Beating on a dead horse huh?
You heard talking bad about this game for ages: too many toads, no personality, bowser doesn't talk, bad rpg, dumb story.... theses criticism, while totally valid if you consider the reputation of the series, are heard over and over again from Nintendo fans and fans of the series.

The thing is; whenever I played this game for the first time, mostly hyped by a lot of titles that were coming out of the 3DS, I didn't feel this emptyness at heart. The only title I tried at the time was SUper Paper Mario for the Wii, which was a title that already took away from the other Paper games to experiment a new weird take. This to say that I knew the series was focused on experimentation. Also I was like, I was thinking "maybe their are doing something simpler because they are working on a 3DS, so a more linear and smaller adventure more akin to 3D Land is a good call".

And for the first hours of the game I was excited: the 3D spaces were fun to explore and the music and vibes were simple, but nice.
and ngl, after the werdness of the MS paint design in SUper Paper mario, I was kinda charmed by seeing the classic mario enemies and worlds with this paper aesthetic. it gave the title the same charm of a Wooly World or a Kirby Epic yarn in a way: taking an existing universe and re-crafting it with this hand-made aesthetic. The use of giant fans, soaps, scissors and other objects used for collge was kinda neat and I was curious to see how they evolved the concept in later worlds.

Then I went after world 1 and proceeded for the desert..... and I got stuck in a pyramyd level, whichapparently required to find a secret exit to proceed. After a bit of experimentation I checked a walkthrough to see how to reach it and yeah I did it and in the next level you get to use a giant object to fight the tornado. I tried everything I had in my inventory (I thought another fan would have been good, since wind beats wind I guess), but it wasn't the case. searche din older levels for a bit, tried everything in the black market in town and found absolutely nothing... so here comes the guide again... apparently the object I needed was in another level that felt kinda optional..... ok fair, let's go grab that... and then I needed to go back to grab another one that helped recreate the oasis.... f-fair enough game.
then I had to build the pyramid/tower or something to fight the giant Pokey boss, and apparently I had to collect some pieces. I missed one so here for the back tracking again.
The boss was kinda tedious, but then I read that the baseball bat is the most useful item to deal with him so I went back and turned to one I found into a sticker, made a bit of a management with the menu to have more useful stickers and came back to fight a cakewalk of a fight.

The thing was kind of annoying but then I said "ok but world 3 maybe is better" and oh my god Iw as wrong.
I can't believe that the chapter made me hate a character like wiggler. THe amount of backtracking, weird level design and tedious forced replayability made me quit the progression of the game for the longest time. I remember trying again years later, but I wasn't never able to go past the blooper boss fight for how boring and annoying it was to just progress.

In retrispect I guess world tree was kind of an reinterpretation of the Forest of Illusion from Mario WOrld..... but even then, at least SMW levels finish quickly, so you feel kinda incentivated to jump back there to check the secret... her it is just dumb and I feel no shame is saying again that I had to look up a guide to not waste time.... also the wiggler parts running away is a joke that became old immediately after the second piece walked away.

Like people often complain of how much linear the first tree titles were in terms of world exploration... and honestly if this is the alternative I wanna go back.

In terms of the combat, at the time the only RPGs I was able to remember playing where Golden Sun, Mario & Luigi Partners in time and Bravely Default (I just recently started jumping into these games that I never truly tried), and even at the time I found the combat system a bit too weird: without the choice of choosing the order you wanna attack the enemies, or giving a regular attacks that doesn't spend the stickers. Now that I played more jrpgs, this mechanic kinda rmeinds me of how Shadow works in FF6, and even he has an option for a regular attack that spends no items.. not to mention that the menu is kinda cramped and the way the game forces you to bring pecific stickers for specific bosses and puzzles without giving you hints about the specific puzzles (with the extra that those big stickers occupy like triple the space in your messy menu) makes for a really tedious process.... but hey at least you can skip combat entirely since you get no exp.

THis is to say that, even without the context of "the game that ruined the franchise" in my head, I didn't really enjoyed this one a lot at the time..... now with time, after giving all of the context behind the behind the scenes and the decisions behind the ddesigns, I can totally see why so many people want this thing crucified.

Is it the worst thing in the world? Ehhh honestly I played worse. I feel you can still have fun with this one and I don't feel clean into giving it a worse rating since I didn't played it to the fullest.

But when you get to actually play it and see how many weird decision went into its creation, not just for its writing but for the game design an dprogression... it's just not fun.
I get it was an weird experimentation.... but honestly there is a reason why I wasn't interested in trying the sequels to this.

