It's been five years since the first game came out and after a while sometimes you need to play a game again to reassess your thoughts on it. I instantly remembered why I loved this shit the minute I started swinging, and it didn't take long to re-acclimate to the game's movement and combat. No real thoughts on ol' Miles outside of that, it's more of the thing I love and it's a good time to be had by all. Only real complaint I have is that the NG+ playthrough was a bit annoying because of all the game's cutscenes and cinematics you can only skip a select few of them to the point where I barely understand why the feature was added in the first place.

Super Mario Wonder is not just a pretty great 2D platfomer, but for me it was a good source of personal validation. I've never gelled with many aspects of 2D Mario, gave NSMBU a shot on multiple occasions and just bounced off immediately, and also the specific 2D Mario mechanics made me indifferent at best to 3D World and made it actively dislike 3D Land. So when this game was announced I didn't pay it any mind really, thinking it'd be the same ol' shit they've been making for the better part of thirty years.

Well the game leaked a week early and I pirated it for a laugh, and wouldn't you know it? They drastically changed the Mario formula, and in doing so addressed the many things I've never liked. They've removed the incredibly dated timer and score mechanics (apologies to all mario score attackers out there)! Lives are still present but in Tropical Freeze fashion they can be purchased in the in game shops for little cost. The four power-ups in the game are specifically for offense and puzzle utility, while the more important movement abilities are handled through the badge system, which means even if you're tiny baby character on death's door, you can still preform your glide or whatever. A far cry from something like 3D Land where having and losing the tanuki suit is basically playing a different game. Most importantly, there's even a badge that let's your character swim! In a straight line! Mario Wonder on the bleeding edge of major innovations in 2d platforming here!

Besides that base control is what you'd expect out of Mario. Presentation is obviously aces and you'll play it baffled that they stuck to the New aesthetic for so long. Level design is good on the whole, the Wonder Flower stuff is kind of a less repetitive version of Triple Deluxe's super power gimmick, while being inventive and fun. Difficulty is on the lighter end which isn't surprising but the game can bear it's fangs when it wants to, and there's a specific part of one of the end game levels that's the shittiest designed thing I've ever played so the devs can eat my ass with the ever-jumpy fire stick shit. Sneaking in a complaint here, the Bowser Jr fights are nothing to the point where some worlds don't even bother ending with one, the final boss is solid at least. Ultimately, despite sailing the seven seas for this game I'll be buying it when I can to fuck with the online features and play with friends hopefully.

I don't know amigos I loaded an eight year old save state because my ass was five chapters away from ending the game and I farted through it. Due to this elongated time period between play sessions and my desire to skip cutscenes I can't tell you what happened in this shit outside of the lengthy cutscene that played as Anakin Skywalker and Kelik (killer spelled backwards) shared a tender moment with the final boss dork I triangle attack'd twice into sweet oblivion. That cutscene may have been unskippable but because of ye olde holding space on visualboyadvance I could see the endless dialogue scroll in hyperspeed while my eyes glazed over waiting to see how hard I fed Lirin. What a moment in time not just for the fire emblem romhack community, but for every Hulkamaniac (have fun with my family and friends).