in theory, sunshine and galaxy should probably mean more to me than they do. super mario sunshine was the first 3d mario that i owned, and i very distinctly remember getting my wii a few years later and tearing into super mario galaxy - it was either the holidays of 2007 or 2008, i can't recall. i definitely recall being fascinated by galaxy's breadth and expanse, its scale and the variety i found in its ideas, constantly throwing new planet types and level gimmicks my way. i maintain galaxy does have moments of excellence that i was spot on for remembering as a kid.

it's really a bummer to return to this one with a lot more worldliness and experience in my early 20s, with my new outlook on what motivates and captures me in art and expression, and see galaxy for what it is to me now - not the milestone masterpiece that i thought it was, but a really good game too shy of pushing itself to take that step and become that masterpiece.

another writer here put similar thoughts together with a lot more expanse than i care to, but in summary, i feel that galaxy wants to have those moments in which it borders on subversion of what mario as a series has been, with a grander scale with lightly-dipped themes like the cycle of life and a nice layer of isolation and ambience thrown on top... but then for every moment of that, there's three in which the game loudly babies and parades itself around as another Quirky Nintendo Game with kiddish (not in the sense of childlike wonder, but patronizing babyish tone) aesthetics, music and design. galaxy is simply too afraid to be what it wants you to think it is, and given that this title ushered in the era of the mario mandate, a phenomenon which still exists in which the diverse edges of the mario series would be dusted smooth, corporate and conforming, this doesn't come into retrospection with a lot of surprise. ultimately, it's hard to take galaxy's moments of attempted profundity or emotional outreach all that seriously, because the GAME doesn't take them all that seriously. this is different from a game like earthbound, in which these themes are all tonally consistent and the quirk and charm are part of the grander narrative; it's just a clash of ideas vs. mandates that comes off a lot less inspired than sunshine, a game i'd still say is an overall substantially less completely worthwhile experience.

and that's nothing to speak of some of my gripes with the gameplay; while the planet navigation with its warping gravity is mostly good and certainly impressive, mario himself never feels quite right, with queer changes to his flow of movement inconsistent between various types of traversal. an archaic lives system returns making itself even more fruitless with the game's constant barrage of extra lives - which, now that i'm thinking about this while writing, actually begs an interesting thought about the galaxy experience itself..

q. if the concern is to make super mario galaxy accessible to newcomers, why even bother with the concept of 1-ups at all? why not forgo the system for infinite lives, allowing newcomers to continue until they complete the levels, and for veterans to not fan to belabor meaningless game over screens? to that point, if this was supposed to be a new step for a wider-than-ever target demographic, why all the back-steps and throwbacks to super mario bros. 3? why all the typical "mario series tropes" that steal away from galaxy's original identity? if this is supposed to be a new mario for a new generation of players, why are we stuck on all of these old ideas, even when in execution several of them are WORSE than they have been in previous entries (the camera controls, the star-based mission structure, the coin collection missions, forced control gimmicks in "special levels" which add arbitrary unneeded difficulty)???

a. "because this is nintendo, this is mario, and this is the way we've always done things. tradition overwrites innovation."

"princess maker but for mentally ill e-girls" is a polarizing concept. i was excited by the grim premise, but also concerned that it could come across less as parody and more as a disturbing fetishization of itself in the same kind of way "milk outside a bag..." ended up

i'm happy to say it sticks the landing as the former. while ame is definitely easy to get attached to for her convincing and genuinely excellent writing (hats off to the localization team - you guys fuckin' nailed it) it's still abundantly clear that the relationship between the streamer and her producer is a codependent and mutually destructive one

the self awareness goes two ways, and thankfully no punches are pulled. for every funny reference or silly moment there's an equal measure of rightfully tactless and bluntly disturbing content that's bound to transport you back to your most emotionally abusive relationships. ame's a fucking mess and the game never wants you to forget that, but it also doesn't shy away from pointing out that you're a shitbag too

check it out, but don't take it too seriously. after all, this is an idol management sim where the best outcome results from getting therapy and abandoning streaming altogether

