I did not grow up with Mario 64. I started playing through it over and over again when I was 14/15 in 2016, in a time where a plethora of more modern 3D platformers existed.

Yet still, I kept coming back to Mario 64, because there is an unmatched excellence in it that no other game I know pulls off. Everything feels so satisfying and intentional. This is even more impressive when you consider that Mario 64 basically pioneered 3D platformers. To think that Nintendo stuck the landing so effortlessly in their first try when nobody else had done it yet is mind blowing.

Even after all of my playthroughs, I have a total blast whenever I play through Mario 64. The controls, the leveldesign and the soundtruck just do it for me. Moving around is simply... fun. The importance of making sure that controlling your character is as intrinsically fun as possible is something that Nintendo understood very early on.

I am truly grateful for all of the memories this game gave me.

Mario Sunshine is a very weird case. There is SO MUCH wrong with this game. Countless glitches, weird difficulty spikes and dozens of shine sprites that were clearly thrown in just to fluff the game to a total of 120. The blue coins are an especially infamous example of this. It's clearly rushed and unfinished. Not allowing the player to choose, which missions they want to complete is also a questionable choice at best.

But I still love it everytime I complete it. I can't even really explain why. It'd probably because of how the game feels to control. Mario feels so snappy and jumping around in Delfino Plaza is just fun in itself. In that regard, it's pretty similar to Mario 64. Moving around feels good. And the theming oh GOD, THE THEMING!!! Listening to the soundtrack and seeing the gorgeous levels brings me to my happy place. Mario Sunshine isn't just fun to control, it's also fun to look at. Maybe I also like it so much, because it's so weird and different in comparison to the other 3D Marios. It has this daring nature of trying out something completely different with its franchise that so many GameCube games seem to have. By this point, I can find everything I need for 100% without consulting a guide, because I have played it so much and once I reached that point, Mario Sunshine became even more fun.

Super Mario 3D Land knows exactly what type of game it wants to be. A 3D Mario on a handheld providing you with quick & short bursts of fun. And it succeeds amazingly well in that regard. 3D Land would not work on a platform that isn't a handheld, because it would get boring really quickly. But on the 3DS, it's right at home. Sure, the levels are nothing to ride home about compared to previous 3D Mario games, but they aren't meant to be big and grandiose. They are supposed to provide short and simple fun and they do their job really well.

I've already said it in my review of Super Mario 3D Land: A game like 3D Land wouldn't work on a home console, because it's meant to provide short bursts of fun. Hence, 3D World suffers from not being available on a handheld (at least when it first came out). I get exhausted and bored really quickly while I play 3D World, because it's just playing through levels and nothing else. In contrast, I can play all of the other 3D Mario games for hours in one go and still have fun.

However, Nitendo did a lot to combat the inherent repetitiveness of 3D World. The levels are bigger, have more interesting ideas and concepts as well as top tier leveldesign, you can play through the entire game with your friends and the game gets really challenging towards the end.

At the end of the day, a lot was done to make 3D World work on the Wii U. But its core identity is still based on a handheld game, which sadly brings it down quite a lot for me.

Super Mario Odyssey is a very difficult case for me. On the one hand, tt arguably has by far the best movement in any 3D MarIo game. The seemingly simple act of moving around has so much depth, just because of how many movement options the game provides to the player. Mastering Odyssey's movement feels absolutely perfect. Seriously, just look at how fluently pros can move around in Mario Odyssey and tell me that shit isn't satisfying to look at.

On the other hand, the levels do basically nothing to accommodate for the game's insane freedom of movement. Answering questions to a Sphinx? Spotting taxis in the sky? Moving in a circle?! You've got to be kidding me. And FISHING?! If you played or even did so much as hearing about Sonic Adventure, you know how well suited fishing mechanics are for 3D platformers. And even in the rare cases where Mario Odyssey let's you do some platforming (you know, because it's a 3D platformer), it's the easiest stuff I've ever seen. In the first few kingdoms, that's absolutely fine. You gotta ease the player into the difficulty. But by the last few worlds I was seriously baffled at how easy the game still is.

