemingly acts on his own at times also, which I'm not a big fan of. This complaint is pretty minor though.
I think a lot of people feel this game is lacking in the content department, but realistically content has never gone crazy in a Strikers game. I think a lot of this adds up to the Cup Modes being relatively unenjoyable. Every cup is at maximum 5 games now, which is on the short end. There's nothing wrong with double elimination, it is actually a very fair format. But it does make the game feel smaller than the tougher cups of old. I think the AI also turns a lot of people off of these modes to begin with too. It does not feel fair to face, and has many perfect reactions to moves you make. It can get a little frustrating at times.
Online content is not bad. I enjoy being able to play online co-op with friends, or 4 player games, but also, it very easily could've been better, so it's hard to give points here. I've not played the group competitions yet, but from what I've observed, it seems like a grindfest more than anything else, so I'm not really too interested.
As far as DLC goes, it is what it is. I prefer my games finished, that's all I'm going to say on the matter. By giving characters out as free updates, it just annoys me that they didn't put them in sooner, because I doubt Daisy and Shy Guy were that much work to put in the base game.
Finally, the gear system is ok I guess. Customization is cool, but if you want to actually buy everything... well have fun grinding. After beating tournaments for the first time, you can no longer get coins by the thousand, so it appears to be a grueling process. Count me out.
Overall, I'm glad to get a new entry on the Switch. Don't get me wrong, as I've been pretty negative. I'm still going to play online with friends from time to time over the next few years. I was just expecting a little better.
I don't want this to come across as a knock, but it's definitely my least favorite game in the series to date. I can't exactly put my finger on why, but perhaps it has to do with my expectations. One thing that has bothered me since day 1 is the control scheme, which acts in complete opposition of the originals. Even after finishing the hard mode cups, I still occasionally slip up and pass instead of shoot, and I miss using the shoulder buttons for lobs. What makes this issue particularly frustrating is that there is no option to change your controls. If you're going to switch the controls around for a sequel, fine - but please give me the option to adjust it to what I'd prefer to use.
My next big issue is pretty subjective - but the content leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not the type of person to really complain about a character roster, and we'll get back to that, but the stadium options have left me pretty disappointed. One thing that I've always liked about Mario spinoffs is that they've never an exact replica of what they're mimicking. The stages in the original and Charged all felt quite unique, and we're not getting that at all here.
Admittedly, I was never super big on stage gimmicks, outside of Crystal Canyon in Charged, but I wish that they did more than a bunch of slightly altered backgrounds. When you played in the Konga Coliseum in the original, you noticed it. Same goes as other favorites such as Crater Field, Bowser Stadium, or The Classroom - none of these were particularly gimmicky, but they were unique. Charged added a great soundtrack on top of its stages, and I was hoping to see that added on to.
The new remixes are okay. I don't hate them, but at the end of the day, they're remixes of songs we already know, and I wouldn't even call them upgrades. They're essentially edgy Strikers versions that feel like they remind you of that fact every 20 seconds. The original songs in Charged were really appreciated for me. I understand a lot of others probably like them, but they're just not for me.
I also don't really understand the idea of the opening to each game whatsoever - stadiums essentially appear out of thin air, and are floating in space. I guess it is an attempt to feel epic, and that it doesn't really matter at the end of the day, but I just feel like creative energy could've been used in other places.
Moving on to actual issues, I want to talk about gameplay next. There's a lot of things I don't particularly like. The decision to merge hits and slide tackles is one I don't really like, because there are plenty of opportunities where I feel like I could go for a steal without hitting the opposition, but it forces me to. Slide tackles were the more satisfying approach to going for a change of possession in the older games, and the few times you get one in this game just doesn't do it for me over having a dedicated button.
The decision to get rid of Megastrikes was a welcome one. Going back to the original formula in the Gamecube entry feels like a much better compromise that doesn't force awkward motion controls on you.
The decision to get rid of allies results in some mixed feelings for me. More team customization is welcome, and ally abilities were getting a little out of hand in Charged, but I do kind of miss them and the idea of the main captains having their own teams and not facing themselves every other match.
Of course, the big change in this system is now every member of a team can go for a Hyperstrike, given they pick up the orb that appears, much like Smash Balls in Smash Bros. I don't know if I prefer this over the original game, because it felt like you could defend against Superstrikes by just putting more defensive emphasis on captains, outside of the broken Super Team. In this game, you can't do it at any time, but gaining access almost can feel like luck at times. Sometimes I feel like when I'm down possessions I feel like I'm planning around obtaining an orb and saving my items for that, and I'm not sure that's good for the game if it is a common issue.
