The songs aren't as memorable, the story not as funny and picking at guitar strings just isn't as satisfying as spittin' rhymes in a rhythm game like this, but all that said, Um Jammer Lammy is a worthy sequel and a damn good time in its own right. It probably didn't leave a mark on me as much as Parappa the Rapper, because that game came along first and there was nothing else like it at the time. Um Jammer didn't have that fresh flavour and novelty factor to fall back on when it came out, maybe hence why it didn't sell anywhere near as well as PtR.

But if you look at the online discourse around the two games nowadays, it seems that folks heavily favour the riffing lamb over the rapping pup, so what do I know.

True story - when I played through SMG back in 2007, I played it in the fashion of a completionist; not advancing forward until I got all the stars in a level. Unbeknownst to me, the final boss and ending of the game becomes available once you obtain a certain amount of stars. So I beat Bowser and I reach the end credits, and while I have technically beaten the game, I've also missed an entire half of it. Did 2007 me feel compelled enough to play through all the other levels?

No. I sold my copy of the game and moved on.

So the reason I'm giving this 3/5 is that, even though it was a long time ago and I don't remember SMG all that well, I do remember that I didn't like it enough to check out that whole other half that went unplayed.

Super Mario clearly is not for me.

So in that six month period or so when I owned a Switch, SMO was among the few games I played on it. I've always been a Mario naysayer and even as a kid rejected the IP in favour of other, less acclaimed platformers (big up Ristar), but Odyssey... Odyssey was a good time. A sort of leave-your-brain-at-the-door experience where easy-going exploration takes precedence over challenging platform hopping. Good vibes, imaginative level design, eye-popping visuals... I enjoyed it.

The fact that it's one of the highest-rated games of all time on Metacritic though is just kinda nuts. It doesn't seem like the game is heralded and spoken about in hushed tones anymore like it was back in 2017.

One of those games that I spent most of my time playing while sitting on the toilet. A perfect toilet game, and I mean that in the kindest way possible. The story is, typical for an indie, some overly-cryptic nonsense, but HM has it where it counts and that's in the gameplay. Fast, frenetic, panic-inducing and always making the player crave just one more go. I'm not sure if the game is mad short or just feels like it is because it's so hard to put down until the end credits start scrolling.

I never played the sequel. It didn't review too hot from what I recall and that probably put me off.