Shup
2002
I've been meaning to play Sunshine for maybe like the last decade or something, and here I am, finally having done it. I am whelmed.
All in all, I definitely liked it. The defining mechanic here is FLUDD, which is really fun to use in all its forms. And I'd say the movement in this game is very smooth. Isle Delfino is also a really beautiful setting that I greatly enjoyed exploring. Mario has never really had a miss with 3D platformers, and I'd definitely extend that to Sunshine, but I dunno. It didn't blow me away or anything.
Unfortunately I have a lot of complaints, lol. First of which being that a lot of missions felt very long, particularly in the early game. Certain shines felt like they took 20 minutes each to get, which would be fine in more moderation, but like damn, there were a ton and they felt SLOW. And there's definitely a fair share of insanely annoying levels (sand bird, pachinko, lily pads, chucksters, melon festival, all of Corona Mountain) to deal with as well. Most games just have one or two really infamous areas, but somehow Sunshine manages six, which is just obscene. Corona Mountain in particular was a pretty disappointing final level. The majority of it is just navigating with the boat that controls like piss, followed by a really anticlimactic final boss. Also why does Bowser sound like that.
Blue Coins are a huge aspect as well, and I largely didn't mind them. They were pretty fun to collect during an initial run through a world, less so when I had to go back and get all the ones I missed. Some of these were hidden in honestly ridiculous spots that I would've never found on my own, like how was I ever supposed to think "oh yeah let me just shoot water at the moon in the sky in Pianta Village"??? They are optional at the end of the day so you can just ignore them if they're not your thing, but I'm bad at leaving games unfinished for the most part, so I suffered through.
Sunshine frankly has a lot of really glaring issues, but not so much that I think it's a bad game. I love the aesthetic, the soundtrack is incredibly good, and outside of the sections that everyone knows are terrible, it's very consistently fun. Plus, in the instances where it gives an actually fair challenge, like a lot of the secret levels, I'm super down with it. I had a great time, but I can definitely understand now why it's a bit of a black sheep among the other 3D Marios.
All in all, I definitely liked it. The defining mechanic here is FLUDD, which is really fun to use in all its forms. And I'd say the movement in this game is very smooth. Isle Delfino is also a really beautiful setting that I greatly enjoyed exploring. Mario has never really had a miss with 3D platformers, and I'd definitely extend that to Sunshine, but I dunno. It didn't blow me away or anything.
Unfortunately I have a lot of complaints, lol. First of which being that a lot of missions felt very long, particularly in the early game. Certain shines felt like they took 20 minutes each to get, which would be fine in more moderation, but like damn, there were a ton and they felt SLOW. And there's definitely a fair share of insanely annoying levels (sand bird, pachinko, lily pads, chucksters, melon festival, all of Corona Mountain) to deal with as well. Most games just have one or two really infamous areas, but somehow Sunshine manages six, which is just obscene. Corona Mountain in particular was a pretty disappointing final level. The majority of it is just navigating with the boat that controls like piss, followed by a really anticlimactic final boss. Also why does Bowser sound like that.
Blue Coins are a huge aspect as well, and I largely didn't mind them. They were pretty fun to collect during an initial run through a world, less so when I had to go back and get all the ones I missed. Some of these were hidden in honestly ridiculous spots that I would've never found on my own, like how was I ever supposed to think "oh yeah let me just shoot water at the moon in the sky in Pianta Village"??? They are optional at the end of the day so you can just ignore them if they're not your thing, but I'm bad at leaving games unfinished for the most part, so I suffered through.
Sunshine frankly has a lot of really glaring issues, but not so much that I think it's a bad game. I love the aesthetic, the soundtrack is incredibly good, and outside of the sections that everyone knows are terrible, it's very consistently fun. Plus, in the instances where it gives an actually fair challenge, like a lot of the secret levels, I'm super down with it. I had a great time, but I can definitely understand now why it's a bit of a black sheep among the other 3D Marios.
