I went into this expecting a quaint little spooky Mario rom hack, but I was instead greeted by one of the single most gripping, immersive, and fun 3D platformer collectathon experiences I've ever played.
The combination of horror and collectathon platforming is so strange, yet it works remarkably well. The game toys with your knowledge by tossing countless remixes and reimaginings of classic Mario 64 levels, that just feel slightly off in one way or another.
And even on top of the weird redux's of beta and retail levels, theres also countless brand new levels, that fit right in with the original games design philosophy, and even in some instances, enhance and improve upon it.
There are a staggering 450 yellow stars and 13 red stars in the game, with only the 13 reds being required in order to, "beat." the game, but I found myself collecting as many yellows as I could because exploring was so much fun.
Every turn of the castle was a new mystery, with new levels and new theming. The castle is sprawling and massive, and warps in on itself multiple times, but its so impeccably designed that I never got truly lost, and I began to memorize pathways to certain levels and important intersections.
The game feels like a playable dream, it has a sublime, surreal, dreamlike atmosphere that feels so palpably uncomfortable yet strangely engaging throughout the entire experience.
This is a once in a lifetime experience. If you enjoy Super Mario 64 I implore you to play this game, it blew me away in every sense.
The combination of horror and collectathon platforming is so strange, yet it works remarkably well. The game toys with your knowledge by tossing countless remixes and reimaginings of classic Mario 64 levels, that just feel slightly off in one way or another.
And even on top of the weird redux's of beta and retail levels, theres also countless brand new levels, that fit right in with the original games design philosophy, and even in some instances, enhance and improve upon it.
There are a staggering 450 yellow stars and 13 red stars in the game, with only the 13 reds being required in order to, "beat." the game, but I found myself collecting as many yellows as I could because exploring was so much fun.
Every turn of the castle was a new mystery, with new levels and new theming. The castle is sprawling and massive, and warps in on itself multiple times, but its so impeccably designed that I never got truly lost, and I began to memorize pathways to certain levels and important intersections.
The game feels like a playable dream, it has a sublime, surreal, dreamlike atmosphere that feels so palpably uncomfortable yet strangely engaging throughout the entire experience.
This is a once in a lifetime experience. If you enjoy Super Mario 64 I implore you to play this game, it blew me away in every sense.