This is a massive step up in creativity from the NSMB series, which is to say it is kind of creative. It has heart, it has charm, it does silly things. But it is uncanny. It exists in a twilight valley where it’s both bold and exactly the same game that’s been sold since 1988. The level of precision in which it hits the needle’s head here is unprecedented, itself a triumph. That it succeeds wildly in being a halfway point between inventive and staler-than-dust is… disquieting? Can a game both be alive and dead? I do not know what that means for the future of the wahoo let’s-a-go man. I only know I kind of had fun playing it but wished I hadn’t paid full price. Nabbit clears

Reviewed on Nov 30, 2023


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