But that's not it. So many moons are just repeated content. You can buy a moon in every kingdom, you can get a moon for cosplaying in every kingdom etc etc. As a consequence, the end result of 880 moons feels fluffed out. I know, that was done to ensure that you can progress through the game in many small steps, even if you only have a few minutes on your hands, but that leads to the moons not giving me a sense of accomplishment. How much of an achievement even is a moon if you can get one in like a minute and there are literally hundreds of them in the game?

And I know, you're not supposed to grab every moon in Mario Odyssey, but damn it, I want to complete all of the 3D Mario games whenever I play them, especially when the movement is this good. However, getting every moon just made me feel burnt out, because of how MANY DAMN MOONS THERE ARE and because of how boring most of them are to grab. And only getting the minimum amount of moons felt even worse. It felt like I barely got to explore in a kingdom and then I was already done.

It's frustrating to see how amazingly well Mario Odyssey controls paired with how shallow and lackluster the game's content is.

How do you even review 3D All-Stars? I recently saw a YT comment that said "3D All-Stars isn't a great collection of games, but a collection of great games". And I don't think I could put it better. All of the games included are some of my favourite games of all time, and I loved completing them for yet another time.

But no Galaxy 2?
No 3D Land & World?
Tbh, the collection can't be called "All-Stars", the title "Super Mario 3D Some-Stars" would be far more fitting.

And I'd have wished for more quality of live improvements. Sure, the updated aspect ratio of Sunshine and the increased resolution of all of the games is nice, but in my opinion, that is less than the bare minimum. Why isn't Mario 64 running in 16:9? Why are Sunshine and 64 both still at 30fps and not at a nice, buttery smooth 60? Seriously, it's not that hard, fans do this in their free time, yet Nintendo can't even be bothered to do it for money?!

I can't put into words how much I love Outer Wilds. I really can't, but I'll try. There's something about mystery media that just grabs me. Slowly uncovering more and more about the world is immensely satisfying to me. Outer Wilds pulls this off better than any game I know. It's interesting to follow the breadcrumbs all throughout the game and when you stumble a big moments/scene and the music changes... Yup, that's the stuff, that's exactly what I need. I don't even understand why it's so much fun for me, it just is.

Flying around with the ship is also a lot of fun and being able to go wherever you want with it? This is free exploration done right. The only thing holding you back is your knowledge about the world. And the fear of what horror of space will kill you this time.

And the atmosphere, OH MY GOD, THE ATMOSPHERE!!! Outer Wilds gave me a feeling of loneliness unmatched by any other piece of fiction. Which made it all the sweeter when I found an NPC I could hang out with for a while, enjoying a campfire and some calming music. Outer Wilds always makes you feel like there's still something out there in space, even if you uncovered all of its mysteries.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the DLC at all. The stealth sections were too much for me. I had no fun and put it down after a few hours. But the main game is one of my favourite games of all time. It's rare to find a game that moves you as much as much as Outer Wilds moved me. It's truly a special game in that regard.

Overwatch has completely deteriorated in quality during the last few years. At this point, it's oversaturated with characters. As a result, matches are too chaotic for their own good, there's just too much random... stuff happening.

And now, they went the extra mile and turned Overwatch into a game as a service. I already anticipated this development back when they announced Overwatch 2 and financially, it's probably the smartest decision Blizzard could have made. But it absolutely doesn't help the game. I'm bothered by daily missions, season passes and having to unlock new heroes, all of that junk. It's just not for me.

To be fair, reducing teams to only 5 heroes was a very healthy decision, but it's not enough to make me enjoy Overwatch 2. I may play it occasionally with friends in the future though, who knows. (EDIT: So far, I haven't touched this game again)

Maybe the PvE content will be fun, I'm still open to trying it out. (EDIT: This aged horribly, wow)

Oh and screw Blizzard while we're at it.