There are a few other things that don't feel great about the game either. Things feel a little bit off - character selection is painfully slow, the timer seems to be desynced (noticeable especially on buzzer beater goals), and what actually constitutes a goal seems to be questionable. There have been a few instances where the ball seems to have crossed the line entirely, but a point is not rewarded.
Probably my biggest gripe with gameplay is that overtime is capped at 2 minutes. Soccer is a low scoring game especially at high levels, so it's infuriating to me that they messed with overtime. Many of my best memories with the originals are the overtime games that went on for way too long. Those were always the most intense matches. In this game, there's literally no benefit to tying - in cup mode, you just replay the match again. It would literally be better if overtime decided it! Most likely this change was adjusting to the era of online play, but why not have an option? It is so easy to include that kind of feature.
The last gameplay topics I want to discuss are the hit system and goalies. I was skeptical about the item system at first, with team specific boxes, until I realized that they appear as penalties for hitting defenseless players. With that being said, I still don't really like this change. It incentivizes hitting opponents and giving them an item much more when there is no immediate punishment. Maybe they wanted it to be this way, but I don't like the idea of hits being this incentivized.
Goalies definitely feel tamer in this game. Don't get me wrong, I understand Boom Boom fits a Mario game more but I do miss Kritter - he was a bit of a badass. I miss the OP goalies that would just completely deck anyone who dared to mess with him. Boom Boom seemingly acts on his own at times also, which I'm not a big fan of. This complaint is pretty minor though.
I think a lot of people feel this game is lacking in the content department, but realistically content has never gone crazy in a Strikers game. I think a lot of this adds up to the Cup Modes being relatively unenjoyable. Every cup is at maximum 5 games now, which is on the short end. There's nothing wrong with double elimination, it is actually a very fair format. But it does make the game feel smaller than the tougher cups of old. I think the AI also turns a lot of people off of these modes to begin with too. It does not feel fair to face, and has many perfect reactions to moves you make. It can get a little frustrating at times.
Online content is not bad. I enjoy being able to play online co-op with friends, or 4 player games, but also, it very easily could've been better, so it's hard to give points here. I've not played the group competitions yet, but from what I've observed, it seems like a grindfest more than anything else, so I'm not really too interested.
As far as DLC goes, it is what it is. I prefer my games finished, that's all I'm going to say on the matter. By giving characters out as free updates, it just annoys me that they didn't put them in sooner, because I doubt Daisy and Shy Guy were that much work to put in the base game.
Finally, the gear system is ok I guess. Customization is cool, but if you want to actually buy everything... well have fun grinding. After beating tournaments for the first time, you can no longer get coins by the thousand, so it appears to be a grueling process. Count me out.
Overall, I'm glad to get a new entry on the Switch. Don't get me wrong, as I've been pretty negative. I'm still going to play online with friends from time to time over the next few years. I was just expecting a little better.
This is not the most well made game of all time, and I'm probably about to grossly overrate it. But it is hands down the best Pokemon game since Black / White 2, and dared to change the formula. It completely succeeded in that regard.
Just because I wanted something new and fresh from Pokemon doesn't mean that I was going to give it a good review. Different does not always mean better. In the case of Pokemon spinoffs up to this point, there's been a lot of mediocrity. Many of them are complete gimmicks. Mystery Dungeon was a fun concept of controlling a Pokemon and the characters actually talking, but had very repetitive gameplay. Colosseum and XD were a nice change of pace given their different stories and focus on double battles, but I still left those games feeling like they didn't offer much else than their unique twist. This was the spinoff that in my opinion, was finally very good. So what made it work?
While many were quick to trash the Let's Go games, I felt that they had one major strength that the mainline games didn't have. This was of course, the lack of random encounters. What made Let's Go actually solid was that it was the first Pokemon game in a minute that made "catching em all" an actually reasonable, and fun, goal. This was just of course attached to maybe the most bare bones Pokemon experience. Pokemon Legends Arceus once again took this idea and the Wild Area from Sword/Shield, and cranked it up to 11.
