ZeldaFan
2014
This game absolutely shivered me timbers all the way
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a fucking masterpiece.
This game is a work of art, a masterpiece from beginning to end, as a sequel to Returns it improves and every category, the levels are even more explosive, daring, and far more unique, the game looks fucking incredible, even better than how beautiful returns was, the soundtrack is even more peak shit, all of it was absolutely beautiful, and the controls are basically perfect.
The levels in Returns were already really good, but god damn they’ve been improved here tenfold, every level is brimming with personality and creativity, I can say this, the previous games have all had at least like a few levels that were not really that good, but there is not a single bad level in this game, not even a single mediocre one in it either, they’re all great.
There is never a moment in this game where the fun dies down, not only are level themes and general worlds improved and much more varied, even the mine cart and rocket barrel levels are really fun, the game just never loses your attention.
The controls are vastly improved here from Returns, gone is any bullshit with Wii remote controls, now you can play like a normal person and it’s great, controls are tight and precise while still carrying that same DKC weight that all these games have had.
In the switch version, there’s also Funky Kong, and he controls wonderfully, they did not need to go that hard for what is essentially an easy mode character, like he controls so well that we could easily have a whole game designed around him.
It also helps that in terms of the visuals, this is by far one of the best looking 2D platformers ever made, and in my opinion, one of the best looking games ever made, it has style, it has grace, and a good amount of the enemies have a funny face.
Every level is brought to life with just how damn good the game looks, even when levels have the same theme, they are made distinct thanks to just how good they can look.
The soundtrack man, THE SOUNDTRACK, David wise returned here and it shows, every single level has the funkiest music you can imagine, the water levels especially GOD DAMN, it adds more atmosphere to everything, just like the og trilogy.
My complaints for this game are very minimal honestly, even though I do like the variety with your kong buddies, Dixie is just the objectively best one, her little float and upward movement is much better than Diddy’s hover, Cranky is unique enough to be his own thing and I’ve seen speed runners do crazy shit with him, but I always just stuck with Dixie.
Another complaint is that, while they are better and more dynamic than they were in returns, the bosses are still just decent at best, and both games final bosses are a far cry from K. Rool and his multiple alter egos.
Those gripes though just absolutely can’t take away from how great this game is, it’s incredibly fun all the way through and not only is it easily one of Nintendo’s best games, not only is it my favorite 2D platformer, it’s also one of my personal favorite games of all time.
And so ends the DK series, you know, considering that games like Metroid and Pikmin have made a comeback on the switch, I think it’s time for Donkey Kong to make his comeback, just make K. Rool and the kremlings the main villains again, it was nice to have some new villains but I also think it’s time for them to make their return.
This game is a work of art, a masterpiece from beginning to end, as a sequel to Returns it improves and every category, the levels are even more explosive, daring, and far more unique, the game looks fucking incredible, even better than how beautiful returns was, the soundtrack is even more peak shit, all of it was absolutely beautiful, and the controls are basically perfect.
The levels in Returns were already really good, but god damn they’ve been improved here tenfold, every level is brimming with personality and creativity, I can say this, the previous games have all had at least like a few levels that were not really that good, but there is not a single bad level in this game, not even a single mediocre one in it either, they’re all great.
There is never a moment in this game where the fun dies down, not only are level themes and general worlds improved and much more varied, even the mine cart and rocket barrel levels are really fun, the game just never loses your attention.
The controls are vastly improved here from Returns, gone is any bullshit with Wii remote controls, now you can play like a normal person and it’s great, controls are tight and precise while still carrying that same DKC weight that all these games have had.
In the switch version, there’s also Funky Kong, and he controls wonderfully, they did not need to go that hard for what is essentially an easy mode character, like he controls so well that we could easily have a whole game designed around him.
It also helps that in terms of the visuals, this is by far one of the best looking 2D platformers ever made, and in my opinion, one of the best looking games ever made, it has style, it has grace, and a good amount of the enemies have a funny face.
Every level is brought to life with just how damn good the game looks, even when levels have the same theme, they are made distinct thanks to just how good they can look.
The soundtrack man, THE SOUNDTRACK, David wise returned here and it shows, every single level has the funkiest music you can imagine, the water levels especially GOD DAMN, it adds more atmosphere to everything, just like the og trilogy.