1992
"Surely it shouldn't be too hard to just win all the 100cc cups in this game, right?" - Guy Who Doesn't Know That He's About To Have A Really Miserable Time
I thought that Super Mario Kart might be fun to give a try just for the novelty of seeing where the series started, but like, holy shit. This game SUCKS. As an old SNES game without too much content, it seems like something you could pick up and probably finish in a day if you wanted. I didn't find that to be the case, though, and I have a whole laundry list of reasons why.
The most immediately obvious issue here is that the controls are really, really bad. I did get mostly used to them towards the end, but that doesn't make them not awful. It takes an unbelievably small amount of input to accidentally hit a wall or catapult yourself off the track, whether you're drifting or just driving normally. And for a game where turning is so difficult, it sure loves 90 degree angles. Based on what character you're playing the handling changes, but let's be honest, it doesn't matter. I tried every character at one point or another and the difference was barely notable when you consider how little control you have anyway. It's an instant barrier to entry, and if you do manage to get past it, what's on the other end still isn't even worth the effort.
The CPUs in this game are Billy Mitchell level cheaters. They do not play by the same rules as you whatsoever. They have infinite items that they can throw at you as much as they like. They completely bypass most obstacles. They have the ability to just do a fucking 10-foot vertical leap over bananas and shells lying around, or even ones you are in the process of throwing at them. It's seriously relentless and not fun at all to deal with.
Graphically the game looks nice enough, but it's a racing game on the SNES and so it's really hard to see what's in front of you at times. Which is not helped by the map taking up the entire bottom half of the screen. The track designs are also generally really bland and reused over and over. There are 20, but it ends up feeling like way less due to how similar they all are. There are also walls and obstacles on some tracks that are for some reason part of the floor, so it looks like you'd be able to drive over them, but no, they're barriers. The ice blocks in the Vanilla Lake levels even blend in with the floor just to make things that much more annoying.
Some of the mechanics are also just insane to me. There are coins you can pick up to give yourself a small speed boost, but you lose one literally EVERY time someone bumps into you. And if you get bumped into when you have no coins, you spin out. It's horrible. And every kind of "recovery" period in this game after spinning out or falling in a hole takes so long that it's basically a death sentence. Getting punished pretty hard for getting hit is something standard for Mario Kart to this day, but it's just completely unreasonable in this one. All these issues compounded made beating the Star and Special cups in particular feel like torture.
I really don't have much of anything good to say about Super Mario Kart, other than that the music is good. That's it. It's probably more fun with a friend, but like, just play a good Mario Kart game instead at that point. I put 17 single-player hours into this (because I'm really stubborn), which is probably an amount you should never reach unless you're a speedrunner or were actually playing it in the '90s with your little brother or something. I can appreciate it for building the foundation of the series, but there's essentially no reason to play it today.
I thought that Super Mario Kart might be fun to give a try just for the novelty of seeing where the series started, but like, holy shit. This game SUCKS. As an old SNES game without too much content, it seems like something you could pick up and probably finish in a day if you wanted. I didn't find that to be the case, though, and I have a whole laundry list of reasons why.
The most immediately obvious issue here is that the controls are really, really bad. I did get mostly used to them towards the end, but that doesn't make them not awful. It takes an unbelievably small amount of input to accidentally hit a wall or catapult yourself off the track, whether you're drifting or just driving normally. And for a game where turning is so difficult, it sure loves 90 degree angles. Based on what character you're playing the handling changes, but let's be honest, it doesn't matter. I tried every character at one point or another and the difference was barely notable when you consider how little control you have anyway. It's an instant barrier to entry, and if you do manage to get past it, what's on the other end still isn't even worth the effort.
The CPUs in this game are Billy Mitchell level cheaters. They do not play by the same rules as you whatsoever. They have infinite items that they can throw at you as much as they like. They completely bypass most obstacles. They have the ability to just do a fucking 10-foot vertical leap over bananas and shells lying around, or even ones you are in the process of throwing at them. It's seriously relentless and not fun at all to deal with.
