Before I played Galaxy 2, I only ever really played crappy licensed games on my PS2 for the most part. I was a young kid at the time so I couldn't really gauge if a game was actually good or not, I just got a game based on a show/movie I liked and that was that. That all changed one day when I was scrolling on YouTube and stumbled upon Super Mario Galaxy 2. I can't even remember what I saw since it's been so long, but I remember instantly thinking "I NEED to play this". This was right before we were going on a trip to Ocean City Maryland and I knew my dad's friend who was going on the trip with us, was bringing his Wii. I go to my local movie rental store which also had video games and rented it. The trip lasted a week and while I really should've been having a ton of fun on the beach, I instead couldn't get enough of Galaxy 2. I was addicted. I think I got up to like world 4 before I had to return the game and I had to part ways with the Wii. I also remember getting a gaming magazine that focused on Galaxy 2. I also distinctly remember a game called "Ivy the Kiwi" being a big focus in it too. God, I wish I still had that thing. I lost it ages ago and can't remember the name of the magazine, and I've tried to look it up online many times to no avail. Anyways, after the whole trip, me and my brother got a Wii and I got Galaxy 1 as you know. A bit after that I remember renting the game again and then eventually getting it for Christmas that year (I think).
I eventually did beat it, but not 100%. I never completed the game until the summer of 2015, I don't know why it took me five years but when I finally did it, I was absolutely ecstatic. This game means a whole lot to me as it not only got me into non-licensed games but it really kicked off my love for gaming as a whole.

So let's start with the biggest elephant in the room, this game's story. Yes it's very lame that they retconned the first game and that the story in general is way more lame in general compared to 1. This is my biggest criticism besides the game not being quite as atmospheric/spacey as 1. It is the reason I think I do like 1 more now, but it really isn't a deal breaker to me. I think there's enough fun dialogue throughout the game for it to still have an above average story for a mainline Mario game. Still, not nearly as good as 1's which yeah is a bit of a bummer.

However, I think the game more than makes up for this by being so much fun and more fun than 1. While 1 had plenty of good galaxies, I did think having several samey ones (the beach and bee galaxies) when there's only 15 full length galaxies was a bit of a downside. Galaxy 2 however did something different. Instead of having a mini galaxy here and there, and having your main galaxies be 6 stars, here the full length ones have 3. Now while there is a good reason they did this, this also led to the game having more sized galaxies that are way more plentiful. This along with the fact the level design is way more straight forward and faster paced, makes the game more fun than 1 I think. It's up to preference of course and I still love both games approach to level design.

Another reason this game is a blast to play is the addition of Yoshi. You wouldn't think he'd add so much to the levels but he does. He's in a good amount of the galaxies and also in them are powerups for Yoshi to use. These were also a great addition and just add that extra bit of fun to the game. I like them all but my favorite was definitely the dash pepper just because it's used in the best of ways. Alongside Yoshi and his powerups are new powerups for Mario. The drill and boulder mushroom were both cool but the cloud flower? Absolutely my favorite powerup in any Mario game. It not only just gives Mario a very pleasant design to look at, it let's you create a maximum of three temporary cloud platforms to use which is just so much fun. They clearly knew it was gonna be the fan favorite since it's used in a ton of galaxies.

While I definitely like 1's soundtrack more now, 2's is also still amazing. It's funny, while the game isn't as atmospheric as 1, it may have the most atmospheric song between both games lol. That would of course be Cosmic Cove Galaxy which is hands down my favorite song in the game, which is fitting since it's also my favorite galaxy in the game. Some other songs I love are Sky Station GalaxyYoshi Star GalaxyStarshine Beach Galaxy and Wild Glide Galaxy. The game doesn't have as moody of an ost, it's more upbeat than 1 but it still has some moody tracks and is still amazing like 1. A good example of a moody track actually and a shoutout to this one is Slimy Spring Galaxy. They did not need to give a short galaxy like this such an otherworldly and atmospheric track but they did. I never really appreciated this galaxy when I first played the game but nowadays, I actually really love it. Again, while 2 doesn't have the same level of atmosphere as 1, it really does still have its moments.

I had a bit of an issue with the prankster comets in 1, not being the biggest fan of them since there's only 5 types (and one of the types barely gets used). This game improves on them I think. Instead of appearing randomly like in 1, you have to get a comet medal in each galaxy for them to appear. Once they do, they will never leave so you don't have to worry about getting them to appear again like in 1. There's also a better variety of challenges this time. You still have your speedrun comets, your daredevil comets, your purple coin comets. However, the cosmic Mario races have been replaced with cosmic clone comets. You now have a different type of speedrun where you have to collect clocks that give you 10 seconds each. You have comets where you have to kill a bunch of enemies in a period of time. These changes/additions, plus the comets not being color-coded anymore so you don't know what you're going to get until you go into the galaxy, just make them much more fun than in 1.

Another thing Galaxy 2 did better than 1 is the extra 120 stars. In 1, to get all 242 stars you have to play the exact same stars as Luigi and then your reward is two extra purple coin stars that I just never found good. In 2, you have 120 green stars to find. A lot of people don't like the addition of these and I never understood why. Sure you can say it's filler but they are brand new stars and they're usually placed in fun creative ways. They act as a sort of scavenger hunt for you to find and you can use the sound they make as a sign you're close to one. Sure, they're not quite as fun to get once you replay the game and know their locations. But a bunch of them still require more advanced techniques to get like triple jumps and stuff so I never found it tiresome to get them all even on this replay. And the reward you get is a fun challenging galaxy that blow's Galaxy 1's reward out of the water. Overall, I think it's a very good postgame and well worth doing it just for the Grandmaster Galaxy.

Just a couple of little changes I noticed between both games. The first is one I noticed all the way back in 2010 when I played both games. When you spin into a launch star in 1, there's like a little couple second delay until it activates. 2 fixes this issue and let's you activate it right away which is super nice. Something I noticed on this new playthrough is unlike 1, 2 doesn't let you spam the spin underwater. I don't know why I never notice this until now lol. I also think the automatic saving instead of giving you a prompt asking you to save is a nice addition in 2.

I love both Galaxy 1 and 2 so much, it really is hard to decide which I love more. While at this point, I'm sticking with 1, it really does flipflop back and forth a bunch for me. Chalk it up to me playing 2 before 1 maybe? Idk if I'd feel the same way if I played it way after 1 or something. Either way, I still feel the same way as I did with my 2022 replays. Play 1 for the much better story, better atmosphere and better OST. Play 2 for the better polished, all around more fun experience. The real answer though is to play both as they're both fantastic games.

Also my top 5 Galaxies now are Cosmic Cove Galaxy, Starshine Beach Galaxy, Slipsand Galaxy, Clockwork Ruins Galaxy, and Throwback Galaxy...among many others, there's just too many good ones in this game!

So my beloved friend theadhdagenda_ loves this game and really wanted me to play it. I was already planning on playing it when it eventually got a physical release and what do you know, it got one last year. While I did enjoy it overall, it does have issues that detracted from my experience .