My complaints for this game are very minimal honestly, even though I do like the variety with your kong buddies, Dixie is just the objectively best one, her little float and upward movement is much better than Diddy’s hover, Cranky is unique enough to be his own thing and I’ve seen speed runners do crazy shit with him, but I always just stuck with Dixie.
Another complaint is that, while they are better and more dynamic than they were in returns, the bosses are still just decent at best, and both games final bosses are a far cry from K. Rool and his multiple alter egos.
Those gripes though just absolutely can’t take away from how great this game is, it’s incredibly fun all the way through and not only is it easily one of Nintendo’s best games, not only is it my favorite 2D platformer, it’s also one of my personal favorite games of all time.
And so ends the DK series, you know, considering that games like Metroid and Pikmin have made a comeback on the switch, I think it’s time for Donkey Kong to make his comeback, just make K. Rool and the kremlings the main villains again, it was nice to have some new villains but I also think it’s time for them to make their return.
1990
What can I say, it’s a great game, a masterpiece in fact, after not enjoying the first 3 games that much, this one really blew me away, the game looks great, the music is catchy as hell, the boss fights are pretty creative, the hub world is pretty fun, and that final boss is great.
A great game, held back a little bit by its length, it’s too short.
A great game, held back a little bit by its length, it’s too short.
2017
Mario’s controls elevate this game from being fantastic to phenomenal, still like the galaxy games better, but this is the 3rd best.
2019
It’s somehow both a horrifying teeth chattering piece of art while also being an unintentional comedic masterpiece
This review contains spoilers
Well, didn’t think that the Mario game announced three months ago would become my personal GOTY
I mean seriously, it’s not TOTK which had me hyped for it all the way back in 2019, it’s not the RE4 remake which felt like the absolute culmination of all the lessons capcom learned with modern RE, it’s not even Pikmin 4 which was a whole 10 year wait, nope, it’s the 2D Mario game that was shown at the end of June’s Nintendo direct.
Super Mario Bros Wonder is an absolute joyful blast from beginning to end, I enjoyed it so much that I got 100% completion on it, which has never really happened with a 2D Mario game before, not even the best of those ones had me gunning for 100% like this one did, I just had so much fun with it.
Before I get into the part where I gush over everything I loved, I’ll just get my minimal amount of complaints out of the way, my biggest problem, in fact a problem I have with literally every 2D Mario game, is the bosses. The bosses in this game are very lackluster, there’s like 8 total and 4 of them are Bowser Jr., though I’ll say this, that first fight with him was pretty good, set my expectations for a good boss lineup, until they did the boss again, and again, and again, sure it’s different arenas but the boss phases and moves are completely the same each time, but you may be asking how are the other 4 bosses? Well 3 of them are this stupid fucking machine inside the airship levels that are even worse than Bowser Jr. since they’re legitimately baby mode easy, you jump on a conveyer belt for like 5 seconds and press a button and that’s it, that leaves one boss, the final boss, which is the game’s best boss by far, in fact I think it’s incredible, it’s not hard but it’s a super satisfying and nice boss to end the game on, if I was younger I’d probably actually struggle on the boss. There’s also the mini bosses sometimes found in the wonder flower sections and I will say, these are a lot better than the main bosses (excluding the final one of course).
I’ll say this, that’s really my only complaint, and even then it’s not that big of a deal to me, Mario games aren’t really about the bosses, the only other thing I would complain about is the difficulty but even then they scratch that difficulty itch of mine with the later levels.
Now let’s move on to me gushing about this game……….I FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME.
Seriously, the word “wonder” doesn’t do this game justice, it goes far beyond that, the gameplay is extremely satisfying and fluid, the animations for everything in this game is incredible, the art style is incredible, the levels are all fantastic, the absolute variety in this game is crazy, it feels like Nintendo actually listened to the problems people had with the NSMB games, cause this completely blows away those games, hell, in my opinion it blows away those older 2D Mario games like 3 and World, I had so much fucking fun man.
The controls in this game are fantastic, they’re super tight and just all around very fun, and it’s definitely helped by the fact that the animations are so much better than in the NSMB games, you can see Mario’s (or whatever character you play as) facial expressions change with your movements, they’re not just stiff pieces of cardboard like the NSMB games, there is actual personality here.
