I am the #1 person to convince you that this game is fucking awesome and that it is NOT just you remember your childhood games fondly. You want to know why? Because I grew up with this game, and I HATED it. I never got past the Puni world, thinking this game was boring as all hell... What the hell was wrong with me, for real.

Well, this year my New Years goal was to finish the games I never finished as a kid, and my God that even meant that awful Thousand-Year Door I could never convince myself to finish. The second I finished Petalburg , I realized I was too harsh on what was actually a pretty cute and fun game... by the time I finished Glitzville, I realized this game was fucking awesome, and it only got better from there. Even as an adult, I became completely enamored with the colorful cast of characters and genuinely unique and silly story which for some reason I swore was too "baby" when I was younger. Everything about this game is perfect: perfect pacing, fascinating worlds, memorable sidekicks, fun gameplay, proper difficulty, silly NPCs, the side quests, the art, the everything honestly. Only complaint would be the tedious backtracking at certain parts, and some bosses being a bit too easy. But overall, this is truly Mario at one of his bests.