The main issue I had with the game, and I know it's been said countless times before, but the story was just not good. I think it has potential with its concept of heaven and the whole heist thing. It had its moments here and there but in between those few instances of good it has so really awful dialogue. People weren't kidding when they said it was bad though I was expecting it to be more constant than it was. Still tho, it really is pretty bad. Like I said, the story had it's moments but even outside of the bad dialogue, I don't think the story was done well. Not just because it felt undercooked but the theme of forgiveness and it being applied to Neon Green, did not feel right at all. I don't think they were trying to be malicious and were more trying to say you shouldn't let your abuser live rent free in your head and to just cut them off completely, but to have it be forgiveness instead...does leave a bad taste in my mouth. Especially since the book of death ending, which is supposed to be the bad ending, is more satisfying than the good one lol. That's just my take though, even besides the poor story the dialogue is bad enough where you'd want to just skip it all anyways. But alas, the story is a big part of the game time so I must judge it accordingly.

I know I started this review off negatively but that's the biggest negative really because the actual game part is really fun! It's a card based shooter where your main goal is to go as fast as possible. This works very well since, for the most part, levels are really bite-sized. With it being a speed game, it also incentivizes speed-running. There's medals at you get at the end of each level, with Ace being the main one you wanna go for in the end. There's also the dev times that are pretty hard to beat but I did end up doing it once in my whole playthrough. Otherwise, I just aced every other level. Besides the speed aspect, the cards aren't just for shooting as they have a secondary use when you discard them. This is another big reason the game is so fun as you have to figure out what to discard or not in each level. First you figure out what to do in the stage and then you speed through it, rince and repeat. Sadly because there's so many levels, and I went for not only the aces but also the presents, I did get somewhat burnt out by the end. Not enough to dislike the game or anything but I definitely wasn't clamoring to do those rushes when I beat the game (which are just all the levels one after the other with one life).

Speaking of the presents, outside of the gameplay and story there's also this social-link like mechanic where you give a character a gift and you get dialogue and other stuff from them. I didn't really care about the dialogue really, besides Mikey he was cool, but they are somewhat worth it for the little side quest levels you get every so often. These don't have time medals and are slower paced than the usual levels. They could be hit or miss but were mostly fun.

The music is by Machine Girl and while I wouldn't personally listen to it outside the game, it was really solid and fit the levels. The visuals of the levels are also really nice. Mostly in the earlier stages, they have this dream-like liminal space kinda feel which I really like. Some of the later levels not as much sadly but the music still fit those ones. I'm not in love with some of the character designs for the Neons but the presentation as a whole was solid too.

All in all, while I definitely didn't love it as much as some people do due to the story ofc and getting burnt out near the end, it was a fun time overall! Definitely better than the other Ben Desposito game I played, Donut County. I recommend you pick this game up when it's cheap because it is still a lot of fun, just maybe skip the cutscenes even if they are a large part of it's runtime. Idk tho, maybe you'll get more out of them than I did lol.

I have never played a Silent Hill game before this one, so this is my introduction into the series. I saw all the backlash this was getting on here and figured, it's short and free, why not join in. I didn't despise it like some people did (though I also can't reference any other SH games) but I definitely didn't think it was good overall. Tho there were a couple things I liked.

While I didn't think the story was executed well, I can kinda see what they were going for with the themes. I feel like a lot of people, younger people especially so, can relate to some of them which is nice. I also thought the ending was kinda nice, mostly when those ending messages popped up cuz sometimes you really do need someone to talk to about this stuff. Also the live action segments were neat.

The rest of the game however, sadly sucked. The story overall is just not given enough time for you to really care about these characters, considering the game is only 2 hours long. It feels like it's just trying to spread the message rather than tell a good story. Which is further proven by the warning they give you 5 times throughout your play time, which broke my immersion every time it appeared after the 1st time. Maybe I'm being insensitive but I also thought the whole likes and followers thing giving kids anxiety was silly. That definitely took me out of the story whenever it was mentioned.

The game is basically just a walking sim with one notable puzzle in the game where you just find numbers on a wall to open a locker. So the majority of the game was boring, (because it also just wasn't scary). Besides the walking sim stuff though, are the chase sequences and they aren't fun either. Especially that last one even if it wasn't that troublesome once I knew what to do, it just wasn't fun!

I guess I can't be too harsh since it's such a short game, and maybe I would have been if I was a long-term fan like a lot of people that played it were. As it stands however, it's just a poor introduction to the series it seems. I really should play Silent Hill 1 soon though, I'd like to have a better opinion on the series than just this game lol.

Despite being a fan of Mario Kart, I only ever played the newer games (DS and onwards). I never touched anything that came before, and that's like half of the games. While I'd still like to play 64, Super Circuit and Double Dash, I figured I'd play the game that started it all. My dad used to reminisce on how he loved playing this game with his friends back in the day, so I figured it would be a fun time. Sadly, I was mistaken as I found it to be kinda sucky.

I'll start with the good parts though. The game's visuals are pretty nice even if the mode 7 can be sort of weird on certain stages. In general though it's nice and colorful and looks good for a SNES game. The ost is also decent with some really solid tracks here and there. I also found the first cup to be alright course-wise even if I ended up only getting 2nd place.

That's it for the positives however, because as a whole this game is just unfun. I said the first cup was alright course-wise and while that's true, I still had an issue with the controls while playing through it. This game is so slippery, if you bump into anything you go flying. The drift feels so loose and is tricky to use, so you'd wanna use it as little as possible. However a good majority of the courses have so many sharp turns in them, you're forced to use the drift. That plus the bumping everywhere aspect just make's it super frustrating to play.

That's not even getting into the CPU's that actively cheat by just having stars whenever they want. I played on 100cc and they were brutal, I'm surprised I was able to get 2nd in the first cup. Once I got to the 2nd cup, I lost halfway through and because I wasn't having much fun to begin with, I just decided to play through the rest of the courses on time trial mode. You can't even unlock special mode until you beat the first three cups on 100cc, which I just said screw that. Oh also the courses are lame for the most part in terms of theming cuz, with the exception of Rainbow Road, they repeat two to three times each (with Mario circuit appearing a whopping four times) and just feel so samey.

Sadly I wasn't able to enjoy this like I thought I did and I think I'm maybe being a bit generous with giving it a 4/10 cuz I really did not have fun. Rainbow Road having an absolute banger song may be why I am not rating it any lower idk lol. Now I'm worried for Mario Kart 64 even tho I've heard good things about it.

So uh, I think this might end up being the year of Mario Kart for me. Idk why but I feel like playing and reviewing them all. Besides Double Dash as I don't own it and can't run it on my craptop. Either way, 64 was one of the big Mario Kart games I missed alongside Double Dash. I really don't know why I never picked this up years ago, cuz after finally playing it, I just know I would have had a blast playing it with friends.

In terms of controls and how your kart feels, this is miles better than Super I think. The drifting doesn't feel like ass anymore and is pretty solid here. Though, it can be a little tricky to pull off and you can spin out if you don't constantly move the control stick, however it feels pretty nice. Honestly a lot of the time you don't even need to drift as you can turn really well without it, and the courses for the most part don't require drifting. This is a huge plus from Super I think.