The levels and worlds are also incredible, they kinda took the tropical freeze method of making worlds, where each one is actually unique and not just the “plains, desert, ice, jungle, lava, etc.” way of doing it, even with the worlds that have something similar to that generic world theme, the levels in there are so different form each other that it always feels unique. Every level in the game is fantastic, about like 95% of them feel unique from one another, having different enemies and some different level mechanics, each brought something new, and luckily the levels never go on for too long. A big thing I can compliment is that literally any time before where the level would start to become potentially, they always bring the wonder flower in by that point, which is when all hell fucking breaks loose, you never know what you’re gonna get with the wonder flowers, piranha plants singing? A hard platforming challenge? King Boo singing opera? Fucking anything, it’s so fun since you have no idea what’s really gonna happen when you grab them.
My personal favorite wonder flower parts are the music ones, like the aforementioned piranha plant singing and king boo opera, as well as levels like the Halloween one, the platforming one with the multi colored blocks, and Bowser’s rage stage, which is an incredible level to end the game on.
There’s also the special world levels which ehehehe, difficulty jump, I love how challenging these levels are, each take the general parts in its world’s levels and make a challenge out of them, culminating in the final song level with the return of the singing piranha plants, the final level that is a great platforming challenge, and the final final level which is a gauntlet of the badges used in the game to their fullest, it’s all so good.
Dude, the fucking art style and animation, FINALLY A 2D MARIO GAME THAT ACTUALLY LOOKS UNIQUE, everything is just absolutely full of life, I love it, the art style itself pops out so much and is always so beautiful to look at, helped even more by the animations in the game, they finally made actual animations for the characters doing stuff, Mario doesn’t just stay still when he goes down pipes, he enters and exits them like he’s actually entering and exiting a giant green pipe, none of the enemies just statically walk into you, they have little animations where they react to your presence and attack in some way, everything is just so much more detailed and vibrant, it’s all so fucking good.
Yeah, overall this game is wonderful, I didn’t even talk about everything, it’s all just phenomenal, easily one of the best Mario games out there and my personal GOTY.
Well, back to the fnaf playthrough
I mean seriously, it’s not TOTK which had me hyped for it all the way back in 2019, it’s not the RE4 remake which felt like the absolute culmination of all the lessons capcom learned with modern RE, it’s not even Pikmin 4 which was a whole 10 year wait, nope, it’s the 2D Mario game that was shown at the end of June’s Nintendo direct.
Super Mario Bros Wonder is an absolute joyful blast from beginning to end, I enjoyed it so much that I got 100% completion on it, which has never really happened with a 2D Mario game before, not even the best of those ones had me gunning for 100% like this one did, I just had so much fun with it.
Before I get into the part where I gush over everything I loved, I’ll just get my minimal amount of complaints out of the way, my biggest problem, in fact a problem I have with literally every 2D Mario game, is the bosses. The bosses in this game are very lackluster, there’s like 8 total and 4 of them are Bowser Jr., though I’ll say this, that first fight with him was pretty good, set my expectations for a good boss lineup, until they did the boss again, and again, and again, sure it’s different arenas but the boss phases and moves are completely the same each time, but you may be asking how are the other 4 bosses? Well 3 of them are this stupid fucking machine inside the airship levels that are even worse than Bowser Jr. since they’re legitimately baby mode easy, you jump on a conveyer belt for like 5 seconds and press a button and that’s it, that leaves one boss, the final boss, which is the game’s best boss by far, in fact I think it’s incredible, it’s not hard but it’s a super satisfying and nice boss to end the game on, if I was younger I’d probably actually struggle on the boss. There’s also the mini bosses sometimes found in the wonder flower sections and I will say, these are a lot better than the main bosses (excluding the final one of course).
I’ll say this, that’s really my only complaint, and even then it’s not that big of a deal to me, Mario games aren’t really about the bosses, the only other thing I would complain about is the difficulty but even then they scratch that difficulty itch of mine with the later levels.
Now let’s move on to me gushing about this game……….I FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME.
Seriously, the word “wonder” doesn’t do this game justice, it goes far beyond that, the gameplay is extremely satisfying and fluid, the animations for everything in this game is incredible, the art style is incredible, the levels are all fantastic, the absolute variety in this game is crazy, it feels like Nintendo actually listened to the problems people had with the NSMB games, cause this completely blows away those games, hell, in my opinion it blows away those older 2D Mario games like 3 and World, I had so much fucking fun man.
