The critical reception of this game was absolutely criminal and one of the first times I realised how disgustingly immature games "journalism" was.

Apparently, according to people who are seemingly so passionate about games they make their living writing/talking about them, games are simply a product of which value is determined based on consumer cost and length of what they arbitrarily define to be the core experience - even if the entire point of the game is not rushing through it once to see a fucking cutscene and move on with your life like disposable entertainment.

This shit hit Hitman (2016) really bad as well.

Shouldn't rate because I only played a couple hours but boring as hell. Mechanics are fine, at least in terms of the tutorial part, but the level design was uninspired as shit, and god the cutscenes were constant and northing interesting was happening in the slightest. Once it got to first proper planet I think I quit in like 10 mins or something because at least the on rails onslaught of troopers in the tutorial gave me something to do.

Say what you will about force unleashed, that shits exciting at the very least.

I played the DS port of this for the first time when I was 5, it was unlike anything I'd ever played, probably because all the games I'd played at this point were crap, but this was the game that made me fall in love with video games. I begged my parents for a DS until they finally relented so I could play it, and then years later when the 3DS first arrived I did the same, simply so I could play it and it actually be playable and not look like shit. After many years, I've finally grown to accept the original release as the definitive one, and a masterpiece at that, though I definitely have a lot of nostalgia for the DS port. Finally beating it was amazing, I know I've marked this as replay but one of my greatest shames was that I was never able to land that third and final hit on bowser and this actually end the game and had to get a friend of mine to do it (I blame both me being shit at it, and having to use the dpad leaving in my thumb sore as shit after the many, many attempts.), But I also stuck through and got all 120 stars, something I always wanted to do. Happy to finally cross this one of the list, and maybe finally check out Sunshine.

I started this when 3D all-stars first came out but got like 80 something stars I think, and then picked it up again a couple weeks ago on a whim. Glad I did. Seriously, this is a revolution is both technology and design, on the same level as both Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. that proceeded it, possibly Miyamoto's best work, though it definitely competes for that spot with The Legend of Zelda for me. I doesn't quite excite my curiousity as did when I was little, and some choices seem odd to me now but only if I think about it too hard, I know it well and the level design has a logic all it's own that I completely understand. Ultimately, it's just amazing how well this holds up, and I don't think there was a single entry in the genre it created that could match it, let alone top it, until Super Mario Odyssey.