Another big improvement is the track design. The courses are now fully 3D and they're just so much more fun to play through. There's a couple I'm not the biggest fan of (I'm looking at you Toad's Turnpike and Yoshi Valley) but in general, this is a very solid selection. Also every stage is distinct and doesn't share the same 5 or 6 level themes like Super did so that's a massive improvement.

The items are also improved tho they can be sort of weird. The red shells are actually super effective in this game, as long as they don't hit a wall. Banana bunches come in 5's now, which I found interesting as this is the only Mario Kart game I've played so far which does that. Shells now rotate around you. The addition of other items like the gold mushroom or blue shell are also very nice. But getting these items can be kinda weird. There were a handful of instances where I was in 2nd place and I was just handed stars and lightning bolts which is just really OP. It's weird but I wasn't complaining because the AI in this game can be brutal

I played on every CC (except for Mirror Mode) and got every gold cup, and the CPU's on 150cc can be brutal. In general, the rubber-banding in this game is nuts but on 150cc, a couple wrong moves can completely screw you over unless you get lucky. This combined with the fact you can spin out way easier, made 100cc the ideal engine class to play on. With friends tho, I'm sure 150 is a blast.

That's another thing, I played this alone. I wasn't able to play battle mode but from what I've seen, it looks like an absolute blast. I'm only judging it from videos, but I can say it's definitely a solid battle mode when compared to other Mario Kart games. That plus the actual racing, and I'm sure if I played this when I was younger I'd love it more. I think a big part in me giving it a 7 and not anything lower despite some gripes is my nostalgia for the N64. Even despite not playing it until this year, it does bring me back to the 2013/2014 days where the N64 was my favorite console. I just love the aesthetic what can I say.

So yeah I'm pretty happy I ended up enjoying this game as I thought the controls would be way worse tbh. Back then, I played Diddy Kong Racing and didn't vibe with it much so I figured this would have the same fate. Or maybe I just need to play Diddy Kong Racing again cuz I was probably wrong back then lol. Either way, solid Mario Kart and a big improvement from Super for sure!

Super Circuit is the final game in this Mario Kart marathon that I had not played prior (sorry Double Dash). My friend Wheatie really loves this one but sad to say, I thought this was a big downgrade from 64 and is more comparable to Super in a lot of ways.

I know this is the first portable game in the series so I'd like to cut it some slack but honestly it's just plain unfun to play. Your movement, like Super, is just god awfully slippery. Maybe even moreso than Super at times. And again, the courses are flat and similar to Super in regards to its turns so the drift just sends you flying usually. I barely used it in this one and even still, on 50cc I had to take my finger off the gas a lot just cuz of the stage design and slipperiness.

Even though the courses are still boring design-wise like Super, I will say they definitely have a bit more visual flair than Super's even with it being a portable title. That and stage themes don't get reused as much (besides Bowsers Castle which gets reused a whopping 4 times) makes it better than Super in that regard. The AI was also better this time around in terms of cheating though I also only played on 50cc cuz I didn't even want to deal with the game's physics on 150. I played Peach Circuit on 150 and I just wouldn't be able to handle every cup on that lol. I did come in 1st on every cup on 50cc though which is more than I could say with Super.

I also didn't touch the battle mode at all so I don't know how that fares but I have a feeling it's not very good just cuz of the games controls. Also didn't unlock any of the Super stages cuz it felt pointless to play through those since I just did.

I also did find it interesting how this was a combination of both Super and 64. Super with the controls and stage design while most of the voice clips and character designs are from 64. Kinda makes it feel like it doesn't have much identity outside of some of the original course themes.

In the end, this is probably just slightly better than Super. But, even though this is the series first portable title, this game came out almost 10 years after Super so I'd expect it to be way better. Ah well, next on the Mario Kart marathon is DS and that one I actually did play as a kid and have fond memories of. So, I'm definitely looking forward to that one!

The next game in this Mario Kart marathon, Mario Kart DS, is actually the first one I had played beforehand and isn't brand new to me. I don't think I ever owned it back in the day, and apparently I still don't seeing as I had to emulate this one, but I remember playing it all the time with friends on the bus. Though, since I never owned it, I always had to use Shy Guy and also never really played the mission mode. That changes now as I got gold on every 150cc cup and did every mission, including the secret one you unlock.

I'm gonna start with my gripes I have. First, I think in terms of how the characters look, this is the weakest in the series. Some of them just look so off and blocky. Mario Kart 64 didn't have this issue obviously because they weren't actual models but this one really does. Some are better than others but, I guess I can cut it a little slack since it's the first portable title in 3D, a chunk of them just look kinda ugly. While the new courses have some really solid picks, some of them are just really forgettable. There are some absolute bangers like Waluigi Pinball, Tik Tok Clock and Airship Fortress. But then there's courses I find to be super bland like Figure 8 Circuit, Yoshi Falls or Desert Hills. Overall, I'd say it's a decent new track line-up but it's hit or miss. The retro track selection though, I found really weak. Half of the courses are from Super Mario Kart and Super Circuit so I just found them boring and then some of the picks from 64 and Double Dash are meh. The last cup does have Banshee Boardwalk and Yoshi Circuit so it was probably my favorite cup, but then it also has an awful course in Choco Island 2 so it's a bit conflicting. Overall, not a great selection of courses between both new and old but again there are some bangers here and there.

In terms of how the game controls, it controls leagues better than the last portable title Super Circuit. Instead of feeling super slippery, it feels way more similar to the newer titles. Only thing is, it has the old speed boost where its dependent on you going left and right on the d-pad rather than holding your drift for as long as possible. If you're used to Wii and beyond, it takes a little getting used to, but once you got it down it's pretty fun.

That's all fine and dandy, racing is fun but not that great in this game. What I remember the most was the battle mode and while I barely played it this time around, I remember absolutely loving it. Considering what Wii and 7 does with their battle modes, this is one of the better ones in the series. The maps are mostly all great and both balloon battle and shine runners were a ton of fun. Again, I'm mostly going off memory but this truly was the most fun aspect of this game at least when I played it as a young lad.

As I said before, I never played missions as a kid, but I can tell you I would've enjoyed them a lot back then. This along with the battle mode really saves DS from it's faults I listed before. None of the other games have something like this so you have a reason to come back to this one for sure. With so many missions, there's bound to be some that aren't the best but most of them were really cool. The fact there were bosses at the end of each level, and almost all of them are really fun, is just icing on the cake when it comes to mission mode. They should really bring this back for Mario Kart 9, would love to see what stuff they could come up with nowadays.

Of the 4 Mario Kart games I've played thus far, this is my favorite. While I didn't think the actual racing aspect was the best due to the course quality, the battle mode and missions make up for it and are THE reason to come back to this one. Been a long while since I played DS, had a ton of nostalgia when playing the battle mode specifically, so I'm very glad I was able to play this one again. Next in the series is the fan favorite Wii, I always liked DS more than Wii but that may change cuz I forgot how good that game's tracks were. Either way, look out for a Mario Kart Wii review coming soon!

