the only game where you can send yoshi to yugoslavia

too self-referential for its own good and soulless, full of content designed to wow in trailers, forgettable aftertaste, symbolic of the postmodern condition

inventive and charming from beginning to end, short and sweet, i believe this is actually one of the best mario games. my only gripe is there are too many coins and it's too easy to max out lives.

conceptually odd (why a portable handheld one-player instalment of a party game series?), nevertheless surprisingly full of life and charm. this game contains some of the funniest writing in the entire mario catalogue, arguably on par with mario & luigi. gorgeous spritework as well. i urge everyone to look past whatever cynicism they have towards it and reconsider

a bloated final fantasy 1 remake

in the early 90s, david lynch gave us twin peaks and nintendo gave us link's awakening, clearly inspired by the former but all the more memorable for it. this is a very special game.

when you compare it to the games before it (smb3) and the games after it (sml2, yoshi's island, smk, sm64, smrpg), this game seems rushed, repetitive and not fully realised.

the background of the game makes what is otherwise exemplary of bad 16-bit platforming notable

to be studied in future generations as a textbook way of generating hype for a game

best part of the game is killing the other players

the fact that text boxes are typefaced in helvetica serves as a symbol for how lazy this game is