actually - take that last part extremely seriously

very difficult to put a number on this experience so i wont bother. must open by saying that for the most part i am very very displeased with the changes made in scholar...the updated visuals unlock a lot of the game's majesty which could be harder to appreciate in the often extremely flat light and color of the vanilla version, and Very Occasionally an area will actually feel less sloppy and more focused (like drangleic castle). for the most part though i have to agree that 40 dollars for an aimless and annoying romhack is absurd. shrine of amana and iron keep are especially fucking criminal because theres no new experience on offer, just a more time consuming and annoying variation on the experience that was already there. almost nothing gets as infuriatingly pointless as the changes made to heide's tower (which, being early, created an immediate bad taste in my mouth) but persistent aspects like the abundance of fragrant branch statues never let me forget "oh yeah, ive never had this bad of a time playing vanilla"

but despite all this, counter-intuitively, this playthru rly made me appreciate just how good dark souls 2 is. this is my fourth or maybe third and a half playthru, and every single time ive felt the larger narratives about it melt a little more in my head. many of its supposed flaws stay purely in the realm of the theoretical for me, and dont actually do anything to bring down my experience or make me not have fun. i know how to play around adp, ive learned how to do (and enjoy!!!) crowd control and approach relatively slow-paced multi enemy fights, i know to set the windmill on fire, and its especially difficult to care about Abstract "flaws" like "the balance of the healing system" when on an actual experiential level, lifegems make this one of the most approachable and welcoming souls games for a casual replay.

rly the game just rewards replay and intimacy at every turn...i once dismissed the level design, but i think that had more to do with the fact that dark souls 1 required intimacy with its levels from the getgo (with all the interconnectness and backtracking), so just blazing thru each level on Mostly first try didnt give them any time to leave a similar impression. going back to them repeatedly, i see levels that are not only often enjoyable in their tightness and spatial deliberate, but i see flashes of demons souls-esque creativity that stir my imagination. i love the machinery in iron keep and how you can control some of it, i love aldia's keep with its Dont Touch The Exhibits Or There Will Be Permanent Consequences, i love huntsman's copse with its ambushes that make u feel like prey, and more then anything i love brightstone cove tseldora's vision of an actual inhabited place...cozy homes built in harmony with the earth, filled with sand and decay and the scars of cruel mine labor and military/religious enforcement. probably one of my top 5 or 4 favorite fromsoft locations ever.

this may, to me, be the most low-level pleasurable souls game of them all, its weirdly forgiving mechanics (lifegems, tombstone revivals, centralized hub for merchants, level respecing, warping available from the start) combine with unique never-reused quirks that are enjoyable to play around simply due to their novelty (this is tbh my preferred vision of weapon durability) which combine with an extremely varied and aesthetically pleasing world. it is, necessarily, less gravitatous in my mind then dark souls 1 or demons souls, which i always feel the need to take my time to savor. but i think ds2's unique appeal for those on its wavelength rly has something to do with how strangely nice and approachable it is, providing all the expected beats of a fromsoft game in a way u can just blitz through with no speedbumps

and even this Frivolity feels meaningful and expressive within the boundaries of the game's story...monarchs struggle for their names and kingdoms to be remembered as theyre paved over by someone else with an equally meaningless title. vaguely familiar echos in unrecognizable late stages of iteration. dark souls 2 often plays like a high-concept horror story of a world without history...nothing but an eternal present that cannot learn from past mistakes nor imagine anything beyond itself. the ultimate uselessness of the player's autonomy here is a great trick that feels, in a way, far more meaningful and biting then any other dark souls game. i enjoy dark souls 3, but theres no question that its far more self-important and loudly insistent about its take on similar themes...strangely insecure as it puppets recognizable images in a way that takes them out of being sad and scary and into the realm of popcorn fanservice. there is a quiet and deadly confidence to dark souls 2 keeping its echos of the past as only vaguely recognizable, its past as decayed and rotting and not like anything you would think to cheer for. there is no comforting familiarity, just sickly emptiness. despite all its troubled development, it is a wholly unified, cohesive, and enduringly unique piece of work that frankly doesnt require any big brained revisionism or galaxy level counterintuitive approach to appreciate. time has been kind to it, and it will only get kinder. kind of a poetic inversion!