2024

Hellishly mesmerizing, like peering through a microscope into a pulsating, "glow-in-the-dark" party for bugs. Psychedelic, kinetic and exhilarating through and through. Akin to Thumper and Post Void with it's antagonizing vibes and visual obstruction used as difficulty. Gotta be honest, Barely know what the hell is going on 80% of the time. A layer of esoteric rules and game design that leave me confused; like, when do I actually die? Does my health regenerate? What exactly do the power-ups do?
Highly recommend to not listen to the lies and deceits (recommended to play with gamepad) and just play with keyboard and mouse. Felt like my brain split into two while with a gamepad and I genuinely started to get headaches after 20 minutes. Worth it doe, these shapes and colors be POPPIN!!!

Wish the ooze of charm could give me enough determination to commit to the journey, but man is it quite grueling to play :(. Finicky to get that specific type of goo as the swarm weaves in-out on the web, trying to actually build your scaffolding is a constant fight/chore with god and gravity. Watch in horror as your 5 minute structure collapses nigh a meter away from the exit. One truly must imagine the Goo hivemind happy, building its clusters forever.

As part of Landfall Game's yearly April-Fools-Shadow-Drop-Game tradition comes a genuinely refreshing take on the "Coop-Horror-Quota" game! (trying not to just blatanly call it a "Lethal-Company-like" here) Embracing the horror and chaos by trying to film as much as possible of it with the camera while your squad acts and screams through the proximity voice works pretty damn well, especially since you get rewarded (if you make it out alive) with the recording of your spooky romp, with audio and everything. A goofy game that excels if you can b goofy wit tha homies.

Really wished I wasn't so overly-exposed on almost every facet of this fucking game before I played it - if Odyssey was the Sun, I would have 3rd degree burns by how many rays have penetrated my skin.
Anyway I like the game! Mario's most maximalist adventure yet and oh boy, they sure didn't know when and where to stop!
Maximalist because, Mario neva felt more free-a to play and be played! Jump, ground-pound, roll (I fuck with that heavily) and cappy trickshot your way to A-B, however you wish. Or remember, because they really infused those two joycons (it really do be the best way to play the game) with as many actions it could possibly fit through it's buttons and motion flicks that it kind of overwhelmed by the beginning. I still felt a certain unease of overcoming larger gaps, not by skill, but by praying that my brain and muscle memory wouldn't falter and send me to my fatal demise. But at it's best, you be shmooving like a butter knife through butter. Fashonin' Mario up is so cute and fun I adored it, love just how much there is :)!
Maximalist because, the sheer variety of worlds through play, size and visuals. I always fuck with games that can yield such different visuals ends in the same game while maintaining cohesion: The dark and semi-realistic dragon kingdom in contrast to the heavily poly-reduced gradient landscape of the Luncheon Kingdom still feel like they fit the plumber on his 'venture. How even the worlds structurally feel different: to the linear vertical climb of the Wooded Kingdom to the open-ended Seaside Kingdom with the map-sized Boss-battle. They really tried everything and anything I respect that.
Maximalist because obv. the moons lol. It is kind of insane how they just keep adding more and more moons and how in 3 minutes you stumble into three, four- no 5 different Hänsel & Gretel breadcrumb trails to the next Moon right around the corner, like it's a McDonalds in a densely populated city. Some moon feel cool to get, most have been dropped by someone on their hurried way to work.
Maximalist because,...more. More moons, more costumes, more enemies capture mechanics that barely scratch their mechanical surface but you don't notice it cuz it happens to fast, more set-pieces, more everything.
And the game never really stops with that. After the credits roll, there is just a lot more to do now. I respect it, but no thanks! Luigi's Balloons is really cool, I do love me that. But if I want to experience a Dark(er) Side of the Moon, imma stick to that Pink Floyd im good thanky.

A surprisingly strong second half, doin' some subversions over the genre I frankly haven't seen anywhere! Go try it and stick through til' the shitty start, it really picks up after the 3rd mission!