Played it on the NSO right after Mario Land 1, I was expecting to get a really similar experience to the predecessor.
And it honestly it went better that I expected.
I feels Mario land 2 is a mari ogame like no other: it feels like a bridge between the standard mario platformer and the weirdness of the wario land series.
Instea of opting for a standard straight progression, the map opens after the first levels, leaving you the freedom to choose which world and levels to explore.
That is honestly really fascinating, especially considering how much creative are the worlds in this one: a giant mario ststue, a graveyard with Friday the 13th references, an hippo that literally sent you to the moon, the inside of a whale, a world in miniuature....

the gameplay is considerably better than SML1, taking inspiration by SMW and feeling impressive for a Game Boy title. The new Rabbit powerup is just a rehash of the tanooki lef but it does its job decently I suppose.

The way the game leads to the progression with the different (kinda just okay) bsses to collect the 6 golden coins make you end up in Wario's castle, honestly a really tricky take on a final level with hidden traps and weird design decision that honestly add a lot to the experience.

ALso wario is here and honestly as it's first debut.... it leaves a damn first impression. He is weird, he is tricky and he reflects Mario not only in the way he moves around, but also how he uses powerups in its different phases. It reallymsolidified himself as a great rival for mario since the beginning. Love that guy.

SO yeah, genuinelly surprised with his one... it's still like a short experience that kinda suffer for the hardware it was put in, but I really liked it.

Played on the NSO

GOtta be honest, Mario lnad is a cute little title that is able to capture the formula of the rpgiinal SMB on amsaller scale.

Probably for the hardware limitation, everything has been cremped and restrained in terms of game lenght and overall presentation, bit I still really appreciated how the devs didn't stop at just recreating Mario Bros 1 and call it a day.

In most instances it feels like a fan-made interpretation of mod of the original SMB which wants to add a different personality on the title: got used to koopas turning into shells? now their shells, explode! You were expecting Dry Bones? Here's Chinese ghosts that looks more humanoid than mario. Excecting mushrooms and flowers? Well no ALIENS, lot's of UFOs and things. WHere is Peach? Forget here, here Daisy, she is epic

I kinda like how the devs kinda tried to evolve the mario formula in different ways, You got some more straightforward plane and submarine scetions that are fine, but what really surprised me was World 3-1. In ored to advance this landscape full of spikes, your best option is to wait for rolling rocks to fall, jumo on them and use them as improvised transportations.... the levels in that world repeat the same gimmicks more times, up until the boss, a Easter Island statue that attacks by vomiting said rocks ("YO SO THAT'S THE GUY THAT WAS THROWING ROCKS THE WHOLE TIME?????"). It was a neat concept not only to offer something more unique compared to the other platforming challenges, but also to narrate a bit of storytelling.

That said... the title is incredibly short and the stricht controls don't really help at all. Mario in SMB1 moves like a weirst car, and here while a little better, still maintains that stiffness: in a ways the jump feel floatier but also kinda reminiscent to the NES jumps of Pit in Kid Icarus or in Ice Climbers, meaning that you will have a harder time just readjust your landing.

THat said, it's still a decent attempt to port Mario on a smaller concept, and I kinda respect this one. a tiny fun ride

If we have to compare 3D mario games to Ice cream flavor, 3D Land is absolutely Vanilla: like... it's not bad, I am a big fan of vanilla, it is a solid flavor that fits every occasion. I often enjoy a good old vanilla ice cream, there is nothing wrong with that... but also doesn't leave you that much of an impression. Heck I even got the 3DS that came in bundle with it (the Ice White, whose color is just a plain old white).

I honestly don't get what kind of "Flavor" 3D land should give me. On paper it is a cool idea: make a game that combines the elements of 3D and 2D Mario games in a single package: this will allow to make a unique title while also experiment with the capability of the 3DS. For the most part it works: the levels are fun and the way Mario plays with the 3D effect is kinda cute, either for the parts of the game where you fall from the sky, enemies coming at you from the background, or the weird puzzle room where the perspective is tricky and you have to turn on the 3D to understand the pattern. The thing is... most of the other stuff the game has is not really that unique.

Oh nice, we got the flipping red/blue platforms like in Mario galaxy, the boom boom from Mario 3, the shadow clone from galaxy, the autoscrolling airships from mario 3, cannons like in 64, P switches from world.... even the powerups are kinda just not creative: it is nice to see the SUper leaf back (even tho it often breaks the platforming challenges ofthe levels) but what about the others? Aside from the fire flower, we got the sussy propeller block (which is not at all the power-up from New Suop Wii) adnt he boomerang that.... honestly could have been better redesigned, insdted of looking like a copycat version of the Hammer suit from Mario 3.

Even the bowser fights.... we got from the epic showdown of galaxy, the intimidating showdown in 64 and the more questionable baths of sunshine to.... a rehash of the mario 1 bridge. Like it could have worked for one bowser battle, but considering this gimmick extends to the final fight and the "hard world" of the game, I always felt it could have done a lot more.... and I feel the same about a lot of 3D land: iit mostly feels like a rehash of ideas put together but never evolved or taken in a more unique direction, which kinda sucks for a game often considered part of the 3D Mario hall of fame. its sequel on Wii U took the same concept and evolved to make a more unique vibe.. which is not as strong as the other 3D titles imo, but it is still something. I can see people calling 3D world their favorite mario game, but I can't say the same for 3D land.