Graphically the game looks nice enough, but it's a racing game on the SNES and so it's really hard to see what's in front of you at times. Which is not helped by the map taking up the entire bottom half of the screen. The track designs are also generally really bland and reused over and over. There are 20, but it ends up feeling like way less due to how similar they all are. There are also walls and obstacles on some tracks that are for some reason part of the floor, so it looks like you'd be able to drive over them, but no, they're barriers. The ice blocks in the Vanilla Lake levels even blend in with the floor just to make things that much more annoying.
Some of the mechanics are also just insane to me. There are coins you can pick up to give yourself a small speed boost, but you lose one literally EVERY time someone bumps into you. And if you get bumped into when you have no coins, you spin out. It's horrible. And every kind of "recovery" period in this game after spinning out or falling in a hole takes so long that it's basically a death sentence. Getting punished pretty hard for getting hit is something standard for Mario Kart to this day, but it's just completely unreasonable in this one. All these issues compounded made beating the Star and Special cups in particular feel like torture.
I really don't have much of anything good to say about Super Mario Kart, other than that the music is good. That's it. It's probably more fun with a friend, but like, just play a good Mario Kart game instead at that point. I put 17 single-player hours into this (because I'm really stubborn), which is probably an amount you should never reach unless you're a speedrunner or were actually playing it in the '90s with your little brother or something. I can appreciate it for building the foundation of the series, but there's essentially no reason to play it today.
I picked this up from a humble bundle, and I'm pretty glad it was included because otherwise I don't think I would've ever even heard about this game. It definitely flew under the radar a bit which is a shame because I think it's really good.
I wasn't sure what to expect from Astalon, all I really knew was that it's an NES-style metroidvania. The start of the game was kinda slow, but I feel like that's a pretty frequent problem within the genre so I won't hold that against it too much. Having three characters to play with (and later 5) is pretty cool. They all have different weapons and attributes that make them feel unique. I can only think of two downsides, first is that swapping between them requires a lot of backtracking in the beginning, but that issue basically goes away entirely once you find the item that lets you switch on the fly. The other is that in my opinion Zeek doesn't really fill any role particularly well and is almost completely outclassed by Bram (who is the most hilariously blatant Simon Belmont copy I've ever seen by the way). Beyond that though the main three you start with are all great.
The game is pretty hard honestly. There are really few ways to restore health so I died a lot. I do think that's fine though because dying is not very punishing at all. There are a lot of warps to get back to where you need to be and it's also the main way to get to the upgrades store. Sometimes I just have a lot of orbs and hit the lowtiergod "I should kill myself NOW". For real though it's a pretty cool mechanic that takes away a lot of the sting of dying since you can always buy some stuff and come back stronger.
I did 100% the main game and for the most part it wasn't too bad. There were definitely points where I got so lost that I had to look up a guide though. Arguably a skill issue but whatever. The only part of it I really disliked was finding the few rooms I never entered which was a huge pain considering how big the map is (plus it's required to get the good ending). And farming orbs is absolutely mandatory for getting every shop upgrade. But if you don't care about those then you'll be fine.
Once you beat the game there are three other modes you can play - boss rush, and two extra campaigns as new characters. I didn't really mess with the last two since they seem to just be playing the whole thing again which I'm not really interested in doing right now lol. I did do boss rush though and I feel like it sucked. When you go into these fights you are nowhere near as strong as you'd be in the main game which makes it pretty miserable. For the average player I feel like it's pointless to even try it without getting Blood Chalice right away since it's the only reliable form of healing, but this also results in the fights taking ages because of how much time you need to spend turtling waiting to get some HP back. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it. Also I'm trying really hard not to let it affect my rating too much because it is the last thing I played before deciding I was finished lmao.
Anyway to get to the point, it's not a perfect game, but I had really a great time and would for sure recommend it to anybody who's into metroidvanias.
