It's SMB1!... but longer and way harder. The levels are incredibly hit-or-miss. Some are a fun challenge, but others are some of them are the most brutally unfair levels I have ever played in a video game. This, combined with Mario's shit controls from SMB1, makes an experience that is painful, long, and seemingly eternal if you're trying to go for 100% (Without hacking, you can only unlock the last 4 worlds by playing through the entire game with no level skipping and no gameovers EIGHT TIMES). Would not recommended playing without savestates unless you're a god with SMB1 Mario's controls.

The black sheep of the Mario series, due to how different it is and the fact that it's technically not even a Mario game. That being said, I still really liked it. The controls do take a bit to get used to, but once you do there are really good and responsive for the time. Picking up and throwing enemies is a fun gimmick that this game introduces, as it creates more strategy when it comes to beating them and combo-ing a bunch of enemies in a single throw. The level design is incredible for the time and manages to be both difficult and fair (For the most part. A couple later levels like 6-2 have BS trial-and-error moments, but these are few and far between). The soundtrack is pretty good, though there are only about 7 tracks in the game. The bosses, while primitive today, were probably revolutionary for the time and they all put up a pretty good fight, even Birdo, this dinosaur-looking miniboss you fight at the end of each level. And lastly, I do like how each playable character has different stats to make them feel different from each other and give them special advantages/disadvantages.

No game is without issues, though, and I do have a few issues, some of which really detriment the game for me. Firstly, and this is probably the biggest issue, the lives system sucks. You get most of them by cashing the coins that you collected in the levels' subspace areas in a slot machine that shows up at the end of every level, and by a match of 3 or a correct sequence of images on the slot machine, you can get-5 (1-10 in the SNES port) extra lives. Now, this isn't a bad concept and could be really fun, but it's held back due to the fact that the images on the slot machine scroll way too fast, and it's hard to differentiate the images at such high speeds due to the fact that a lot of the images share color schemes with another image, making them all blur together. As such, you'll frequently only get a small handful of lives by the end of the minigame, and as the levels become harder and longer, your lives will dwindle much quicker, making the game much more frustrating and stressful. I mean, sure, you could find 1-Ups in the normal levels, but those are incredibly rare and a couple of them are even RNG-dependent. I have other minor issues with the game, namely how Peach and Toad are noticeably more OP than Mario and Luigi, the quicksand is way too strong and is pretty much an insta-kill if you wandered into it while carrying something, crouching is useless due to the fact that your crouching hitbox is still pretty massive, the enemies respawning can be super annoying at times, and the Super Star is basically useless due to the fact it has a way shorter duration compared to SMB1 and the Lost Levels, but those don't really hinder my experience unlike the lives system.

If you can get past the flawed lives system or feel like spamming savestates to compensate for it, I'd strongly recommend SMB2. It's not my favorite Mario game of all time, but it's still a really fun time and a massive step-up from SMB1 and the Lost Levels.

I know this is pretty unpopular, but I've never been a big fan of TWEWY. The story is basically just a slightly better version of something like Ready Player One but with significantly less forced references to 1950s-1980s nerd culture. The characters range from mediocre to forgetabble to unlikeable, but there are a few standouts like Sho Minamimoto. Then there's the gameplay, which is very decisive to me. The game controls nicely and combat seems satisfying at first, but having to constantly alternate between Touch and Button controls (As well as in the DS version, both the top and bottom screen) can be super disorienting and uncomfortable, making battling needlessly more stressful and difficult at times.

The soundtrack is a banger, though. I will not deny that AT ALL.

Yes, this is basically a glorified tech demo, but I really like Nintendo Land. The idea of a collection of minigames/subgames based on various Nintendo properties is a really fun concept that I'd like to see fleshed out more at some point (And no, WarioWare doesn't count, those are microgames, not minigames/subgames). Speaking of the minigames/subgames, though there are only about 12, but they're all pretty fun for the most part, and they're one of the few instances of the Wii-U gamepad actually being used in a fun, creative way (Also, can I mention how funny I find it that of the very small number of Wii-u games that actually used the Gamepad in a positive way, Nintendo Land was the only one that was actually made by Nintendo themselves?). Me and my friends would spend hours messing around in some of these minigames/subgames, and it was really fun.