The controls in this game are fantastic, they’re super tight and just all around very fun, and it’s definitely helped by the fact that the animations are so much better than in the NSMB games, you can see Mario’s (or whatever character you play as) facial expressions change with your movements, they’re not just stiff pieces of cardboard like the NSMB games, there is actual personality here.
The levels and worlds are also incredible, they kinda took the tropical freeze method of making worlds, where each one is actually unique and not just the “plains, desert, ice, jungle, lava, etc.” way of doing it, even with the worlds that have something similar to that generic world theme, the levels in there are so different form each other that it always feels unique. Every level in the game is fantastic, about like 95% of them feel unique from one another, having different enemies and some different level mechanics, each brought something new, and luckily the levels never go on for too long. A big thing I can compliment is that literally any time before where the level would start to become potentially, they always bring the wonder flower in by that point, which is when all hell fucking breaks loose, you never know what you’re gonna get with the wonder flowers, piranha plants singing? A hard platforming challenge? King Boo singing opera? Fucking anything, it’s so fun since you have no idea what’s really gonna happen when you grab them.
My personal favorite wonder flower parts are the music ones, like the aforementioned piranha plant singing and king boo opera, as well as levels like the Halloween one, the platforming one with the multi colored blocks, and Bowser’s rage stage, which is an incredible level to end the game on.
There’s also the special world levels which ehehehe, difficulty jump, I love how challenging these levels are, each take the general parts in its world’s levels and make a challenge out of them, culminating in the final song level with the return of the singing piranha plants, the final level that is a great platforming challenge, and the final final level which is a gauntlet of the badges used in the game to their fullest, it’s all so good.
Dude, the fucking art style and animation, FINALLY A 2D MARIO GAME THAT ACTUALLY LOOKS UNIQUE, everything is just absolutely full of life, I love it, the art style itself pops out so much and is always so beautiful to look at, helped even more by the animations in the game, they finally made actual animations for the characters doing stuff, Mario doesn’t just stay still when he goes down pipes, he enters and exits them like he’s actually entering and exiting a giant green pipe, none of the enemies just statically walk into you, they have little animations where they react to your presence and attack in some way, everything is just so much more detailed and vibrant, it’s all so fucking good.
Yeah, overall this game is wonderful, I didn’t even talk about everything, it’s all just phenomenal, easily one of the best Mario games out there and my personal GOTY.
Well, back to the fnaf playthrough
1998
There ain’t nothing as good as playing an extremely fun collectithon during Christmas break
2021
This review contains spoilers
I swear Samus is a walking Death Star
2022
Guess who just beat this game on give me god of war………………no I’m not doing the post game bosses
2020
HELL YEAH
Fucking banger
Also how the hell did they make one of the most memorable villains of all time even though he had like 30 minutes of screen time
Also how the hell did they make one of the most memorable villains of all time even though he had like 30 minutes of screen time
I beat this way faster than I expected to
2007
Damn, that was actually really fun
2010
I may not have as much of a nostalgic connection to this one, but it’s better than the first, and one fo my favorite games of all time.
This review contains spoilers
So uh, I actually wrote a poem for this game, idk why, just felt compelled to
Here it is
What is it like to live a lie?
You conceal a truth, then you die
Being yourself only a bit
While you keep the truth quiet
Like a venomous snake who weaved and curled
Thanks to the man who sold the world
Like a ghost without a past
Or a fiery demon trying to last
What do you do at the end
No matter how you twist or bend
You ultimately feel dissolved
With many mysteries left unsolved
Does the game ever end?
No matter how much time we spend?
But alas, we move on with major restrain
I guess that truly is……….the phantom pain
FUCK YOU HUEY EMMERICH AND KONAMI
Here it is
What is it like to live a lie?
You conceal a truth, then you die
Being yourself only a bit
While you keep the truth quiet
Like a venomous snake who weaved and curled
Thanks to the man who sold the world
Like a ghost without a past
Or a fiery demon trying to last
What do you do at the end
No matter how you twist or bend
You ultimately feel dissolved
With many mysteries left unsolved
Does the game ever end?
No matter how much time we spend?
But alas, we move on with major restrain
I guess that truly is……….the phantom pain
FUCK YOU HUEY EMMERICH AND KONAMI