unlike easier games such as dark souls, sekiro, nioh, etc, that many gamers tout as "hard", super mario world actually gives you VERY little room for mistakes, with mario functionally having only 3 points of health at most (super mario on top of yoshi) you are bound to make a mistake and die many times in this game. added onto this is the fact that, unlike the aforementioned easier games, you actually lose real progress when dying (possible to lose entire multiple-levels worth.) these simple facts coupled with the fact that every single level is an onslaught of challenged end up making super mario world a world of pain even to very experienced gamers out there.

i remember when this game was somehow fun at age 14, i cannot comprehend it anymore. i wish i was able to enjoy it the way other people seem to, but its just like watching paint dry now. even with all the technical mods and stuff (which was my preferred way to play before) it just makes me think "i should go do something else, this is meaningless"

maybe i have lost my ability to appreciate a blank canvas made of cubes but i just think this game isnt a very good game at all, there are other games that do the actual video game part of it better, and there are programs that do the voxel art part better

david lynch wishes he could make movies this unsettling, Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse was a pioneer of surreal horror in video games, it basically did everything Silent Hill 2 did but a year later and much more existentially dreadful.

the ghost and the player take turns tormenting mickey as his soul is trapped in an alternate dimension held within his mirror, the mirror, now shattered, must be pieced back together in order to restore the path back to his reality and body. maybe some sort of metaphor, maybe a kids game accidentally made way too unsettling. maybe both! i suspect we will never know.

i appreciated when the game gave me a choice between 2 modes of play: "kids" and "normal"