I wasn't sure what to expect from Astalon, all I really knew was that it's an NES-style metroidvania. The start of the game was kinda slow, but I feel like that's a pretty frequent problem within the genre so I won't hold that against it too much. Having three characters to play with (and later 5) is pretty cool. They all have different weapons and attributes that make them feel unique. I can only think of two downsides, first is that swapping between them requires a lot of backtracking in the beginning, but that issue basically goes away entirely once you find the item that lets you switch on the fly. The other is that in my opinion Zeek doesn't really fill any role particularly well and is almost completely outclassed by Bram (who is the most hilariously blatant Simon Belmont copy I've ever seen by the way). Beyond that though the main three you start with are all great.
The game is pretty hard honestly. There are really few ways to restore health so I died a lot. I do think that's fine though because dying is not very punishing at all. There are a lot of warps to get back to where you need to be and it's also the main way to get to the upgrades store. Sometimes I just have a lot of orbs and hit the lowtiergod "I should kill myself NOW". For real though it's a pretty cool mechanic that takes away a lot of the sting of dying since you can always buy some stuff and come back stronger.
I did 100% the main game and for the most part it wasn't too bad. There were definitely points where I got so lost that I had to look up a guide though. Arguably a skill issue but whatever. The only part of it I really disliked was finding the few rooms I never entered which was a huge pain considering how big the map is (plus it's required to get the good ending). And farming orbs is absolutely mandatory for getting every shop upgrade. But if you don't care about those then you'll be fine.
Once you beat the game there are three other modes you can play - boss rush, and two extra campaigns as new characters. I didn't really mess with the last two since they seem to just be playing the whole thing again which I'm not really interested in doing right now lol. I did do boss rush though and I feel like it sucked. When you go into these fights you are nowhere near as strong as you'd be in the main game which makes it pretty miserable. For the average player I feel like it's pointless to even try it without getting Blood Chalice right away since it's the only reliable form of healing, but this also results in the fights taking ages because of how much time you need to spend turtling waiting to get some HP back. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it. Also I'm trying really hard not to let it affect my rating too much because it is the last thing I played before deciding I was finished lmao.
Anyway to get to the point, it's not a perfect game, but I had really a great time and would for sure recommend it to anybody who's into metroidvanias.
It's honestly hard to believe that this is only the third game in the Zelda series with how much of a jump in quality it is from the NES titles in all aspects. From the visuals, to the map, items, sound, everything is wildly improved. It really impressed me.
Exploring and fighting enemies here is pretty fun. The large amount of weapons and abilities give you plenty of options for combat and generally traversing Hyrule. There are definitely roadblocks at times when you're missing certain items, but it's still a pretty open world overall. One of the most infamous issues with the first two Zeldas is that they're ungodly cryptic and almost impossible to figure out without a guide, and thankfully I think Link to the Past is much, much better about that. NPCs actually give comprehensible directions now, and having an ingame map (with markers even!) makes things a whole lot easier. It's not perfect, it's still very possible to miss items that are required for progression, but it's drastically better so I can't complain too much. And we live in an era with google now so whatever.
Dungeons in this game were pretty good. Lots of good challenges and puzzles, each one was satisfying to beat. The difficulty of the bosses is kind of all over the place - Helmasaur King kinda kicked my ass despite being only the first Dark World boss, but past that there are things like Kholdstare and Vitreous which felt super easy for how late they appear. Not that big a deal, but it is a little weird. As for the levels themselves, I enjoyed almost all of them except for two. Skull Woods was really annoying with having to keep going back and forth between the dungeon and the surface, plus the never-ending swarm of Wallmasters. And Ice Palace is TRASH. Some of the worst ice physics I've felt in any game, in small rooms filled with some of the most obnoxious enemies in the game, and something like 7 floors to get lost in. I really, really hated it, but the bright side is that all the remaining dungeons were much better.
Link to the Past is a game I've been meaning to play for a while, and I'm glad I finally did! I enjoyed it a lot and have to give it a ton of credit for being such a huge upgrade to the original Legend of Zelda. Looking forward to Link Between Worlds whenever I get to that.