Graphically it is a major step down from Breath of the Wild, even in the low FPS department, but I found the gameplay to actually be more fun overall. Part of the reason why the Pokedex felt like a chore in the past is that encounters were based on random chance. In this game, you're simply exploring and don't have to battle what you don't want to battle. Seeing Pokemon on the map rewards said exploration and makes a game where the main task is completing a Pokedex actually work.
Now despite it being fun and fresh, it's not the best made game. It being the first of its kind clearly shows. One of my biggest gripes in the game is in how Jubilife Village acts as a hub. After playing the game, it makes sense why they decided to separate the map into distinct sections, and have it be more Xenoblade style as opposed to truly open world. The main problem though is that unlike Xenoblade, exiting an area always forces you to go back to the hub, which is quite annoying, namely in the late game. An option to travel to whichever area you want would've been a massive convenience.
What is considered out of bounds can be a little bit weird at times. The edges of the areas can be kind of weird at times, and the game's solution for things like lava is that you simply can't glide over it even without late game upgrades, which creates really unnatural invisible walls in the air through many places. Walking speed was a little awkward and I would've preferred a run button over holding the control stick down. Luckily the Pokemon helpers that add to your arsenal throughout the game help alleviate this problem outside of the Village, and make for a nice feeling of progression.
The game was not always convenient. The lack of TMs made movepools a little bit more limited, but the tutor did make up for it a bit at least. Pokemon don't forget moves in this game either, you just get to switch them out when you want between fights. I had trouble ordering the request menu at times, and when changing back to the request list I would always have to reorder it. Some of the villain characters in the game will challenge you if they see you in the wild at random. This continues into the postgame, and get a little annoying at times that you can't refuse them if you happen to not notice one. Finally, some of the late game Pokemon catching was rather annoying. A handful of the late game ones are very annoying to initiate battles with (veterans of the game will know what I'm talking about) to the point where it interrupts the pace. And of course, there's the Space-Time Distortion...exclusives.
The idea of space-time distortions randomly appearing to have rare / powerful Pokemon is cool, and canonically it makes sense. However, locking certain items, let alone Pokemon, behind a random chance to appear mechanic is quite a bother when Dex completion is the main focus of the game.
Battles have a ton of different changes that I'm not sure are better. The main mechanic is agile / strong moves, which can effect how powerful and how frequent you can attack. Both are practical and reward you for knowing about how much damage your moves should do. Agile moves are also very convenient for catching Pokemon without KOing them, which is a big part of this game. Strong moves are good for getting that last ditch effort hit to barely KO.
There's really no such thing as turns like in your traditional games. The speed stat only matters on turn 1, and then after it's all based on back and forths that are affected by agile / strong moves. This style heavily nerfs sweepers as almost every Pokemon can revenge kill upon entry to the battlefield. This makes it important to have Pokemon that can resist everything your rival may throw out, which is tough. It makes bulk matter a bit more than normal as opposed to speed as well. There's a lot of high level "alpha" Pokemon in this game. They can frequently one shot you, but the nerf to sweepers makes it possible to take them down with a full team more frequently than you might expect.
Status effects, namely drowsiness / frostbite, replace sleep and freeze, making them way less stupid. Additionally, buffs and debuffs are on a timer, and will eventually revert.
One thing that is stupid is that opposing trainers sometimes throw out all 3 of their Pokemon at once. This was annoying to deal with, namely because of the XP system. If you want to train something in particular, it's very risky to throw it out first since it can die in 1v3s a lot. XP is given out only at the end of fights as well, so if your Pokemon doesn't survive the fight, it gets nothing. This can make team balance tougher to manage.
Capture rates seem to be much higher in this game than normal. That's honestly really appreciated, because I would've wasted a lot more time on some of the harder alpha fights if it wasn't for this. Additionally, alphas drop lots of XP gems in the postgame, which I find to be very convenient and helpful.
Quite frankly, I didn't find the music to be that spectacular. It was nostalgic in some areas and I definitely had some themes where I recognized the Sinnoh leitmotifs throughout the game. What I really want to rave about is some of the sounds in the game though. The SFX when catching a Pokemon with the ancient Poke Balls is awesome, and the end of battle jingle is so satisfying and memorable.
Whether or not all these battle changes are better or worse is up for debate. My opinion is that the battle system is a little more silly than in the mainline games, but it is fitting for the game, both mechanically and canonically as a game taking place in the past before battles were really crafted.