Of the Mario Kart games I had played prior to this whole marathon I'm doing, Mario Kart Wii was the one I played the absolute least. I think the main reason for that is I got my wii in the latter half of 2010 and got this game for Christmas that year. However, next Christmas I got a 3DS and Mario Kart 7 and just never really went back to this one because the only time I was Mario Karting was on the school bus. Eventually 8 came out and that gave me even less of a reason to come back to this one. So it's been around 12 years since I last touched this game. As such, I gave this a 6 and thought it was just an average Mario Kart purely because I barely played it. Coming back to it in 2024 though, not only is it really great, it's my favorite Mario Kart I've played thus far in this marathon. I always thought I liked DS more overall since I had fonder memories with it but Wii is just more fun overall due to a couple things it did incredibly well.

The biggest and best thing Wii excelled at I think, is its new track selection. I honest to god don't think there's a single track I dislike. Maybe there's a couple tracks I think are just decent like Luigi Circuit or Mario Circuit but the track list is absolutely chock full of bangers. Mushroom Gorge, Toad's Factory, Coconut Mall, DK Summit, Wario's Gold Mine, Koopa Cape, Maple Treeway and this game's Rainbow Road. Those are just some of my absolute favorites but the rest are really good too. I know 7 and 8's original tracks already, and I've played through most of Double Dash's through other games in the series and also have seen the tracks that have not appeared in other games. With that said, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, Mario Kart Wii has the best selection of original courses out of every game in the series. The ratio of amazing/good courses is just too high for me not to claim that to be true. Either way, certainly a big reason this game is still a ton of fun to this day.

Something else this game did well was it's retro track selection. It may not be as good as 8's or even 7's for that matter, but it's leagues better than DS's I think. A big reason for that is half of the courses aren't from SNES or Super Circuit. And the ones that were, are a lot better this time around. Same with the Double Dash picks, Peach Beach is meh but Waluigi Stadium and DK mountain are awesome picks. The N64 picks are pretty solid too. Only one I think this game did dirty was DS. Peach Gardens and Delfino Square, while not my favorites from DS, were both pretty good. However, the other two courses are Yoshi Falls and Desert Hills which were some of my least favorites from DS. They could've picked some fan favorites like Waluigi Pinball or Airship Fortress but no, they picked some of the lamest courses. Hey, 7 actually had those two courses in its retro selection so I'll definitely be looking forward to them when I get to that game. Anyways, the retro selection could've been better but it's a big improvement from DS's selection.

The other big addition this game added was the trick system. Every Mario Kart after this one also has it too and there's a good reason why they've kept it ever since. It makes ramps that much more fun to drive off of, it's just super satisfying to shake the controller and see your kart do the most sick tricks in the air. Same with the half-pipe ramps which are an amazing addition as well. Honestly, they're usually slower than just driving if they're optional ones but courses like DK Pass or Bowser's Castle where they're pretty much mandatory (unless you have a mushroom) make those levels that much more fun to play and gives the game it's own identity since 8 did away with them (they are actually back in the Booster Courses but I haven't played those).

All this stuff is great and makes me enjoy this game a ton, but I do have a couple issues with this game that makes me like it less than 8 still. One of the biggest issues is the game's balancing. Another thing the game added was bikes which was huge. The developers must've had a huge hard on for them though as they're WAY better than any of the karts. The inside drift bikes especially are just too broken. So basically, there's two types of bikes. Outward drift and inward drift. Outward drift asks like a kart basically while inward drift makes it so as soon as you start to drift you can only drift sharply into the direction. Kinda hard to explain but if you've played the game you know. I remember hating inward drifting when I played this game all the way back in the day. Now though, I find inward drifting bikes to be a really fun and not nearly as annoying to use. However, like I said they're just too broken since you can cut corners insanely fast and also instead of getting a two stage mini turbo, you only get the one stage blue sparks but in turn you can perform a wheelie at any time by shaking the wiimote and that gives you a small speed boost. Because of all this, once I got the Mach Bike or Flame Runner, I just never used a kart or outside drift bike again just cuz there's no need to. 8 definitely fixed this cuz the balancing between the two is much better in that game.

A couple other issues I had was the item frequency and the battle mode being poor. The items can be super obnoxious in this game at times. I really don't know why but it's just super easy to get spammed with blue shells when in first. There were a couple games where I'd be hit by a blue shell like 7 times in one game. And plenty of times where I'd be hit by one and then hit by lightning, this game is just insane when it comes to it's items and sometimes it's just not fun. The battle mode I also remember not being that great back in the day. The courses were solid and all but the issue was you're forced to be on teams and cannot ever have it be a free for all. This is just lame and while it's not as bad as base 8's battle mode, it certainly isn't that far off. Also I was gonna say the bloom can really make the game look ugly or weird at times but honestly I got used to it pretty quickly and don't have much of an issue with it like I once thought. Still think Double Dash looks better than this game especially since some of the character models still aren't that great looking (not nearly as mad as DS tho).

I was also gonna say how it stinks to unlock every character because a couple of them require you to get a star or more on every cup(or just play and absurd amount of races) and the way to get star rank is a little weird in this game but I was actually able to do it in the end. Got one star or higher in 50, 100 and 150cc as well as unlocking every expert ghost time trial so I was able to unlock every character. Didn't feel like doing mirror mode though so I didn't get every kart but I feel pretty satisfied with what I did. Never unlocked a lot of stuff in this game back then when I played so it felt good to finally do so.

Overall, while I had some minor issues, this was easily the best Mario Kart game I've played thus far in this marathon. I'm super happy I redeemed myself with this game because a ton of my friends love it and I can finally see why they do. Really wish I played this more with my buds back in the day haha, ah well. Next up is Mario Kart 7 so look forward to that soon!

I got this game along with my 3DS and Super Mario 3D Land on Christmas of 2011. I only just got into Nintendo the year prior with the wii and as such, this was my first of the DS line of systems. I remember loving both 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 back then though jumping forward to 2024, both entries seem pretty safe in each of their respective series. While I still think 3D Land is pretty meh, coming back to Mario Kart 7, I will say yeah it's pretty good! Can it be seen as one of the most forgettable entries in the series though, yeah I can totally see it.

The first thing I'll get into are the courses. This time around, the new courses are honestly, mostly forgettable I think. The new rainbow road is one of the best in the series and it does have some memorable tracks like DK Jungle, Piranha Plant Slide and Music Park (tho perhaps those are the most memorable because they're also in 8 lol) but the majority of them, idk man I just don't care for all too much. I don't think any of them are bad but compared to Wii's excellent selection, it's a major downgrade. On the plus side though, the retro selection is probably the best it's been thus far. A big reason is the addition of Wii stages. Mushroom Gorge, Coconut Mall, Maple Treeway and Koopa Cape. Literally all the fan favorites from Wii are here and they're all solid versions for the most part. Koopa Cape's ending though is not nearly as fun as before. It was changed from a current of water under you making you go super fast while dodging these electric obstacles to a way slower underwater section where you dodge cheep cheeps. Biggest downgrade from any stage which is a shame but the course is still fun overall. The rest of selection of retro courses is really good too. Fan favorites from DS return like Waluigi Pinball and Airship Fortress which are way better picks than some of the DS courses that were in Wii. GCN courses are really good here too with them picking Dino Dino Jungle and Daisy Cruiser. Even the SNES course picks are decent just cuz one of them is Rainbow Road and with the modern driving mechanics is super fun.