Exploring and fighting enemies here is pretty fun. The large amount of weapons and abilities give you plenty of options for combat and generally traversing Hyrule. There are definitely roadblocks at times when you're missing certain items, but it's still a pretty open world overall. One of the most infamous issues with the first two Zeldas is that they're ungodly cryptic and almost impossible to figure out without a guide, and thankfully I think Link to the Past is much, much better about that. NPCs actually give comprehensible directions now, and having an ingame map (with markers even!) makes things a whole lot easier. It's not perfect, it's still very possible to miss items that are required for progression, but it's drastically better so I can't complain too much. And we live in an era with google now so whatever.
Dungeons in this game were pretty good. Lots of good challenges and puzzles, each one was satisfying to beat. The difficulty of the bosses is kind of all over the place - Helmasaur King kinda kicked my ass despite being only the first Dark World boss, but past that there are things like Kholdstare and Vitreous which felt super easy for how late they appear. Not that big a deal, but it is a little weird. As for the levels themselves, I enjoyed almost all of them except for two. Skull Woods was really annoying with having to keep going back and forth between the dungeon and the surface, plus the never-ending swarm of Wallmasters. And Ice Palace is TRASH. Some of the worst ice physics I've felt in any game, in small rooms filled with some of the most obnoxious enemies in the game, and something like 7 floors to get lost in. I really, really hated it, but the bright side is that all the remaining dungeons were much better.
Link to the Past is a game I've been meaning to play for a while, and I'm glad I finally did! I enjoyed it a lot and have to give it a ton of credit for being such a huge upgrade to the original Legend of Zelda. Looking forward to Link Between Worlds whenever I get to that.
1996
Super Star is one of the better Kirby games out there for sure. I had a lot of ups and downs with it honestly, but it's solid.
The big thing about this game is that it's actually more like 7 games in 1, some of which are great, and others not so much. Spring Breeze, Dyna Blade, and Meta Knight's Revenge I kind of lump together since they're all pretty straightforward get from point A to point B campaigns, but I enjoyed them well enough. The first two are good introductions to the game, as well as the copy abilities which I definitely have to praise. Each one practically has its own moveset now which makes using them way more fun than in games before. All the returning ones got overhauled and the new ones are great additions.
There are a few other games available from the start, but they're not super noteworthy. Gourmet Race is kinda fun, but there's not much reason to play it more than once. Same goes for Megaton Punch and Samurai Kirby, which you don't actually need to play at all for full completion.
Great Cave Offensive is probably the worst part of the game, and unfortunately also the longest. It's not so bad if you're just running through it normally, but getting all the treasures sucks. The map is huge, and there are a lot of chests that are easy to miss which leads to a ton of backtracking. As a collection-based game, it gets absolutely cleared by Milky Way Wishes which is way better conceptually and not nearly as annoying. And once you finish that you get The Arena (boss rush mode). It's alright I guess. Satisfying challenge to beat, but not something I think I'll ever want to replay.
I probably would've liked this game more if I didn't 100% it, honestly. It's certainly doable, but I'd say just running through it normally is the way to go. You won't miss out on anything big. It's also a little weird to recommend since Super Star Ultra came out 12 years later and is pretty much superior in every way, but ignoring that, Super Star is still a great game that added some awesome ideas to the series.
The big thing about this game is that it's actually more like 7 games in 1, some of which are great, and others not so much. Spring Breeze, Dyna Blade, and Meta Knight's Revenge I kind of lump together since they're all pretty straightforward get from point A to point B campaigns, but I enjoyed them well enough. The first two are good introductions to the game, as well as the copy abilities which I definitely have to praise. Each one practically has its own moveset now which makes using them way more fun than in games before. All the returning ones got overhauled and the new ones are great additions.
There are a few other games available from the start, but they're not super noteworthy. Gourmet Race is kinda fun, but there's not much reason to play it more than once. Same goes for Megaton Punch and Samurai Kirby, which you don't actually need to play at all for full completion.
