What to think about something that takes most of what makes it great from something else? These are more just my thoughts than a proper review.

There's this perception in art that highly values originality. We like new propositions. That doesn't undermine a derivative work, however. Concepts evolve, ideas change, gameplay shouldn't stagnate. Still, many dislike plagiarism.

For me, Stardew Valley firmly walks the divisory line between inspiration and plagiarism. Eric Barone, the developer of the game, has mentioned wanting to improve the flaws of the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games was his main drive. I'd say it creates as many flaws as it fixes. Still, this is understandable as he was a sole developer.

It is important to judge a piece of art not just as its own entity, one should also consider the times, the environment, what came before it. That's why we still call Ocarina of Time a masterpiece and not just an outdated piece of software.

Now that Stardew Valley has become as influential as HM/SoS, it's worth asking... does it deserve all the praise? Or is it just a good, polished piece? There's a lot of merit in the creation of a good game, but maybe there's bigger merit in the creation of a genre.

Finally, I'd like to say I'm glad he decided to take what started as mere code training to this extent, and that he decided to make it his own, instead of some sort of mod for any HM/SoS game.

IT'S SUPAH MARIO BROTHARS 2 BABYYYY

Now, seriously... wow. This was awful. You see everything this game has to offer in the very first level. Probably just once or twice I was surprised with a twist of the picking up/throwing mechanic, which I'd say wasn't explored to its fullest.

And I'm somewhat grateful for that, as this buggy, illogical hitbox, repetitive mess of a game was begging me to stop playing it. Almost every single level has a mini boss fight, and almost always it's against Birdo, or as this game's credits call... them, Ostro? That's kinda funny.

But this game certainly isn't. So many design flaws, of its time I guess. Yet there is so much influence of the title in the Super Mario series. Probably every single element from this game has returned somehow, somewhere, in the Super Mario series, except for its main gimmick. It's kind of a shame, yet probably for the best to keep the Doki Doki Panic essence away from the series.

I made use of the rewind feature shamelessly as there were many, many cheap deaths and unpredictable behavior all over the place.

For many years I played the first level or two, when I was younger, with so much joy. Now I wish I had left this title in the mystical realm of the unknown so I'd respect it a little more. At least I can say I finished it.

Go play Onion Assault. That's actually good.

Played for 3 hours and 4 minutes through Nintendo Switch Online.

More than a platformer action game, this is a puzzle game. There is fun to be had, and it's an interesting concept that I'd like to see get a modern take. Still, it's full of NES jank, I was only able to get to PHASE 81 and I just can't see how should I beat that level. I also abandoned the thing for like a year or two and constantly used the rewind feature in the NSO version, so I'm deciding on abandoning it completely and consciously this time.

Played for 5 hours and 59 minutes through Nintendo Switch Online.