I was pretty interested in it when I first saw the trailers and witnessed the fun and vibrant colors and levels the studio went for. Then I was further intrigued when it was said all stages would be 100% original and not just Green Hill Zone again.

And when I got to playing it, I found the beginning sections pretty enjoyable. The beautiful sunset style, the pinball zone, the snake level, all had fun visuals and unique gimmicks to make the experience unique. The bosses were, so far, pretty entertaining.

But the further I progressed the more the fun gimmicks were slowly just becoming annoying (the Eggman Industrial zone especially) and the bosses eventually just all became "Hit once then wait 1-2 minutes to be able to hit again". It is especially bad with Fang, who has some of the weakest boss fights in the entire game.

The addition of Emerald Powers making each emerald feel unique and give you something new to play the game was a creative decision I can get behind. However, the mechanic itself ended up being a bit lackluster as most powers end up being situational at best or useless at worst. I also wasn't a fan of the weaknesses of it: All emerald powers can be used once per checkpoint, last 15 seconds exactly per use, and end prematurely if you take any hits whatsoever (even if you have a shield). The mechanic isn't really good enough to warrant all of those flaws, especially the last one.

These issues only ended up being exacerbated with what is basically the game's "hard mode" campaign, where you go through all the stages again. And most of it can be boiled down to similar stages, but bloated with double to triple the amount of enemies and spikes everywhere. In addition all the bosses require more hits to beat so it all just just drags out into a slog. And the final boss fights are all just miserable.

Overall I think the game is okay, it has hiccups and flaws that certainly drag it down, and it needed some polish before release. If you are considering purchasing this title, get it on discount, not full price.

Having played the original game in 2020, I was beyond happy when I saw that it was getting a full on remake with Octopath-style visuals but even better sprite art. And I was just as happy experiencing it again when it finally released.

For a remake, it is a solid one. Most aspects about it are true to the original SNES version albeit with some differences in translation and gameplay modernizing in some areas, not all of which I am a fan of, but a lot of which I enjoyed. Like the Wild West item hunting being extremely easy, but areas like Edo Japan and Distant Future having maps for navigation but fitted to suit the time period. Abilities got more balancing with some really overpowered moves being toned down while Akira finally stopped being a pushover.

Overall I'd say the game feels easier than the original but it might also be because I know so much about the original already. It still had the fun unique experience each chapter provided and that magic was not lost all these years later.

A sequel to the GBC Mario game where Power Shots are implemented into the mechanics because the Mario cast wanted to beat Alex from the original game. Yes that is the reason why special moves are in the game now.

While the original game was pretty light on the Mario aspect, this (while still pretty light on it) has more elements of Mario shine through like the iconic power ups and Mario Party-esque minigames you complete to unlock new Power Shots. Also these developers make Golden Sun and that is also very noticeable in this game with the text and response options.

Also a fun game like the original, I enjoyed my time with it.