Me and this game have a history. It was one of the games I had on DS while growing up and my little child brain would constantly run into moments where I would get stuck, shrug, restart the game, and play until I got the part where I got stuck again.
During my 2022, where I promised myself I would branch out and play more games, I decided to first revisit the games I started as a kid but could never finish. This had to be the most prominent one in my mind.
I started the game up to see how far I had gotten before getting stuck and low and behold it was a lovely 30 minutes in. What the hell was I smoking as a kid? (I'd love to smoke it again lmao).
But on to the actual review, and less of my embarrassing story. This game really surprised me! I went in expecting a Mario game to be pretty plain and inoffensive; easy game play, unmemorable cast and story with basic controls.
Instead, the game is actually quite clever!
- The humor is silly and even as an adult got a few laughs from me at times.
- The art is very stylized and brings out a lot of character you don't often see within the Mario series, while still keeping their familiarity.
- The cast had a good personality, even when the main four can't really talk.
- The fighting is generic RPG with the twist of various party items to keep it interesting.
- The enemies' different fighting styles keep things interesting and make it fun to learn to avoid their attacks.
- The story's pacing is good, though it gets a little boring and repetitive at the end.
- The story in general is fun and creative. Not anything innovative but definitely keeps you entertained.
- The game in both story and fighting style uses the two DS screens super well.
- The Shroob characters are very fun in both personality and design.
The game did a lot even with the constraints that the Mario series often have to deal with. I went in expecting this game to be a bit of a boring 2-2.5 game for kids that I'm way too old for, but was honestly impressed at certain aspects that kept me entertained even as an adult. I can easily understand many kids completely falling in love with its humor, fun visuals and easy, but still challenging game play.
The game is still a Mario game though, holding back from going too far experimentally and is understandably fairly safe. I couldn't stand the suitcase telling me what to do every 20 minutes, but I have to remind myself that the game IS for kids haha.
I full expected the Shroob Princess to be Princess Peach forced into playing the role or getting confused through time travel and accidentally joining the Shroob forces (I remember even expecting this twist as a kid), but I guess Nintendo doesn't want to taint Peach's image LMAO.
The game is overall made for younger age groups I no longer fit into, and while I imagine it achieves satisfying that group fairly well, I'm rating this game as an adult and feel it pretty well fits at a 3.5.
During my 2022, where I promised myself I would branch out and play more games, I decided to first revisit the games I started as a kid but could never finish. This had to be the most prominent one in my mind.
I started the game up to see how far I had gotten before getting stuck and low and behold it was a lovely 30 minutes in. What the hell was I smoking as a kid? (I'd love to smoke it again lmao).
But on to the actual review, and less of my embarrassing story. This game really surprised me! I went in expecting a Mario game to be pretty plain and inoffensive; easy game play, unmemorable cast and story with basic controls.
Instead, the game is actually quite clever!
- The humor is silly and even as an adult got a few laughs from me at times.
- The art is very stylized and brings out a lot of character you don't often see within the Mario series, while still keeping their familiarity.
- The cast had a good personality, even when the main four can't really talk.
- The fighting is generic RPG with the twist of various party items to keep it interesting.
- The enemies' different fighting styles keep things interesting and make it fun to learn to avoid their attacks.
- The story's pacing is good, though it gets a little boring and repetitive at the end.
- The story in general is fun and creative. Not anything innovative but definitely keeps you entertained.
- The game in both story and fighting style uses the two DS screens super well.
- The Shroob characters are very fun in both personality and design.
The game did a lot even with the constraints that the Mario series often have to deal with. I went in expecting this game to be a bit of a boring 2-2.5 game for kids that I'm way too old for, but was honestly impressed at certain aspects that kept me entertained even as an adult. I can easily understand many kids completely falling in love with its humor, fun visuals and easy, but still challenging game play.
The game is still a Mario game though, holding back from going too far experimentally and is understandably fairly safe. I couldn't stand the suitcase telling me what to do every 20 minutes, but I have to remind myself that the game IS for kids haha.
I full expected the Shroob Princess to be Princess Peach forced into playing the role or getting confused through time travel and accidentally joining the Shroob forces (I remember even expecting this twist as a kid), but I guess Nintendo doesn't want to taint Peach's image LMAO.
The game is overall made for younger age groups I no longer fit into, and while I imagine it achieves satisfying that group fairly well, I'm rating this game as an adult and feel it pretty well fits at a 3.5.