What a breath of fresh air for 2D Mario. After the NSMB games carried on 2 too many times, for years I'd been hoping for a refresh of the 2D Mario games. A new art style, a different feel, etc. I didn't know what they'd do but I wanted something new.

They pulled it off. Mario Wonder is chock full of new ideas, mostly stripping out a lot of established things and taking a whole new approach to everything. Even the art style, which is still not so far from the NSMB style, has the characters looking updated, a little more fun, and more expressive than the 2D games have ever had them.

I'd also like to call out the multiplayer/online features.
- The local multiplayer is very similar to NSMB, but removing collisions with other players, which goes a long way to making a smoother experience, but still it can sometimes feel a bit like one player is dragging the other(s) in one direction or the other, and the way they handle that isn't perfect. It's a tough problem to solve, but there's definitely room to improve there.
- The online multiplayer is great! With friends, it's great because you can be in the same game and play the same levels if you want, but you're still on your own save file, and so you can go do your own thing if you want instead, and meet up with your friends later.
- My favourite feature is enabling online even when I'm playing solo, so that random players can show up in your game. Because they're faded out, there's not confusing to have on screen, and the wholesome moments that come from a random player across the world jumping to help you revive, or lead you to a collectible you're looking for, are priceless. It's like the benefit that Miiverse integration offered on the Wii U, but enhanced and built in here with intention. Love it.

My 2 complaints:
- Lives system - Odyssey did away with these, and it worked perfectly. The only thing it does is offer the chance of Game Over, which just means you'd lose the stuff you collected and have to get it again. Repetition for what purpose? Which brings me to my next point...
- The final final gauntlet. The Mario games usually like to have a "final test", but for some reason it usually manifests in the form of a gauntlet of challenges (that's fine) with limited or no checkpoints (that's not fine). Any time a game has me repeating sections I've already completed, it feels like my time is being wasted. Look to Celeste for how to do that stuff right, I feel.

Overall though, this is one of the best 2D Mario games. There's so much fun to be had.

It took me three tries over the years for this game to finally click, but wow did it ever. Even if the dungeon gameplay was a low point, I couldn't stop playing.

The cast makes this game what it is. Every character in the main cast is incredible, and their individual story moments all had me engaged and interested to see what came next.

The story itself surprised me multiple times throughout. The twists kept me on my toes throughout, all the while having great moments to showcase.

The game definitely shows its age in some respects, but overall I'm glad I finally got around to getting through this game and understanding the appeal. What a ride.

Before beating the final boss, I wrote this:

Finished everything else but the final boss was a bit unfair, so skipped that.
Enjoyed the game overall, and the Pixel Remaster adds some really needed boosts that helped me even get through it. But there's definitely signs of archaic design here that I'm glad we've mostly done away with in the years since.
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After beating the final boss, I wrote this:

Now that I've properly beaten the game - An excellent game through and through. A bit of the design of the game has aged with regard to some of the bosses, but at the end of the day I had a great time. Greatly aided by the xp boosts in the Pixel Remaster, do not shy away from using these!

This game was nothing short of incredible. Where Breath of the Wild carved a new, revolutionary future for the Zelda series, Tears of the Kingdom expands upon that in further revolutionary ways, feeling like a return to a familiar land and a new experience all at the same time.

The story was absolutely a step above Breath of the Wild's effort in this regard. I do wish they'd have improved more on how the story was delivered, because this felt a little too stuck in the delivery methods that Breath of the Wild established.

The vehicle mechanics, even if at times a little frustrating to piece together, were nothing short of a miracle in many ways. The physics work that had to be done here to get this game as stable as it is, just incredible work. And I loved every second of messing around with vehicles.

Did this game establish the wonder of that first time running out into the world in Breath of the Wild? No. But it established new ways to explore the world and gave us different tools for doing it in a way that made it all feel new again. And that's no small feat. Nintendo's given us another masterpiece.