Speaking of modern mechanics, this game brought back the trick system from Wii and also added a couple other new additions. The trick system was awesome from Wii and thank god it's been a mainstay ever since cuz future titles would have felt a bit lacking. The other two things this game added are underwater driving and gliding. Underwater driving is definitely the worse of the two. It's cool at first but it's just driving but you're slower in accelerating and drifting. Gliding tho is pretty fun. They changed the old stages to add these two mechanics and gliding usually has new shortcuts associated with it. Are either as fun as half pipe ramps from wii though? Definitely not cuz even though gliding is fun it still slows you down compared to driving unless you're taking a big shortcut. I think both are decent additions but not really anything substantial like tricks were in Wii.

Something else this game added was customizable kart parts and the return of coins. The kart parts idea is interesting but mostly unnecessary imo as I almost 100% of the time just use the same setup each time. You can mix and match stats how you like but idk I think I prefer how past games handled karts. Coins returning also doesn't really do anything for me. Yeah it's cool seeing them again as they haven't been in a game since Super Circuit but their only purpose like in that game is to increase your top speed. That and they unlock the various kart parts so you'll need to grind a decent amount if you want em all. Both additions don't hinder the game but they also just don't do much for me.

For being the 2nd Mario Kart on a DS system, you'd think it'd be much improved from DS. In terms of graphics, hell yeah it is. The character models are more similar to Wii in quality and honestly are better in certain characters (like Bowser). This is a massive improvement from DS which frankly had pretty ugly models. This is nice and all but when it comes to the battle mode and the lack of missions, this is a downgrade from DS. The battle mode is better than Wii since you aren't forced into teams anymore but there's still no elimination mode as you have to wait until the timer ends. That plus the track selection is worse than DS makes it a decent downgrade from that game. Still better than Wii and especially vanilla 8's but not the best I think. Also, no missions? Those were so fun in DS and this game has nothing. Like, I can excuse Wii and 8 since those are console titles so something like missions which works well on a portable title wouldn't be quite as fun. But 7 has no excuse so it's somewhat disappointing.

Last thing is the character selection is quite weak. Look I love Mario galaxy but honey bee?? Metal mario, Lakitu and Wiggler aren't terrible but those over Waluigi?? When Waluigi pinball is in this game???? Just baffling tbh and a pretty big downgrade from Wii's and even DS's selection.

Also, just something random, online play still works as of now though I think it's gonna end soon. Played a couple courses and it's fun but man almost everyone that joined are pros that play this game daily or something it's crazy. But the online is actually pretty good for the most part so I recommend giving it a go while you can

I'm giving this a 7 for now cuz I do think it's pretty good and it does some things really well (like the retro selection). But besides that, and even then that's just past content, I feel like there's really no reason to go back to this one when DS, Wii and 8 just does all the other aspects so much better. Didn't think I'd be so negative on this one (sorry about that) cuz I enjoyed it a ton back in the day and it's still a good game to this day! But when people say this one just feels like another Mario Kart, I can kind of understand that tbh. Ah well, anyways vanilla 8 is next because yeah I said I'm going to play them all and I'll stand by that so stay tuned for that one!

Edit: Bumped down to a 6.5

Back in the day, I was a huge fan of the Wii U. I got one for Christmas a month after it came out and for a long while, I would get every single big release. Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, some great titles released early on into the consoles life cycle so I was always looking forward to the next big Wii U game. Fast forward to May of 2014, I got my hands on Mario Kart 8 the day it came out. I loved 7 back in the day and was absolutely ecstatic for 8's release. Once I finally was able to play it, I knew it would be THE game I'd be playing with friends for a long while. Though honestly in retrospect, while I still played it a decent amount with my buds, I ended up playing Smash 4 and even it's better version Mario Kart 8 Deluxe a lot more. Still, even if there's no reason to go back to this one when Deluxe is a thing, it's still great in its own right.

The initial aspect I noticed all those years ago was just how damn amazing this game looks. And yeah, it still looks amazing to this day. Idk what Nintendo was cooking but this was easily the best-looking Wii U game like ever, with Pikmin 3 coming right behind it. Not only are the new tracks all so vibrant and just super clean looking with its more realistic shading and texture work, all the retro courses got this treatment too and they're simply wonderful to look at. Like I said, this game still looks beautiful to this day, and it's almost 10 years old at this point! It's crazy really.

A big reason this game's tracks look so good visually is due to the game's new gimmick. While underwater driving and gliding are still in the game, Mario Kart 8 also added zero gravity. This leads to some amazing looking and feeling track design with how the track can curve all around any which way. It gives new tracks so much character and retro tracks are better than ever because of it. Like for example GBA Mario Circuit. Very boring track outside of 8 but 8's anti gravity section has a section of the track totally elevated off the ground and just makes an otherwise unmemorable track, super memorable. Same thing happens with Toad's Turnpike where you can literally drive on the walls, passing a lot of traffic if you choose to do so, and this wall driving happens in several other courses too. Underwater driving is meh, gliding is cool but anti-gravity as a gimmick is just so awesome and I'm glad it's used so well and so often in 8.

Going into more depth on the track selection, it's actually really great overall. While I still think Wii easily wins in the original track selection department, 8 just uses the anti-gravity mechanic so well it's hard not to like 8's selection too. Cloudtop Cruise was always my favorite but you have some other really good tracks like Mario Circuit, Mount Wario, Thwomp Ruins, Sunshine Airport and Toad Harbor. My favorites from Wii's selection definitely trump most of these but this is still one of the better selections of original tracks in the series. Now with the retro tracks, I know I said 7 has the best selection but thinking on it, 8 probably has the best in the series. The anti-gravity additions to many of the tracks just adds so much and the glide pads also added to a lot of them was nice too. It would've been cool if every retro stage had anti-gravity added to them but they added it to a good chunk of them so I can't complain. All this plus these retro tracks just look absolutely gorgeous.

However, there weren't just 8 cups this time around. If you got the DLC, which I did, you were able to race on 12 cups in total. It was $12 for both DLC packs and it added 4 cups, 6 new characters and 8 new vehicles. The 4 new cups have some alright tracks, some solid ones and some absolute bangers like Wario's Gold Mine, SNES Rainbow Road and Ribbon Road. It also added an excite bike course, an Animal Crossing course, a Zelda course and two F Zero Courses. It was basically a crossover pack since with the characters, it also added Link and the villagers. While it is a bit weird seeing non-Mario characters in the game, it's still really cool and is also really amazing value wise. Also with this DLC came a free update which gave players the option to race on 200cc. This is a cool addition, and more content is always nice, tho it was never my preferred way to play since it can just be so awkward going that fast on these courses. Still, it can be fun just seeing your friends rage when they fall off the track going that fast. At this point, this was the most amount of characters and courses in any Mario Kart game so you'd think it'd be hard to not call it the ultimate Mario Kart game. Well, sadly there's a couple issues I have outside of the stuff I mentioned.