Nintendo Land is not without it's issues, however, and they are pretty big issues. Some of the minigames/subgames like the Zelda and Metroid ones have features that are only accessible if you have the Wii Motion Plus upgrade, which kinda sucks not gonna lie. Additionally, most of the single player minigames lack multiplayer options, which limits the multiplayer capability of certain minigames (Especially the F-Zero and Game and Watch ones). Also, I do not like the Attraction Tour mode at all. It makes all the minigames feel super repetitive, goes on for way too long, and desperately needs an online mode. And lastly, and this is more of a personal preference, but the game's toy/robot/wind-up aesthetic can be super hit or miss at times. At times it can look pretty cool and/or cute and other times it can just look super cheesy and fake, there's not real inbetween.

Nintendo Land is a fun experience I reccomend checking out with some friends, and it is a concept that desperately needs a sequel to flesh it out, sort of like what Wii Sports Resort did to Wii Sports.

I think Specter of Torment is still better, but King of Cards was really fun and a nice send-off to the series. King Knight is very fun to play as, being this glass-cannon character who's sort of a fusion between Wario and Shovel Knight. The level design is some of the best in the series, and there are way more levels in this installment compared to the other three (At the cost of the levels being way shorter). The bosses are really good as well per usual. Granted, about half of them are directly lifted from Specter of Torment with minor changes (Like Plague Knight's fight taking place during a vertical autoscroller and Polar Knight summoning Spinwolves to assist hm), but the rest are either completely new bosses (i.e. the Troupple King and Cardia) or revamps of older bosses in the series (i.e. Specter Knight and Mr. Hat), and they're all really fun. The soundtrack is good as usual, but a lot of the songs are returning ones from one of the previous Shovel Knights installments and most of the new ones are relegated to Joustus. Speaking of Joustus, I really like it. It's really addictive, fun, and even intense at times, and the fact that there's about 140 Joustus Cards means you can come up with all different kinds of strategies and combos. It reminds me a lot of something like the various versions of Skystones from Skylanders, just more refined, balanced, and with better AI. Plus, if you're not a fan of Joustus, it's completely optional towards beating the main story, so that's really cool.

Most of my issues with the game are just minor nitpicks, like how the story feels underwhelming compared to Specter of Torment's (Though unlike Specter of Torment, it does a much better job at wrapping up a ton of loose ends from Shovel of Hope/Plague of Shadows like how the Hedge Pupil lost his house keys, how Mr. Hat ended up in the Armored Outpost, and where the ghosts from the Hall of Champions came from) and how I really wish Joustus had online multiplayer, but for the most part, I really liked King of Cards. It's not as good as Specter of Torment, but it proudly takes the #2 spot.

Despite being easily the shortest installment of Shovel Knight, this one is probably my favorite. Specter Knight is super fun to play as, and his playstyle can allow for some seriously crazy parkour scenarios and level exploits. The level design is top-notch as well, and it makes all of the locations established in Shovel of Hope feel much more alive and bustling than in that game. I also really liked the boss fights in this game. Granted, most of them are just the same characters as in Shovel of Hope, but most of them receive new tricks and attacks to make them harder for Specter Knight (For the most part. I'd argue Propellor Knight, Plague Knight, and Polar Knight are significantly easier as Specter Knight). The soundtrack is a banger per usual, and we got so many excellent remixes of the songs from Shovel of Hope. And one last thing I'd like to praise is the story. It's surprisingly dark and even kinda depressing at times, but it's pretty engaging and the darker tone really fits, seeing as our main protagonist is an undead slave and this game is a prequel to Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows, showing us how the Enchantress and the Order of No Quarter rose to power.

The game is not without issues though. Specter Knight will like to cling to walls even if you don't want him too, the stages where you get to test out the powerups are way shorter compared to Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows' stages of a similar nature, the concept of upgrading your powerups is neat but makes the game a bit too grindy, and that minigame in the Tower of Fate does not give you enough rewards for how brutal it is. But overall, I really liked Specter of Fate, and it's easily my favorite Shovel Knight installment.

Easily the weakest Shovel Knight installment IMO. Starting with positives, while Plague Knight takes a while to get the hang of, he becomes incredibly fun to use once you do and his different weapon/cloak loadouts lead to a ton of customization, gameplay variety, and speedrun potential. I also like the story. I wouldn't say it's as good as Specter of Tourmet's, but watching Plague Knight and Mona's romance unfold was kinda cute in a evil way. I also like the few new levels we got, they make great use of Plague Knight's abilities and I wish we got more of them.