The story wasn't really great, and I'll talk about it below the review with some spoilers. But to summarize, this game flashed a lot of potential and a follow up could fix a lot of the issues I think, or make it run smoother. It got gameplay right, and that's why I'm happy with my time on the game. It could've just been a little better.
I'm really glad they did this on top of a traditional Gen 4 remake. It allowed for the best of both worlds: a nostalgic remake and a passion project that was just the cherry on top. Arceus is better than BDSP; but without BDSP, I would've probably been disappointed in the lack of a proper remake while playing this gem.
== SPOILER SECTION ==
PLA was more focused on the single player side of things than normal Pokemon, and as such, I wish they did more with its story. Throughout the early parts of the game, I really kind of neglected the sidequests because I wanted to see how the Diamond and Pearl clans' relationships developed. To me it felt like the plot was going to be that both were wrong about their vision of Almighty Sinnoh and that it was really Arceus the full time, but the game didn't feel super connected to Arceus until you get to fight him in what is effectively the postgame. There was a lot of potential for something a little bit grander, and the bigger plot twists in the game didn't really even seem to phase me that much.
One of the most ridiculous parts of the game is what happens when you catch your first of the D/P mascot legendaries. The other mythical Pokemon is out of control, and is about to wreak havoc on the region. I have no idea why you don't go into the fight immediately with your newly acquired mythical yourself. It's just crazy to me that they see the emergence of the new mythical, and decide to just leave the area. It works out in the game world because of course it does, but why would an enraged monster just wait on you patiently to return? It just felt ridiculous to me, lol.
== END SPOILER SECTION ==
Just because I wanted something new and fresh from Pokemon doesn't mean that I was going to give it a good review. Different does not always mean better. In the case of Pokemon spinoffs up to this point, there's been a lot of mediocrity. Many of them are complete gimmicks. Mystery Dungeon was a fun concept of controlling a Pokemon and the characters actually talking, but had very repetitive gameplay. Colosseum and XD were a nice change of pace given their different stories and focus on double battles, but I still left those games feeling like they didn't offer much else than their unique twist. This was the spinoff that in my opinion, was finally very good. So what made it work?
While many were quick to trash the Let's Go games, I felt that they had one major strength that the mainline games didn't have. This was of course, the lack of random encounters. What made Let's Go actually solid was that it was the first Pokemon game in a minute that made "catching em all" an actually reasonable, and fun, goal. This was just of course attached to maybe the most bare bones Pokemon experience. Pokemon Legends Arceus once again took this idea and the Wild Area from Sword/Shield, and cranked it up to 11.
Graphically it is a major step down from Breath of the Wild, even in the low FPS department, but I found the gameplay to actually be more fun overall. Part of the reason why the Pokedex felt like a chore in the past is that encounters were based on random chance. In this game, you're simply exploring and don't have to battle what you don't want to battle. Seeing Pokemon on the map rewards said exploration and makes a game where the main task is completing a Pokedex actually work.
Now despite it being fun and fresh, it's not the best made game. It being the first of its kind clearly shows. One of my biggest gripes in the game is in how Jubilife Village acts as a hub. After playing the game, it makes sense why they decided to separate the map into distinct sections, and have it be more Xenoblade style as opposed to truly open world. The main problem though is that unlike Xenoblade, exiting an area always forces you to go back to the hub, which is quite annoying, namely in the late game. An option to travel to whichever area you want would've been a massive convenience.
What is considered out of bounds can be a little bit weird at times. The edges of the areas can be kind of weird at times, and the game's solution for things like lava is that you simply can't glide over it even without late game upgrades, which creates really unnatural invisible walls in the air through many places. Walking speed was a little awkward and I would've preferred a run button over holding the control stick down. Luckily the Pokemon helpers that add to your arsenal throughout the game help alleviate this problem outside of the Village, and make for a nice feeling of progression.
The game was not always convenient. The lack of TMs made movepools a little bit more limited, but the tutor did make up for it a bit at least. Pokemon don't forget moves in this game either, you just get to switch them out when you want between fights. I had trouble ordering the request menu at times, and when changing back to the request list I would always have to reorder it. Some of the villain characters in the game will challenge you if they see you in the wild at random. This continues into the postgame, and get a little annoying at times that you can't refuse them if you happen to not notice one. Finally, some of the late game Pokemon catching was rather annoying. A handful of the late game ones are very annoying to initiate battles with (veterans of the game will know what I'm talking about) to the point where it interrupts the pace. And of course, there's the Space-Time Distortion...exclusives.