Great Cave Offensive is probably the worst part of the game, and unfortunately also the longest. It's not so bad if you're just running through it normally, but getting all the treasures sucks. The map is huge, and there are a lot of chests that are easy to miss which leads to a ton of backtracking. As a collection-based game, it gets absolutely cleared by Milky Way Wishes which is way better conceptually and not nearly as annoying. And once you finish that you get The Arena (boss rush mode). It's alright I guess. Satisfying challenge to beat, but not something I think I'll ever want to replay.
I probably would've liked this game more if I didn't 100% it, honestly. It's certainly doable, but I'd say just running through it normally is the way to go. You won't miss out on anything big. It's also a little weird to recommend since Super Star Ultra came out 12 years later and is pretty much superior in every way, but ignoring that, Super Star is still a great game that added some awesome ideas to the series.
1995
Kind of a mixed bag for me, which is disappointing to say. For most of the game, I was enjoying myself a lot, but it got really soured towards the end.
I'll start positively by saying that I think this game is a great deal better than the first Kirby's Dream Land, though the bar was kinda low on that one. Hard to do worse than a game with no copy abilities. The abilities in Dream Land 2 are pretty basic, but they really shine with the addition of the animal partners. Rick, Kine, and especially Coo are really fun to use, and I love that they all have their own interactions with each power. Moving around with Kirby alone isn't anything special so it's great that they all provide a different mode of mobility too.
The first couple worlds are kind of a breeze, and I don't really mind that, it was a good time. Later on things got a lot less fun. Every world has a rainbow drop that you have to collect in order to unlock the true final boss, and the way some of these are hidden is nightmarish. Most of them require you to bring in a partner/ability from another level which is just annoying, and actually being able to hold on to both until you reach where you need to be is way easier said than done. And they're hidden behind such specific routes that I don't know how you're ever supposed to find some of them without a guide. The ones for worlds 4 and 6 were easily the worst.
And then you get to the endgame. World 7 is mostly just quick levels with a boss at the end, but 7-6 is unbelievably bullshit. Autoscroller with branching paths where you have to blindly choose the right one or else you die, it's seriously awful. And for your troubles getting through everything else, you get to fight Dedede and Dark Matter which are two of the slowest boss fights I've ever experienced. It's not too hard to catch on to their patterns after a bit of trial and error, but the issue is that the sword you get for Dark Matter does almost no damage. The only way to actually consistently hurt him is to wait until he uses a specific attack to hit back at him, and it can take ages to actually finish him off. And you'll probably die a lot, so it only gets worse.
I'm sad that this game ended so badly because I really did like the beginning and a lot of what it was going for. It's still pretty good for GameBoy standards, but I think it can comfortably be skipped.
I'll start positively by saying that I think this game is a great deal better than the first Kirby's Dream Land, though the bar was kinda low on that one. Hard to do worse than a game with no copy abilities. The abilities in Dream Land 2 are pretty basic, but they really shine with the addition of the animal partners. Rick, Kine, and especially Coo are really fun to use, and I love that they all have their own interactions with each power. Moving around with Kirby alone isn't anything special so it's great that they all provide a different mode of mobility too.
The first couple worlds are kind of a breeze, and I don't really mind that, it was a good time. Later on things got a lot less fun. Every world has a rainbow drop that you have to collect in order to unlock the true final boss, and the way some of these are hidden is nightmarish. Most of them require you to bring in a partner/ability from another level which is just annoying, and actually being able to hold on to both until you reach where you need to be is way easier said than done. And they're hidden behind such specific routes that I don't know how you're ever supposed to find some of them without a guide. The ones for worlds 4 and 6 were easily the worst.
And then you get to the endgame. World 7 is mostly just quick levels with a boss at the end, but 7-6 is unbelievably bullshit. Autoscroller with branching paths where you have to blindly choose the right one or else you die, it's seriously awful. And for your troubles getting through everything else, you get to fight Dedede and Dark Matter which are two of the slowest boss fights I've ever experienced. It's not too hard to catch on to their patterns after a bit of trial and error, but the issue is that the sword you get for Dark Matter does almost no damage. The only way to actually consistently hurt him is to wait until he uses a specific attack to hit back at him, and it can take ages to actually finish him off. And you'll probably die a lot, so it only gets worse.