As I hinted with that last point, my biggest issue with the game is amount of recycled content. If you're willing to count the Hall of Champions minigame as a stage, there are only 4 new stages in the game. The rest are recycled from Shovel of Hope, just with a little sub area where you can farm Cipher Coins (And I'll admit these areas are fun, as they make good use of Plague Knight's controls, but they are over way too short). Don't get me wrong, these stages were and are fantastic in Shovel of Hope, but seeing them cheaply recycled just feels lazy. Most of the bosses are also recycled from Shovel of Hope, but the two new ones we get are really fun. Additionally, I wasn't a big fan of the Cipher Coins, this game's major collectible. And while they do have a use seeing as they unlock additional bomb/burst upgrades and the Pandemonium Cloak, they are not handled that well in-game. Most of the Cipher Coins are very poorly hidden or in fairly easy spots, and the few that aren't can be made piss easy thanks to how broken the Hover Burst and Vat Arcana are. This makes the challenge of collecting all the Cipher Coins pretty weak, and as such they aren't as memorable as the Music Sheets, Red Skulls, and Merit Medallions. And lastly, this is more of of a personal gripe, but I think Plague of Shadows has the weakest OST of any Shovel Knight installment. Most of the songs are recycled from Shovel of Hope, and the few new ones are mostly just ok-at-best remixes of either Flowers of Antimony or Spin Ye Bottle. There definitely are tracks I like from Plague of Shadows (Out of the Shadows, Art Through Adversity, and Waltz For One/Le Bouqet Magique are some of my favorites in the series), but those really good ones are few and far between.

Overall, Plague of Shadows is cool, but mostly just feels like Shovel of Hope with a different character, new story, and minor level design changes here and there.

A nice introduction to the series. The game is mostly carried by its level design, boss fights, wacky characters, numerous achievements (Which really help in giving this game some nice post-game content), and soundtrack, all of which are fantastic. Shovel Knight himself is also fun to play as, though his controls and playstyle feels a bit too derivative of other video game characters (Specifically how Link controls in Zelda II) for my liking.

I think my major issue with the game is its rather mediocre story, the fact that the game is super short if you're not going for 100% completion, and the fact that this game is greatly outclassed by the future Shovel Knight games, but it's still a fun game none the less.

Very solid shooter game. All the different classes feel unique, and the sub-classes create a ton of experimentation and make the character roster feel more diverse despite there technically only being 16 playable characters (8 per side). The maps are really good for the most part, and are much more diverse than GW1's. I also like all the gamemodes, but it kinda sucks how all of them are just the same ones as GW1, and the few new ones are just GW1 gamemodes but with the roles swapped.

I think my major issue with the game (Aside from updates after it's release being very few and far between) is the single player content. It's not bad and a nice inclusion, but it feels repetitive and underwhelming.

Played this on an old and fairly mediocre SNES emulator a couple years back. If I'm going to be honest, I think Earthbound is kinda overrated. Don't get me wrong, the game has this charm and weird sense of humor I really like, the graphics look pretty good and stick out from other RPGs of the time, and I do like the mechanics of the battle in concept. But that's where my praises stop. Firstly, the first part of the game is a brutally difficult chore to get through, thanks to all of the enemies being ridiculously overpowered and Ness being ridiculously underpowerd. It does get a bit easier once Paula joins your party, but even then battling doesn't become truly manageable until Jeff joins the party. Secondly, all of the main characters-Save for Porky/Pokey-are either incredibly one-note or have pretty much no personality whatsoever. Thirdly, while I do like the concept of the Rolling Health Bar, it is not implemented vary well. Compared to Mother 3, the numbers scroll way too fast, meaning it's much harder to use PP points to raise the bar back up in time. Fourthly, all the shops and save points are way too far apart, especially the further you get into the game. Fifthly, pretty much all of the boss fights-Save for Porky/Pokey and Giygas-are hardly distinguishable from normal enemies and end up feeling super underwhelming. And for my final point, if you're not using savestates, the acts and mechanics behind saving, loosing partners, and getting a game over are laughably archaic, even by 1994 standards. They're so archaic that no joke, I would just simply prefer it if your partners stayed permanently dead if they died, if everytime you died the game reset itself back to the start, and if you had to play the entire game in one sitting else it would reset back to the start.

Earthbound has potential, but is held back by questionable design choices that really hindered my enjoyment. At least Mother 3 fixed most of these issues.