The idea of space-time distortions randomly appearing to have rare / powerful Pokemon is cool, and canonically it makes sense. However, locking certain items, let alone Pokemon, behind a random chance to appear mechanic is quite a bother when Dex completion is the main focus of the game.
Battles have a ton of different changes that I'm not sure are better. The main mechanic is agile / strong moves, which can effect how powerful and how frequent you can attack. Both are practical and reward you for knowing about how much damage your moves should do. Agile moves are also very convenient for catching Pokemon without KOing them, which is a big part of this game. Strong moves are good for getting that last ditch effort hit to barely KO.
There's really no such thing as turns like in your traditional games. The speed stat only matters on turn 1, and then after it's all based on back and forths that are affected by agile / strong moves. This style heavily nerfs sweepers as almost every Pokemon can revenge kill upon entry to the battlefield. This makes it important to have Pokemon that can resist everything your rival may throw out, which is tough. It makes bulk matter a bit more than normal as opposed to speed as well. There's a lot of high level "alpha" Pokemon in this game. They can frequently one shot you, but the nerf to sweepers makes it possible to take them down with a full team more frequently than you might expect.
Status effects, namely drowsiness / frostbite, replace sleep and freeze, making them way less stupid. Additionally, buffs and debuffs are on a timer, and will eventually revert.
One thing that is stupid is that opposing trainers sometimes throw out all 3 of their Pokemon at once. This was annoying to deal with, namely because of the XP system. If you want to train something in particular, it's very risky to throw it out first since it can die in 1v3s a lot. XP is given out only at the end of fights as well, so if your Pokemon doesn't survive the fight, it gets nothing. This can make team balance tougher to manage.
Capture rates seem to be much higher in this game than normal. That's honestly really appreciated, because I would've wasted a lot more time on some of the harder alpha fights if it wasn't for this. Additionally, alphas drop lots of XP gems in the postgame, which I find to be very convenient and helpful.
Quite frankly, I didn't find the music to be that spectacular. It was nostalgic in some areas and I definitely had some themes where I recognized the Sinnoh leitmotifs throughout the game. What I really want to rave about is some of the sounds in the game though. The SFX when catching a Pokemon with the ancient Poke Balls is awesome, and the end of battle jingle is so satisfying and memorable.
Whether or not all these battle changes are better or worse is up for debate. My opinion is that the battle system is a little more silly than in the mainline games, but it is fitting for the game, both mechanically and canonically as a game taking place in the past before battles were really crafted.
The story wasn't really great, and I'll talk about it below the review with some spoilers. But to summarize, this game flashed a lot of potential and a follow up could fix a lot of the issues I think, or make it run smoother. It got gameplay right, and that's why I'm happy with my time on the game. It could've just been a little better.
I'm really glad they did this on top of a traditional Gen 4 remake. It allowed for the best of both worlds: a nostalgic remake and a passion project that was just the cherry on top. Arceus is better than BDSP; but without BDSP, I would've probably been disappointed in the lack of a proper remake while playing this gem.
== SPOILER SECTION ==
PLA was more focused on the single player side of things than normal Pokemon, and as such, I wish they did more with its story. Throughout the early parts of the game, I really kind of neglected the sidequests because I wanted to see how the Diamond and Pearl clans' relationships developed. To me it felt like the plot was going to be that both were wrong about their vision of Almighty Sinnoh and that it was really Arceus the full time, but the game didn't feel super connected to Arceus until you get to fight him in what is effectively the postgame. There was a lot of potential for something a little bit grander, and the bigger plot twists in the game didn't really even seem to phase me that much.
One of the most ridiculous parts of the game is what happens when you catch your first of the D/P mascot legendaries. The other mythical Pokemon is out of control, and is about to wreak havoc on the region. I have no idea why you don't go into the fight immediately with your newly acquired mythical yourself. It's just crazy to me that they see the emergence of the new mythical, and decide to just leave the area. It works out in the game world because of course it does, but why would an enraged monster just wait on you patiently to return? It just felt ridiculous to me, lol.
== END SPOILER SECTION ==
1995
For a game nearing 30 years old now, it's quite impressive to come away from it saying that there are virtually no major flaws that turned me off of the game.