The biggest issue people have and yeah, it's a pretty big one for me too, is the bad battle mode. Instead of having battle mode specific courses, they decided to pick a handful of race courses for you to play on instead and it just doesn't work. More enclosed and smaller maps works well for battle mode since players will always be in the action. But with normal race courses, a lot of the time it's hard to find players unless you deliberately stay on each other's asses the whole time. Bottom line is, it just doesn't work really and there's a reason people shat on it when the game came out.

Another, smaller issue I had, was the character selection. It's better than 8's but not only did they add another baby in baby Rosalina (which makes no sense if you know her back story), they added all 7 koopalings as separate characters and something as dumb as pink gold peach. Having something like pink gold peach but not diddy kong or birdo or boswer jr.?
Just disappointing on the new character selections even if I mained Ludwig back in the day. Still, at least this game has Waluigi and the DLC at least added Dry Bowser back as well the crossover characters.

Even with the less than great character roster and possibly the worst battle mode in the series, the other things this game does so well, it elevates it to still being great in my eyes. There may be absolutely no reason to play this version of 8 when deluxe is a thing, but I can't deny this game's immense quality when it comes to the racing. Though honestly I do think Wii is the best in the series up to this point, we'll see how Deluxe stacks up when I get to that next. So look forward to that one as it will be the finale of this Mario Kart marathon!

After getting my Switch on launch along with Breath of the Wild, I was excited to see what games the console would have in the future. I bought Master Blaster Zero and eventually The Binding of Isaac for the third time, but a month and a half later Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out. Now look, this may be a rerelease and all but it was for a portable console. Mario Kart 8 was great but I could only play it at home and with a game like Mario Kart, its more fun to play it on the go with friends. When this came out, I was nearing the end of my Junior year in High School. Let me tell you, me and my friends played this all the time during the span of the rest of my high school experience. We played it in lunch, we played it in study hall, we even played it in class whether it was sneaking it or just when we had free time. This was THE Switch game to play when it came to my friend group alongside Jackbox Party Pack 3. It's just a ton of fun and while I said it was a rerelease, it's not just a lazy port. They not only included the DLC tracks, but they also added some new characters and revamped the battle mode.

I said the character selection was a bit lacking in the original game but the ones they added here are all good. Bowser Jr, King Boo and Dry Bones are all good additions that were in past games. The completely brand-new addition tho is Inkling Girl/Boy. Now, I was a huge Splatoon 1 fan before this so I was hyped when they were added. I mained them a lot when I first played and honestly, they're a perfect crossover addition just cuz Splatoon was originally supposed to be a Mario game which I found funny. This isn't even getting into the characters they added from the booster course pass. Most of those are also great, tho I haven't used them myself since I don't own the booster courses. If you do though, easily the best roster in the series.

The other thing they fixed of course is the battle mode. Easily the worst part of the original game and the worst battle mode I've played, it's really good here. Not as good as Mario Kart DS since there's still no option to have it be elimination rules, however you're not forced into teams like Wii and there's a whopping 5 modes this time around. Balloon battle and coin runners are classics of course. Shine thief makes a return and it's also pretty fun here. Bob-omb blast apparently originated from Double Dash and that's also fun tho definitely the most chaotic of the bunch. The brand new mode this time around is renegade roundup and its basically cops and robbers. Pretty fun mode as well but the real reason these are all actually fun is they gave us battle courses again THANK GOD. The old courses are great and some of the new courses are awesome too like Urchin Underpass. Love to see a little Splatoon representation since it didn't get a race track.

So there you go, the character selection was expanded and while not my favorite battle mode, the battle mode was made actually fun again. The only other thing they added, and they added it 5 years after deluxe came out, are the booster courses. Now I don't own them but my good friend Quent has the expansion pass so along with him and my friend wheatie, we played a bunch of online races for this review and I was able to play pretty much all the courses I wanted to. I didn't play them all but I can see the course quality varies greatly. You have some really half assed tracks and then you have really great ones like Yoshi's Island or SNES Bowser's Castle. A lot of the returning ones are Wii courses which is a plus too. Obviously most of these are just straight up ported from Tour and the visuals on a lot of them are pretty unacceptable compared to the base game but, if you don't care about then then the value of 48 tracks for $25 is great. That's basically 50 cents a track plus the added characters. Not only that but they added the ability to choose custom items, plus a music player in the main menu.

With the slightly better character roster and the MUCH better battle mode, I can say this is definitely THE definite Mario Kart. Though I may end up liking Wii a tad bit more now due to it's wacky physics. Either way, definitely a must have as a Switch owner and as a Mario Kart fan.

Well, that's the end of the Mario Kart marathon everyone unless I end up actually playing Tour lol. Been playing Persona 3 FES this whole time alongside these games and I'm in December now so I think I'm nearing the end of it, stay tuned for that review!

All the way back in 2017, I played Persona 5. I picked it up on a whim the day after it released, because my friend loves the Persona series and recommended I get into it, and not too long after I was hooked. That same friend also gave me SMT4 around that same time and I didn't really get into at all. But it did get me more interested in Megaten as a whole. Fast forward to the Summer, I go to TooManyGames 2017. I remember seeing the Persona 5 collectors edition, man good times. Ah anyways, I also stumbled upon Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 inside a glass cabinet along with some other Megaten games. Naturally of them all, I was most interested in P3 and P4 seeing as I was a huge fan of 5. Knowing the price of the Raidou games, I wish I picked those up then since they were only $30 but in the end I bought both FES and P4. Oh, not at the convention btw. I bought them off eBay the day after cuz I realized you could get them for cheaper there. Anyways, to this day I still haven't touched vanilla P4 since I played Golden. But FES, I picked up and dropped several times over the years. I really don't know why it wasn't grabbing me but the furthest I ever until this most recent playthrough was the first full moon operation on the subway. Either way, I can say I've finally beaten Persona 3 FES and I'm happy to say I ended up enjoying it overall.

Let's start with the story. I think overall, it's good and has some really fantastic moments. The beginning scene where the MC awakens to his Persona, to the whole turning point in Junpei's arc near the end of the game (if you know you know) to the whole last hour or two. There's some super good moments throughout the game, I just wish the story's pacing was better. After the MC's awakening in the beginning, I found the story to be super slow up until the middle of the game where it starts picking up again. Then near the end before the grand finale I found it dragged a bit. Pacing-wise, I thought it was the worst of the nusona games but specific moment-wise it's some of the best in the series. I do think the whole theme of facing death head on and not being afraid of it and making the most of life is super strong though, especially in the end-game. They really hammer that theme into you by the end but it works really well.

