This had to be my first log on this website. My favourite video game of all time. To this day, this is the only mainline Mario game that truly feels like an "experience". This is the game where all of Nintendo's signature ideologies came together to produce arguably the most complete package they have ever made. Honestly, I still can't believe a game this well-made even exists, let alone one as absurdly creative as this.

It's easy to take it for granted now, but the game's central concept is simultaneously so innovative, so ambitious, and so stupid that it's utterly mind boggling that it worked out so perfectly in execution. And the game still managed to fire on all cylinders in every other aspect too! This game is an utter miracle and I don't understand it.

When it comes to games that are commonly regarded as masterpieces, I can usually see where those people are coming from, even if I disagree with that sentiment. This game however? I just cannot wrap my head around it. I constantly see people gush over this game, calling it things like a masterpiece, the best 2D platformer, the best Mario game, the best SNES game, one of the best games ever made, etc., and every single time, I always wonder to myself, did we even play the same game? I genuinely don't understand how anyone can look at this game, look at its competition, and with complete earnest say any of those above statements. It feels like nobody's actually taken the time to analyze the game and express in words what it does so well. Instead everyone just unanimously agreed that it is a masterpiece, no further discussion needed. Why is it a masterpiece? It just is, I guess.

This is literally just a standard 2D platformer. It's well-made and very fun but there's not a single noteworthy or remarkable thing about it. It is just a thoroughly adequate game. A jack of all trades, master of none. Everything that it did has been done better dozens of times since by numerous other platformers, even in the same console generation. And just judging the game on its own terms, it's not all that great either. The power-ups are extremely unbalanced, and the level design is haphazard and borderline incoherent, especially by the standards of Nintendo. To call this the ultimate 2D platformer or Mario game or whatever is something I find incredibly reductive, as it undermines the massive evolution that game design has undertaken over the last three decades. Take off those rose-tinted glasses. This game is GOOD.