This is my fourth playthrough of this game and it's still just a great experience every time. It's a perfect blend of hack-n-slash and metroidvania. There really isn't a lot of RPG elements for me to call it a Dark Souls Style game and the death punish ment isn't too bad. The map system takes some time getting use to especially if you are just conditioned to automaps thanks to Metroid and Castlevania. It only really annoyed me once on my first playthrough when I felt an ability kept me from getting a map that I would not get until much later in game.

But that's where the real beauty of the game lies. It's insanely open for a metroidvania. While it sticks you on a somewhat liner path early on to get get the dash ability the game opens up in amazing ways afterwards. There is almost three or four routes to every area if you look hard enough and it makes every playthrough feel very different based on what areas you tackle first with what abilities you have.

The charm system allows for many combinations of set ups. This time around I used charms to boost my magic attacks and gained new appreaciation for the abilities considering I rarely used them over wacking things with my nailsword.

The music and art are both really fantastic too. Very simple designs and motifs but they all blend together to feel like a fully realized world. The key star though has to be the boss fights. They are all so varied with great amounts of challenge throughout. There was never a fight that was so hard that made me want to put the game down and not return but there were only a few fights (early on in the game ) that felt like I could just faceroll to completion. Even the hardest bosses have patterns you can ultimately learn and overcome. They really are some of the best boss encounters I've ever had in any videogame.

This is not only maybe my favorite metroidvania but in the running for favorite game of all time. I'm so excited for the sequel.

Game 18 of Mario Marathon

I ended my Mario Marathon with a game I had yet to play. I didn't own a Wii U when it was relevant so I just assumed it was Mario 3D Land with a cat suit. Neat, but nothing I felt the need to rush to get. Almost seven years later and I was surprised to find what an absolute joy this was to play.

While it starts of very easy like 3D Land it is just brimming with a ton of more personality. Every stage feels like it's own little world with it's own little ideas. The music is absolutely some of the very best the series has to offer, and the Wii U gamepad doesn't get into the way too much outside of a few "blow on the screen" sections that feel tacked on.

In addition, you get a whole slew of remixed levels when you beat the game that add some challenges to mix that culminate in a final stage that rivals even Grandmaster Galaxy. There is not perfect run though so you can go in with a raccoon tail, but the run that ultimately won on had me losing the tail almost right away.

This game is a real joy and deserves to be remembered as some of the best Mario and best platformers around. Some might fight it's difficulty curve a little slow but I was grinning the whole way through. How this is the one one big Wii U title not ported to the Switch is beyond me. I hope they change that soon.

Game 17 of Mario Marathon

3D Mario comes to handhelds and there is a ton to be impressed about. This one feels like a nice marriage between Super Mario 3 and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Is it as good as those games? Not quite. The biggest problem is that it is one of the easiest Mario games ever made. The Mario games aren't that hard to begin with if you grew up playing platformers, but this one feels like training wheels and training wheels. The biggest issue comes with the raccoon suit just makes every platforming challenge easy. The float is so forgiving that you can play through the base levels only dying maybe a handful of times. Maybe that doesn't matter that much since lives have never really been an issue in Mario games since the first one, but I feel the levels are just too compact for the raccoon suit to really feel organic to the game.

It still very impressive on it's own but compared to the Galaxy games it just comes up a little short.