The main cast is solid overall but it can be a mixed bag. I really liked Akihiko, Yukari, Junpei and Aigis by the end of the game. They all felt really fleshed out and I just liked them the most. Mitsuru is decent but I expected her to be better, idk why I found her somewhat bland. Fuuka and Ken are the definitely the weakest party members imo and a big part of that, besides just not caring about their characters as much, was their voice acting. This game has really solid voice acting (the 4 characters I listed at the beginning) and then it has some really awful voice acting (Fuuka, Ken, Shinjiro, the chairman). Fuuka especially man, she sounded more robotic than Aigis it's crazy. This no doubt took me out of the story a bit just cuz those 4 are so prominent. Oh and can't forget Koromaru, interesting that he's the only normal animal sidekick in which he doesnt actually speak but he's a good boy nonetheless.

Going into more of the game's characters, let's talk about the social links. They're a bit more hit or miss in this game compared to 4 and 5. Akinari may be the best social link in the entire series with how good it is. I was tearing up in literally every rank, no doubt due to the music that plays during it. Yukari, Maiko and Chihiro were probably my favorites then after Akinari. I didn't even think Gourmet King's was bad like some people say considering his whole backstory and everything making me sympathize with him. However, a lot of the others I just thought were decent, very meh or just straight up bad. The worst by far was Kenji's, one of the worst in the series imo and just such a nothing Social Link. Same with Bebe, just did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't love 4's social links either but I think overall they're better in that game, especially since there's no male party member SL in 3. Yeah that's a weird omission, along with being forced to romance all the school girl social links, just overall the weakest of the nusona social links imo. It's not a terrible first try at the social aspect tho, but it's clear it's the first game to try to tackle it. 5 definitely has the best social links I think even if there are a couple duds in that game as well.

Something I actually dissed on stupidly was the game's soundtrack. Idk what was wrong with me but I originally just thought it was out right bad (besides battle for everyone's souls) but have since realized it's actually a super great ost, liking it so much now I think I like it more than 4's soundtrack. 5 is still easily my favorite but never did I think I'd like 3's ost more than 4's. Some of my favorite songs were the aforementioned Battle For Everyone's Souls, Joy, Living With Determination, Memories of the City and many more. Honestly, absolutely insane how much my opinion on the OST changed but I'm super glad I can see now why people love it so much.

Just a couple of random things I liked before I get into the combat. I really like that in part with the theme of death, every single party member experiences the loss of a friend or relative throughout the story. It really makes the dorm's friendship more believable since they can all relate to each other. The 2nd awakenings are easily the best in the nusona games simply because they aren't tied to the social links and are apart of the main story. Really felt impactful, especially Junpei's goddamn man. Also really enjoyed the atmosphere, mostly in the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Seeing how each Tartarus block would look was fun.

Speaking of Tartarus, it's one of the most contentious aspects of the game (along with tactics of course). Some people really love it and some people despise it. Me? It's not terrible but it's definitely the worse of the Nusona dungeons imo (yes I like 4's more) and probably the worst of the PS2 megaten games in terms of its dungeons. Absolutely does not touch DDS1's dungeons for example, but I didn't hate it overall. At first, I was just not getting into it but after a while you get used to the flow of doing a bunch of floors, then social link stuff then Tartarus and repeat. Near the middle of the game is where I was sort of getting burnt out on it a bit, especially since you do have to grind in this game and around that point I feel like enemies weren't giving great exp. Maybe I was over leveled then, idk but near the end game I was getting loads more exp and my personas were actually good so I got over my burn out near the middle of the game. Either way, Tartarus is just meh imo. Thematically it works but gameplay wise it leaves a lot to be desired.

Funnily enough, I ended up thinking more positively on tactics this time around. I still definitely prefer controlling your party members, but tactics works really well for the most part. You just have to not be dumb and engage in the mechanic. If you simply set your party to act freely all the time, then yeah they're gonna do whatever and are more prone to do stupid shit. But if you set them accordingly then I don't see the issue at all really. In fact I found it fun the more tactics you got as you progressed. Though, one issue I personally had is when I want a group heal from Yukari. Someone is super low on health, while the others aren't as low but are still missing a chunk of their health. If only one party member has less than 50% of their health, then she'll single target them and that's it. In that case, I'd want to be able to control my party members but that was about it really. One more still doesn't touch press turn imo, and I'd take controllable party members over tactics I'd say but this game clearly is built around tactics and it works really well.

Honestly, super glad I ended up enjoying FES, even if it's my least favorite nusona and my least favorite PS2 Megaten game. I was expecting to actually dislike this one cuz that's how I felt the few times I tried to get into it. It has its faults but it also has its highs and yeah I recommend playing this even with Reload out now. It may fix some of this games issues idk, but this is still a good time I'd say. Going onto almost 7 years since I got into Persona and Megaten as a whole and I'm just happy to say I've beaten all the nusona games now!

The only roguelite I ever got into majorly was the Binding of Isaac. I played Hades and Returnal but while I thought those were fun, I never played them for too long unlike Isaac (I should get back to them though). Cult of the Lamb however is now the 2nd roguelite I've ever beaten a run of. Did I like it? Yeah I enjoyed myself but compared to something like the Binding of Isaac, this game's lacking a bit.

The first thing you'll notice about this game is it's not just a roguelite. It's also a management simulation type game. Basically, the times you won't be playing through the roguelite sections, you'll be working with your cult on a day to day basis. You have to make sure they're fed, make sure they have beds to sleep on, make sure to clean their literal shit as well as making them do tasks like harvesting crops or mining rocks and stuff. Also, since you're the leader of a cult, you can also perform rituals and sermons daily. At first I found this really refreshing and a nice break from the roguelite sections. Well, I'd say its the other way around as you'll be in this mode a lot more than the roguelite sections. While this part of the game is fun, it never gets super fleshed out at all and becomes a bit tiring in the endgame, at least for me. I will say, this part of the game did kinda freak me out with the depictions of cult behavior. Idk why honestly since I don't get freaked out by stuff like this usually but after a bit I got used to it.

In between these simulator parts are the roguelite sections. Compared to something like Isaac, these are not fleshed out at all. They're fun but in terms of content, there's not much here. You have a small assortment of weapons to choose from. They can have passive abilities but each type plays the exact same each time. You have a regular attack, then a strong attack which uses fervor as well as specials you can collect that also use fervor. Fervor is basically just like SP you can collect from enemies to perform these moves. You don't have much in terms of a move set and it pales in comparison to Isaac's many synergies. You can also get tarot cards and relics which both provide other upgrades or abilities but there aren't many of those either and I kept getting the same ones a lot of the time. The bosses are pretty fun I will say and while I didn't find this game hard really, some of the later bosses can be tricky. In the early game, I was having a blast with the simulator section and less fun with the roguelite section, but in the endgame, it was the opposite except the roguelite section was just fun rather than a blast.