The only really unique thing that 3D land does is adding cutscenes to illustrate Peach's escape attempt... I kinda wish we had more stuff in the mario game with that artstyle ngl, but other than that I am not a fan of the "safer" approach the devs went for.

ALso the game is too easy even for mario standards: you are able to farm like 100 lives before the end of the game without evene clitch-jumping on koopa shells. ANd combined with the safety of the Tanooki leaf make it kind of a boring ride.

So yeah, sorry I am not the biggest fan of this one, even tho I lead me to buy a 3DS at the time.

Like many, I heard of Banjo and its reputation thanks to Smash Bros speculations.
"A N64 classic, Rare at its best, Xbox bad, Nuts & Bolts has cars" and yada yada. You know the drill. SO I just gave it a shot thanks to the NSO.... so here it is what I think of it

As many already stated online, the biggest part of Banjo Kazooie is the presentation: from the first second, you can feel how much personality this game oozes: the walking N64 logo, the musical opening, the characters, the spiral mountain exploration, the quirky humor. Everything is just perfect and you can already tell why it is so beloved.
Compared to Mario 64, which in more instances present a world that feels empty, every part of Banjo's world feels alive and memorable.
And this personality makes a lot: the various levels are nothing you haven't seen already in a platformer: desert, woods, swamps, haunted houses, greenlands, beaches... but then you discover the changing of Seasons and stories in Click Clock Wood, the a**hole shark and the goofy pirate in Treasure trove cove, the delusional dad and the christmas theme in Freezy Peak, the disturbing Clanker literally swimming in dung.... the way they are presented and built makes you want to visit them over and over again, which works perfectly for the collective aspect of the title, that is not only necessary to progress, but also feels incentivated.

It's clear that the devs really cared for this world, so much so that they added so much extra details that on paper feels completely unnecessary, like the infamous quiz at the end of the game or the ability to literally turn on cheat codes (and the punishment for inputting too many)

The gameplay is also incredibly good: compared to Mario and other types of platforming heroes, Banjo just... waddles around at a slower pace, but this, combined with the various moves you unlock in later world, makes for a really varied set of skills, that feels natural and just enjoyable to perform.
One thing I particularly respected about the exploration of the levels is how you kinda have to.... manage the resources you get: in a game like Mario 64 or a Hat in time, you can breeze throught the world without a care in the world, getting every extra hearts you find and breezing through enemies with your best moves. Banjo on the other hand has to take care of his amount of eggs, feathers and especially life bar, since dying in a world means having to re-collect the musical notes from the start. This approach I feel is only a flaw in levels like the engine room in Rusty Bucket (which is a cheap way to die) or whenever you gotta grab some tiny objects underwater. Otherwise, I like the idea that I have to be careful about my health and powers: I can't just use all of my gold feathers on these vines, what if I need them later? Or I can't kill this honeyhive now, maybe I will need some health because that freaking bird in the tree keeps pecking me.

It is a sort of "survival-platformer" approach that I really liked, despite many people may prefer the more direct action of other platformers.

The flaws of the game for me: definitely the clunky camera, that while better than the one in Mario 64, still makes for some annoying moments in later platforming options.
Another thing: I am not a fan of the swimming controls, reason why Clanker's cavern and Rusty Bucket are my least favorite levels. I may not be ashamed to say that save-states helped me endure levels like CLick CLock Wood or Rusty Bay, that I feel otherwise would have been infuriating to traverse at times. Grunty's Lair can be also kinda dispersive to nacigate I feel, and in thar regar I may prefer how compact other hubworld like Peach's castle are.

Overall I just ended up going through Grunty's Quiz, save Tootie, and call it a day.... I wasn't really tempted to go into the final battle, since I needed like 10 extra notes and I didn't want go back on a level to collect them all again.
But then I said "ehe, just an extra run on Mad Monster Mansion! What can go wrong?"

And honestly I am glad I came back: first off, because it confirmed to me that replaying levels for collection is incredibly fun, but also because I was really surprised by that final boss. First, just the fact that I ended up with just enough puzzle pieces to complete Grunty's portrait made me smile hard, and reminded me of why collect-a-thons are so based.
Second, Grunty's confrontation has no reason to go this hard: it is simple in concept, but the way the witch shoots fireballs to predict you movement, dashes through the screen and makes you use all of your different abilities only to end up killed by a giant blue terminator jinjo.... I dunno I really liked that..
I didn't 100% the game so I didn't get the "Banjo Kazooie 2 secret footage", but the sole fact that the devs add that..... man it is so good.

So yeah, I heard a classic N64 game was good, tried the game and find out it was more than good.
It has some things that makes it jankier compared to more modern titles, but for the rest this is an immaculate experience.

Kazooie literally called Banjo sister "that ugly thing"... that is kinda messed up, girl.