An absolutely revolutionary 3D game that is still more than playable in 2020, although its age shows in its horrible camera and less than precise controls (seriously sometimes I just wanted to turn around from a standstill and Mario decided to best way to do that was to do run half a circle to face the other way, which can be really annoying on the many tight platforms).

So much about the game is just iconic, like the catchy music or colourful and varied levels. Even the hub world is famous in video gaming. It truly feels like care was put into it.

Its got insane replayability thanks to its pick up and play nature.

There's lots of secrets to find, both in the castle and in the levels.

Outside of the controls and camera, my main complaint comes from how often missions are repeated. The haunted house level 3 missions where you fight Big Boo. That's half the damn missions for that level. That's probably the biggest example in the game, but some levels definitely feel like they pad out the content like that.

The fact that extra lives reset upon closing the game is also a weird thing. It's not the biggest deal since game over only puts you back to the start of the castle, I just don't get why it happens.

It's a 10/10 game for its time that still holds up today, but can be a bit frustrating at times thanks to its aged technical aspects. Of course without any nostalgia it's hard to say how much I would have put up with.

Reviewed on Sep 19, 2020


1 Comment


3 years ago

Playing now, and I agree that without the nostalgia it would be very to swallow this.

But it really is iconic.