I will say, probably the aspect that holds up the best is the art style. Despite some of the disturbing stuff you can do in this game, it never is that bad (despite me being creeped out at first) because of how cutesy everything looks. In general, it's just a really nice art style and everything looks really good, as long as it doesn't glitch out on you.

Yeah uh, I saw some people mentioning glitches and while they never bothered me, it is worth mentioning. I played the PS5 version and every time the start of a new day happened; the game would literally freeze for 5 seconds each time. You get used to it but the first time it happened I thought the game crashed lol. I also had an issue where followers would glitch out and work on something like a block or two away from where it should be so it looks like they're working on nothing which is distracting. Also had a glitch at the very end of the game where the floor texture would go from looking normal to being reflective like water. Idk if all this is just in the PS5 version but it all happened throughout my game and it's worth mentioning.

Overall, I enjoyed myself, but I wish a lot of the game was more fleshed out. The simulator and roguelite sections are fun but because they're trying to balance the two, neither feels super rewarding in the end. The fun concept, cute art style and really fun early game is what made me enjoy this game in the end. Just wish it was better overall. Also didn't bother with the platinum despite it seeming easy enough. Looks like it requires way more playtime than I'm up for lol.

While in the middle of my Cult of the Lamb playthrough, my power went out for 4 hours. In that time, I had nothing to do except go on my phone but eventually it died. I remembered my 3DS was fully charged and so I decided to look through my DS/3DS games to see if I can be productive and replay something I hadn't in a while. Decided on the original New Super Mario Bros, since I hadn't played the series in years. After playing through the first world, my power came back on not long after. Decided to continue replaying this even with the power back on so here we are.

The New Super Mario Bros games were not games I ever truly loved. Yes, by the time 2 and U came out, the series became super stale. But even with DS and Wii, I never found them amazing at all. Replaying DS, this seems to still be true for me. In fact, this may be my least favorite of the bunch, at least next to 2 for several different reasons. Even despite that however, it's still a fun time overall and worth coming back to for a certain addition I'll talk about later.

First thing you'll notice when playing the game, would be its graphics. Personally, I always thought the NSMB games had a fine enough artstyle tho I much prefer how the sprite-based games looked in the past. DS though is sadly the ugliest in the series now. It was certainly a marvel back then but nowadays, just looks kinda ugly a lot of the time compared to the other titles.

Level design-wise, the game has plenty of levels that actually are pretty memorable. The sewers level, the giant wiggler level, the pipe maze level, the fucking brutal 8-1 level with the birds. I wish more of the levels were memorable like these, since a large chunk can be forgettable but I was surprised just how many I ended up remembering. This game also added the star coin collectable and honestly, they can be a tremendous pain in this game. They don't hide them behind invisible walls like future game but some of them require a powerup from other levels or toad houses and it can be frustrating. Same with the secret exits (which came back from Mario World). Like a third of those require the aforementioned outside powerup and they're a pain. I do recommend going for 100% tho cuz once you beat the game, you can actually buy bottom screen skins with any star coins you have and I never knew this and it's awesome. Such a great reward for going out of your way to get them.

One more aspect of the gameplay I wanted to get into were the powerups. 80% of the game you'll be seeing the fire flower which is a good powerup of course. The other 20%, you'll see the three new ones (and the classic star I guess) and I gotta say they're not that great. The mega mushroom is a great concept and is fun to use but is barely in any levels naturally. The mini mushroom is also not used that much and I honestly never liked much just because it's so floaty. And the shell is just obnoxious since you start moving on your own the moment you hit top speed and you have to manually stop to get out of your shell. I'm sure it's super fun when speed running but alas, it just annoyed me more than anything. This is another thing I think future games did better, especially WIi, that one has a great selection of powerups.

I really don't have much to say about the soundtrack. It's alright at best I think and it doesn't help the 1-1 theme gets reused in Wii. I did actually like the map theme for world 7 though, something about that feels so nostalgic. This game is somewhat nostalgic to me since I remember seeing a classmate play this on field trip bus ride when I was 8 and thinking it looked so cool. Never ended up playing the main campaign until after I played the other 3 NSMB games but my memory of that bus ride is engrained in my memory, and part of me thinks that classmate was on world 7 that day which might explain why the song feels so nostalgic. Either way, besides that one song I really like, never cared for the game's ost sadly.

This is all fine and dandy, but the real reason I think someone should come back to this one is its multiplayer modes. Minigames are a blast to play, even if most of them are ported straight from 64 DS, but there are a couple new ones which is nice. I probably played these more than the actual game back in the day. The Mario vs Luigi mode was also a lot of fun back in the day too. The goal was to get the most stars and you could steal them from the opposite Mario brother. Was just really fun constantly screwing the other person over. Though I guess since (most of) the minigames are in 64 DS and future games had multiplayer in it's campaigns, these aren't amazing reasons to come back to NSMB DS specifically, but it's still a nice little package of multiplayer goodness overall.

Like I said, was never a huge fan of the New Super Mario Bros games, and while this still rings true...I'd say this was still a fun time overall. Would be fun to replay them all but I'd have to spread them out considering how samey they are lol.

The first Gameboy game I ever bought for myself was this. My dad had passed down his OG gameboy along with Tetris and Kwirk, but Kirby's Dreamland was special in it was the first one I got of my own volition. I still remember buying it for $5 at the flea market back in the day. I still remember first discovering I could play original Gameboy games on my GBA because of this game. In fact, this might've been my first ever Kirby game period (it was either this or Return to Dreamland). I've played this game several times prior to this, and even now, it was still fun.

The game is quite short, only taking around an hour or less to beat, but I think that's actually really nice with a game like this. It does not overstay its welcome and if it was way longer, idk if I'd like it much. This is the first Kirby game and so it's super simple. There's only 5 stages in the game, with a boss at the end of them. It's really not that hard of a game at all, that's what Kirby is known for and it applies to his first game as well. Copy abilities weren't a thing at all until Adventure, so the gameplay in this is super simplistic. But like I said, it's short so I don't really have much of an issue with it.

For a Gameboy game, this has a super nice soundtrack. Every single song is memorable, though maybe that's also because I've played this several times, but I think a big reason for that besides them being good is the fact they get reused a lot in later games. I think the only song I haven't heard in later games is the spicy curry theme, all the rest are iconic whether it's Green Greens or the invincibility lollipop theme or Dedede's theme. Kirby has been known to never have a bad soundtrack and yeah it applies here too.

Something I'm not really much of a fan of is extra mode. I tried it out a bit again here but I still can never get far. I've never beaten it before but it's because instead of being a bit harder, it goes full into bullshit mode and not only do I not find that fun, it doesn't feel fitting for Kirby. Kirby's known for easy main playthroughs but hard side content but it's too much in this game I feel.

I never found this game amazing at all but I have fond memories with this one. It's one of the better Gameboy games I've played for sure. I plan on going through every Kirby game eventually now so consider this the start of my Kirby reviews cuz yeah I'm gonna review most of them. Don't expect it to be like my Mario Kart marathon tho since there's way more Kirby games and I don't wanna get burnt out lol.

Edit: Bumped up to a 7