I'm sad that this game ended so badly because I really did like the beginning and a lot of what it was going for. It's still pretty good for GameBoy standards, but I think it can comfortably be skipped.
1988
Not my favorite Mario game by a long shot, but overall I think it's alright. Pretty much everyone knows by now that this is a reskin of another game (Doki Doki Panic), so I won't really go into that. It definitely makes for a different experience though.
I don't usually mind when a game tries something new, but Mario 2 is so wildly different from its predecessor that it's hard to judge them in the same light. It's really a Mario game in name only. On one hand I feel like people would probably like it more if it was just its own thing, but also if that was the case then nobody would've played it lol
Trying to look at it objectively though, I do think it's decent. It's kinda jarring to jump on an enemy and just end up standing on it, but I don't think it's bad. Music is generally good, and the platforming is fun enough. I think it's pretty cool that some levels actually have multiple paths you can take. Having four characters with different attributes is also not something you see in many games from this era, so I'm a fan of that even if (in my opinion) there's almost no reason to ever pick Mario or Peach.
The worst parts of the game are probably that you have to fight Birdo a thousand times, and the lack of 1-ups. There are only a few scattered throughout levels, so the main way to get them is through the slot machine which pays out like 10% of the time if you're lucky. And of course it's an 80s NES title, so if you game over then your ass is replaying the whole thing.
Reasonably good game at the end of the day, but you're not missing too much if you skip it. Mario 3 and World absolutely blow it out of the water anyway.
I don't usually mind when a game tries something new, but Mario 2 is so wildly different from its predecessor that it's hard to judge them in the same light. It's really a Mario game in name only. On one hand I feel like people would probably like it more if it was just its own thing, but also if that was the case then nobody would've played it lol
Trying to look at it objectively though, I do think it's decent. It's kinda jarring to jump on an enemy and just end up standing on it, but I don't think it's bad. Music is generally good, and the platforming is fun enough. I think it's pretty cool that some levels actually have multiple paths you can take. Having four characters with different attributes is also not something you see in many games from this era, so I'm a fan of that even if (in my opinion) there's almost no reason to ever pick Mario or Peach.
The worst parts of the game are probably that you have to fight Birdo a thousand times, and the lack of 1-ups. There are only a few scattered throughout levels, so the main way to get them is through the slot machine which pays out like 10% of the time if you're lucky. And of course it's an 80s NES title, so if you game over then your ass is replaying the whole thing.
Reasonably good game at the end of the day, but you're not missing too much if you skip it. Mario 3 and World absolutely blow it out of the water anyway.
I really expected to like this game more than I did. On paper Super Mario Land 2 seems like it should do everything better than the first game, but I still feel like I enjoyed it less.
Movement feels clunky here, and I don't think there's much of an excuse for that given that this came out after Mario 3 and Mario World which both control pretty much perfectly. It's really annoyingly easy to die from a missed jump because the momentum feels so weird. The real biggest issue though is screen crunch. All the sprites are so huge compared to the environment and it makes it hard to even tell where you are or what obstacles are around you. Compare a screenshot of this game to one from nearly any other 2D Mario and you'll see what I mean. It's definitely a limitation of the GameBoy, but it just makes the experience worse.
I didn't really care for the levels / worlds much, they weren't very memorable to me. My favorite probably would've been Space Zone, but uh, it only had two levels. Was able to run through most of them pretty quickly without much hassle so there wasn't a lot that stood out. Except for Wario's Castle, which was trash.
The only new powerup here is the bunny hat (also known as dollar store tanooki suit/cape). It really doesn't do much for me. There's also a counter for how many enemies you've killed, and you get a star when you hit 100. It's nice I guess, but it's not likely to be very impactful.
