petro_sino
not immune to fantasy
Badges
Trend Setter
Gained 50+ followers
Adored
Gained 300+ total review likes
Pinged
Mentioned by another user
Gone Gold
Received 5+ likes on a review while featured on the front page
N00b
Played 100+ games
Popular
Gained 15+ followers
Loved
Gained 100+ total review likes
Well Written
Gained 10+ likes on a single review
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
Shreked
Found the secret ogre page
Busy Day
Journaled 5+ games in a single day
Roadtrip
Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap
Donor
Liked 50+ reviews / lists
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
Best Friends
Become mutual friends with at least 3 others
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
3 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 3 years
Favorite Games
119
Total Games Played
048
Played in 2024
341
Games Backloggd
Recently Played See More
Recently Reviewed See More
Mario, Luigi, Mario Jr. & Luigi Jr. work well enough together as a team, but it's not as effective as in Super Star Saga: instead of using points to use combo attacks, they are now essentially items you can buy. Since money was never an issue in M&L games, you can see where the issue lies: the game's difficulty takes a nosedive each time a new combo item is introduced, making enemies' health bars just a matter of time, instead of strategic thinking. Platform sections and puzzles are fun enough, but despite having more bros, there's much less to do in terms of combo and exploration. I'll be blunt, the game takes a lot of steps forward in settings, story, characterization, with the four protagonists weirdly well characterized despite never speaking and Prof. E. Gadd stealing every scene he's featured in. The soundtracks also kind of rocks?
At the same time, it takes away a lot of ingenuity and platforming\puzzles from Super Star Saga, not taking real advantage of the dual screen if not for the occasional battle animation. It tries striking a balance between funny and emotional, which doesn't always land. To me it'll always be charming, but there's a lot of things to consider and wade through before getting to the "good stuff". Strong beginning, weak middle, padded ending but satisfactory experience don't make for a game I'd recommend easily.
In terms the average game journalist can understand, it's a A24-produced, genre-redefining, trope-subverting, 40 KB JPG atmospheric, dark and eerie, emotionally draining [...] game.
If I had to say something contrarian: I would love to have an actual space exploration and\or better navigation. Instead of putting animations at double speed I wish I could skip them entirely.
Yet I am still salty that when I played turn based games in 2008 I was a boomer and had weird tastes, now it's hip and cool! The audacity. I also stopped playing because "wow this game is awesome!" ads kept filling my youtube essay playlist and I've had enough. Genshin ads aren't as insufferable and make me want to play their game, Honkai Star Rail made me want to unistall it.
Which brings me to why I adore this kind of kusoge: despite not being the fondest of Vtubers, Idol Showdown caught me off guard by offering a great cast of characters, reminiscent of Under Night in Blood or Skullgirls in terms of specific roles and niches each character has covered; it made me appreciate each vibrant personality more and especially it made me do some research to see where the appeal was. I think the dog is funny and without Idol Showdown I don't think I would've watched her clips.
Funny how it took years for commercial fighting games to adopt rollback, and even then there's never guarantees, while Idol Showdown had it day one and it's still going on with updates and plans for new characters and assists, truly the power of love and all.