The battle system doesn't feature any crazy mechanics that make it a complete stand out, but it is surely above average. It has two unique battle quirks that complement each other very well. The first is that your location during a battle matters, and the second is the classic active combat system is in effect. Combined, this makes for some interesting decisions where you have to make a decision to attack to get something off before your enemies, or to stand by and wait for a better alignment for perhaps a stronger attack.
Added to it, the memorable cast of characters all have their different strengths in battle, and interact with each other through super attacks known as techs. Techs motivate you to try multiple configurations of party members in battles as the more you battle with different people, the more potential solutions you will unlock upon TP level up. What is particularly great about this system is that any combination of characters can make a completely viable team capable of beating anything in the game, and certain lineups will shine for certain fights, or perhaps make some bosses easier. It's completely possible that an easy boss for one player may be tough for another and vice versa, all because of what character lineups they used for them. In summary, battles keep you on your toes and force you to think.
The bosses aren't particularly difficult, but can humble you pretty quickly if you aren't paying enough attention. Many of them have unique strategies that force you to change your approach. What is particularly nice about Chrono Trigger is that when you do lose a fight, the solution is never that you need to grind more. You just need to try a different strategy, or perhaps execute better. The game is designed so that grinding is never necessary, which in my opinion, helps with pacing a lot. Whenever you enter a new area, it's not going to take too long, and the difficulty always feels just right.
The removal of random encounters from your typical Final Fantasy game is the best possible change that could've been made. This pretty much guarantees that you're going to be at a reasonable level for most of your playthrough, and rarely are you constantly interrupted by surprise fights that you want no part of. Many enemies are avoidable if you don't feel like fighting, unlike its SNES counterpart, Earthbound.
My least favorite aspect of the game is how quickly enemies do respawn however - frequently I dreaded backtracking for chests or figuring out how to get to them, because required fights frequently rekindle even seconds after finishing them. Additionally, there were some parts of the game (2300 A.D.) that require you to go through an area multiple times, and the enemies get quite annoying in that section. This is strictly an improvement over purely random encounters however. The game is interesting enough that you don't always want to be thinking about battles, and it seems to recognize that.
How the story unfolds around you is quite interesting. Time travel is rarely a concept that ever truly works in media, and I'm not going to sit and act like it makes complete sense here either, but it is handled about as well as it could be in a video game here. Time travel is used to tell bits and pieces of the story in an out of order way. In a sense, figuring out the timeline is sort of a mystery, and all the different time periods in history have their own unique settings and party members that make them interesting. Time travel is also used as an optional puzzle solving mechanic in many ways, which I think is pretty clever.
While the decisions you make in many games are inconsequential, that is rarely the case here. It is made clear very early on in the game and in a surprising manner. I won't elaborate much on it here, but it's worth noting and talking about. The game has a lot of content out there that it is willing to let you miss. So much is optional, but it makes for a very personalized experience. At times it is frustrating if you truly want to do everything you can do, because the hints can range from obvious to cryptic. However, I respect that the game wants players to earn their cutscenes or extra dialogue.
We talk about New Game + in many JRPGs these days, but how Chrono Trigger introduced it was revolutionary. This is a game full of decisions, and while it's not quite a choose your own adventure type of experience, it remembers your route through the game enough to give incredibly unique endings. These endings range from simply getting to see alternative timelines that you may have missed (in a speedy way due to NG+), to radically shifting the final outcome due to simply being incredibly powerful. NG+ isn't just a way to get to replay the game with all your gear in tact in Chrono Trigger, it's a fast lane to other endings that you may have not experienced in your original playthrough, that still makes you work for them (unlike that of watching on YouTube). I've still yet to play another game that implements NG+ so well.
The character cast, story, artstyle, and music are all quite solid, but it's hard for me to find any character, area, or music track to be one of my favorites of all time. I've found that this game has a very high floor. It's an easy recommendation, because it's very solidly built and doesn't really give many people a reason to dislike it. However, I'm not certain it has the highest highs. There is of course a few moments that stick out in my memory. In terms of pure fun, it does feel slow at some points. This is why I think the people that played this game can range from finding it boring to finding it to be the greatest game of all time. I'm admittedly not the biggest JRPG fan anymore, and I find it in the middle of that. There are very few flaws and a lot of good moments, and I'll just leave it at that. It was a great experience overall and about as solid as you can get for a 90s RPG.