I did find it interesting that this game uses coins as an actual currency rather than just giving a 1-up when you reach 100, but since there's no way to store powerups that you get from the slot machine, I only ever used them for 1-ups anyway. Makes me wonder what the point was.
Music is really hit or miss. Some of it is great, some of it is nails on a chalkboard. I feel bad that I don't have much good to say outside of it looking really nice for a GB game, but I dunno, it really didn't hit like I thought it would.
Movement feels clunky here, and I don't think there's much of an excuse for that given that this came out after Mario 3 and Mario World which both control pretty much perfectly. It's really annoyingly easy to die from a missed jump because the momentum feels so weird. The real biggest issue though is screen crunch. All the sprites are so huge compared to the environment and it makes it hard to even tell where you are or what obstacles are around you. Compare a screenshot of this game to one from nearly any other 2D Mario and you'll see what I mean. It's definitely a limitation of the GameBoy, but it just makes the experience worse.
I didn't really care for the levels / worlds much, they weren't very memorable to me. My favorite probably would've been Space Zone, but uh, it only had two levels. Was able to run through most of them pretty quickly without much hassle so there wasn't a lot that stood out. Except for Wario's Castle, which was trash.
The only new powerup here is the bunny hat (also known as dollar store tanooki suit/cape). It really doesn't do much for me. There's also a counter for how many enemies you've killed, and you get a star when you hit 100. It's nice I guess, but it's not likely to be very impactful.
I did find it interesting that this game uses coins as an actual currency rather than just giving a 1-up when you reach 100, but since there's no way to store powerups that you get from the slot machine, I only ever used them for 1-ups anyway. Makes me wonder what the point was.
Music is really hit or miss. Some of it is great, some of it is nails on a chalkboard. I feel bad that I don't have much good to say outside of it looking really nice for a GB game, but I dunno, it really didn't hit like I thought it would.
Beautiful, incredible game. I know some would say it doesn't have the same impact that Breath of the Wild did when it came out, and to an extent I agree. Though with that said, after waiting 6 years for the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom in its own way felt like a return to a familiar world in the best way possible.
There's genuinely so much to love. The sky and depths are fantastic additions to Hyrule and put away any fears I had that the map would feel too similar to BOTW. The sky in particular is stunning visually.
While I did find myself missing Stasis and Remote Bombs here and there, the new abilities are really great too. Rewind I felt was kind of underutilized, but there are certain situations and puzzles where it shines. Ascend is REALLY fun, and honestly an amazing quality of life ability. And the stars of the show are obviously Fuse and Ultrahand which open up a staggering amount of creative options.
The temples here are alright, a little less interesting than the more standard Zelda dungeons from previous games, but I definitely enjoyed them more than the Divine Beasts. Without spoiling it, the ending sequence is amazing. I absolutely loved the atmosphere of it even if it wasn't particularly difficult.
I'm honestly not sure what else to say. There's just so much to do in this game that after a certain point I basically forced myself to finish the main story, lol. It seriously delivers on all fronts and was more than worth the wait.
There's genuinely so much to love. The sky and depths are fantastic additions to Hyrule and put away any fears I had that the map would feel too similar to BOTW. The sky in particular is stunning visually.
While I did find myself missing Stasis and Remote Bombs here and there, the new abilities are really great too. Rewind I felt was kind of underutilized, but there are certain situations and puzzles where it shines. Ascend is REALLY fun, and honestly an amazing quality of life ability. And the stars of the show are obviously Fuse and Ultrahand which open up a staggering amount of creative options.
The temples here are alright, a little less interesting than the more standard Zelda dungeons from previous games, but I definitely enjoyed them more than the Divine Beasts. Without spoiling it, the ending sequence is amazing. I absolutely loved the atmosphere of it even if it wasn't particularly difficult.
I'm honestly not sure what else to say. There's just so much to do in this game that after a certain point I basically forced myself to finish the main story, lol. It seriously delivers on all fronts and was more than worth the wait.