I can sympathise with the casual crowd that was alienated by this, I understand SRB2 Kart was largely famous for being a game that people can quickly pick up and stream, and mod to have any character they like, so I understand that brutally difficult Kart racer was probably not something they had any interest in, but man, this pushes all the right buttons for me.

Is it flawed? Undeniably. I'm sure you've already read that the tutorial is dogshit, and the items and CPUs can definitely be a bit much to handle. But in my opinion, it's super compelling. Substantial and fun singleplayer content, countless secrets, incredibly engaging races (NONE of them feel like autopiloting which is what I find a lot of Kart racers fall into) all compliment an incredibly fun to control driving system that, while yes is poorly taught to you, clicks faster than you'd think.

If you are a casual who just wants this game to be Mario Kart but with any character then you've probably already made up your mind and that's fair, I get why that's a desirable experience. For anyone else who has perhaps grown a bit tired of modern kart racing offerings feeling samey I implore you to give this a shot. Try to do at least the first few cups. I honestly kind of wanted to put this down after the first cup but I absolutely got hooked after I tried another cup and things started to click. Also, don't be afraid of the easy mode, it's there for a reason!

A fantastic experience that explores difficult and longer Monkey Ball levels with plenty of fun gimmicks that require a lot of learning and skill to execute one attempt, as opposed to the more arcadey design of the original games. While different in design to those, this hack successfully still has levels that feel fantastic to control, which is all you can really ask of for a Monkey Ball game. Every single level has something new going on and they are all memorable and fun (except Phantasm that level sucks IMO but YMMV)

This hack was frankly so ahead of everything else by the time it released, it's no wonder that it's basically the golden standard of Monkey Ball hacks and is inspiring everything coming after. Highly recommended!

As appealing as any mystery vaguepostings may sound don't actually get this game unless the sokoban gameplay in the trailer looks Very fun to you

I admittedly kind of bought this game due to blind Tower of Druaga comparisons and the idea that it was a lot greater than a Sokoban game that I heard from other people, but you absolutely have to deal with a lot of Sokoban that I don't like so I'm willing to admit I made a mistake

Probably filter kino idk

While some of the modes aren't as good as others (Hole of Druaga is kind of a slog on the higher difficulties), I genuinely think the World Tour mode is absolutely adrenaline pumping, with high paced and dense gameplay that keeps you coming back over and over. You absolutely need to be on your toes and making quick decisions all of the time. Heavily overlooked, in my opinion, probably my favourite arcade puzzle game after TGM (which I'm a lot worse at).

Just keep in mind that in order to get to the harder content you need to beat all of the easier content. If that doesn't sit well with you, maybe look at Mr Driller G instead, which is just as good and only focuses on the core gameplay. If you enjoy the variety of this package though then there's few downsides here.

Also this soundtrack goes from like 0 to 100 a lot it is very very strange but extremely memorable and I love it

Beaten on 8Mhz (in the M88 emulator) as that is what Japanese consumers would have been playing this on at the time of release. Full disclosure, I did use savestates to act as "extra lives" but beat every level normally in one sitting. I'd like to see if I can beat this with "FF" lives at some point but that will wait for a bit. I'm writing this review basically immediately after beating this game at like 5 in the morning

This game is like genuinely one of the worst games I have ever played, but also incredibly fun if you have the mindset for it. It's extremely difficult. It's just absolutely baffling that it exists at all, a weird Super Mario Bros sequel for a couple of two japanese home computers. It even predates the Lost Levels! There's a bit of a misunderstanding about this game online since I think there's a fair amount of people who just assume it's a port, and some who are just aware of some of its surface level stuff (there's stuff based on the arcade games, the scrolling is messed up etc).

The game just feels like complete shit to play. I'm under the suspicion that the PC-88 port was fairly low effort, and it is incredibly aggressive to play. I will not refer to its aesthetics as while they are pretty ugly I don't think it particularly detracts from the game. The game has some fun ideas like introducing enemies from the Arcade games but most of them are just unkillable and painful to deal with. The additional items introduced are also far too sparse and situational.

Mario controls ridiculously terribly in 8mhz mode (which again, is what PC-88 owners would have been using for videogames) and I frankly think it has to be played to be believed. Every single jump in the game becomes a challenge and you have to be incredibly methodical with your movement, while still being fast due to the strict time limits on the stages. This game even frequently makes you do jumps from 1x1 block to 1x1 block, which is incredibly difficult. Making things worse, the game actually slows down if you have a mushroom, since Super Mario is made from two objects, as opposed to small Mario who is just one. As a result of this, a mushroom is vital due to giving you far better reaction times, given how absurdly fast this game is. The amount of blind jumps in this game that are hidden away by screen transitions insane by the way. I mean like actual blind jumps, no hints. There's even a blind jump from a 1x1 block to another! It's ridiculous!

I don't think people are quite aware that this game is just genuinely broken in a lot of ways. One notable example that walled me for months was when a platform refused to spawn in 4-3. I had assumed that I had emulation issues, or maybe even a bad dump, and I had been searching around ages for a solution. I later discovered that you are supposed to collapse a pair of platforms earlier in the level, because there too many platforms in existence. If you do not, that platform, which is vital for progression, does not spawn. It's insane how consistent this is, given that the game has a pretty frequent issue with just not spawning enemies or powerups sometimes.

It's strange because while I do genuinely think this game is completely awful, and blatantly the worst Mario game ever made, I think it must be played to be believed. I had so much fun progressing through this game over a long time with my friends in calls, it was such a spectacle and the game just kept giving in how obscene it was. I hope more people talk about this game because it's genuinely one of the most fascinating things relating to the Mario series, and another example of how strange third party Mario offerings were (perhaps the most interesting, in my opinion).

Side note, do not play this in Retroarch! 4-4 broke for me in it and lead to me having to switch to M88, which worked flawlessly.

A solid collection of some great flash classics. The collection itself has a lot of nice sentimental notes and thoughts from the developer which I appreciate.

The games play as good as they did back in the day, for better or for worse. I did notably have some issues with Achievement Unlocked 3, with some achievements failing to unlock properly leading to me having to replay the whole game again (some pretty strong lag too, though the original release had that too). Run Elephant Run is also just, not that great (especially on higher difficulties), but it's really short so it's not too marring.

My experiences with all the other games were great, they were as fun as I remembered!

Solid fun that keeps things varied throughout its platforming, was never really bored. For once in quite a while level themes are memorable in a 2D mario. It feels designed with the same sort of principles as say a Super Mario Galaxy level. Badges are a great introduction to the formula! While I didn't play it in multiplayer it seems like it'd be a great time, I'll have to do so at some point in the future!

I think it's a bit closer to its NSMB bretheren than people are letting on, though, and I wish it had a bit more extras and more levels and bosses that pushed the limit of the concepts, because the concepts are consistently great.

The platforming IMO is mostly fine, I think it's being a little overblown how bad it is and it's fun enough but holy shit the bosses and special stages might be the worst I've ever seen in a classic Sonic game. This is 100% a "get it on sale" game.

Also the sound design feels noticeably incredibly empty, even in the cutscenes. I wish they'd give these characters some grunts or something, it was fine in Sonic CD, but even outside of that I find some instances really feel cheaper due to a lack of sufficient effects and weight.