The battle system doesn't feature any crazy mechanics that make it a complete stand out, but it is surely above average. It has two unique battle quirks that complement each other very well. The first is that your location during a battle matters, and the second is the classic active combat system is in effect. Combined, this makes for some interesting decisions where you have to make a decision to attack to get something off before your enemies, or to stand by and wait for a better alignment for perhaps a stronger attack.
Added to it, the memorable cast of characters all have their different strengths in battle, and interact with each other through super attacks known as techs. Techs motivate you to try multiple configurations of party members in battles as the more you battle with different people, the more potential solutions you will unlock upon TP level up. What is particularly great about this system is that any combination of characters can make a completely viable team capable of beating anything in the game, and certain lineups will shine for certain fights, or perhaps make some bosses easier. It's completely possible that an easy boss for one player may be tough for another and vice versa, all because of what character lineups they used for them. In summary, battles keep you on your toes and force you to think.
The bosses aren't particularly difficult, but can humble you pretty quickly if you aren't paying enough attention. Many of them have unique strategies that force you to change your approach. What is particularly nice about Chrono Trigger is that when you do lose a fight, the solution is never that you need to grind more. You just need to try a different strategy, or perhaps execute better. The game is designed so that grinding is never necessary, which in my opinion, helps with pacing a lot. Whenever you enter a new area, it's not going to take too long, and the difficulty always feels just right.
The removal of random encounters from your typical Final Fantasy game is the best possible change that could've been made. This pretty much guarantees that you're going to be at a reasonable level for most of your playthrough, and rarely are you constantly interrupted by surprise fights that you want no part of. Many enemies are avoidable if you don't feel like fighting, unlike its SNES counterpart, Earthbound.
My least favorite aspect of the game is how quickly enemies do respawn however - frequently I dreaded backtracking for chests or figuring out how to get to them, because required fights frequently rekindle even seconds after finishing them. Additionally, there were some parts of the game (2300 A.D.) that require you to go through an area multiple times, and the enemies get quite annoying in that section. This is strictly an improvement over purely random encounters however. The game is interesting enough that you don't always want to be thinking about battles, and it seems to recognize that.
How the story unfolds around you is quite interesting. Time travel is rarely a concept that ever truly works in media, and I'm not going to sit and act like it makes complete sense here either, but it is handled about as well as it could be in a video game here. Time travel is used to tell bits and pieces of the story in an out of order way. In a sense, figuring out the timeline is sort of a mystery, and all the different time periods in history have their own unique settings and party members that make them interesting. Time travel is also used as an optional puzzle solving mechanic in many ways, which I think is pretty clever.
While the decisions you make in many games are inconsequential, that is rarely the case here. It is made clear very early on in the game and in a surprising manner. I won't elaborate much on it here, but it's worth noting and talking about. The game has a lot of content out there that it is willing to let you miss. So much is optional, but it makes for a very personalized experience. At times it is frustrating if you truly want to do everything you can do, because the hints can range from obvious to cryptic. However, I respect that the game wants players to earn their cutscenes or extra dialogue.
We talk about New Game + in many JRPGs these days, but how Chrono Trigger introduced it was revolutionary. This is a game full of decisions, and while it's not quite a choose your own adventure type of experience, it remembers your route through the game enough to give incredibly unique endings. These endings range from simply getting to see alternative timelines that you may have missed (in a speedy way due to NG+), to radically shifting the final outcome due to simply being incredibly powerful. NG+ isn't just a way to get to replay the game with all your gear in tact in Chrono Trigger, it's a fast lane to other endings that you may have not experienced in your original playthrough, that still makes you work for them (unlike that of watching on YouTube). I've still yet to play another game that implements NG+ so well.
The character cast, story, artstyle, and music are all quite solid, but it's hard for me to find any character, area, or music track to be one of my favorites of all time. I've found that this game has a very high floor. It's an easy recommendation, because it's very solidly built and doesn't really give many people a reason to dislike it. However, I'm not certain it has the highest highs. There is of course a few moments that stick out in my memory. In terms of pure fun, it does feel slow at some points. This is why I think the people that played this game can range from finding it boring to finding it to be the greatest game of all time. I'm admittedly not the biggest JRPG fan anymore, and I find it in the middle of that. There are very few flaws and a lot of good moments, and I'll just leave it at that. It was a great experience overall and about as solid as you can get for a 90s RPG.