This is the first Kirby game I have ever beaten and I liked it! It was a pretty fun NES platform game with fun levels and looks fantastic. This is one of the best looking NES games I've played with the detailed character design and the use of color along with amazing graphics. The game also has very good boss fights, and the last one has a lot of pay off when you finish it. I also like how the game progresses when you get through each level. It gets steadily harder as you steadily get better and more experienced with the game so I liked how it did that and the pacing is great. Some complaints I have are that I didn't think that the game was smooth at times. Things were lagging and the buttons wouldn't do anything at times which was a lot of pain making it pretty rough. It also got a bit repetitive making this a tad boring. In general though this game is fun and I recommend that Kirby fans play this to see where this franchise started!

GRADE
B

This is easily the weakest of the original 4 Super Mario Bros. series. Technically, this isn't a Mario game. It's just a repackage of Doki Doki. But, it still is a Mario game. It feels way different from the other 3 in the original SMB series because to beat the enemies, you don't jump on them. You stand on them, pick them up and throw them into another enemy which takes way more time. This also doesn't have a timer, points, or Bowser! This game has a bunch of random bosses like a mouse with bombs and a crab that throws rocks, but not the most famous video game villain, Bowser. This game is still playable though. It has a lot of cool level designs and the boss fights are pretty fun. I also really like the look of the game. The mechanics are also really good. Those are really the only good things I can say about this game. It's pretty slow and boring to get through. I did play a lot of it at once, but the worlds are so short where I don't want to do just one or two per day, but it feels so long. It's tedious to get through and I hate how you kill the enemies, but it's still playable and I would say that all die hard Mario fans should give this a shot, even if it's just an American release of a different game but repackaging it for Mario.

GRADE
C+

Seriously how is this game so good?! Usually these licensed games in the 2000s aren't good but Cars managed to be a genuinely fun game. The reason this was made was solely to make money, but I actually felt like the developers took the time to craft a really fun racing game inside the world of Cars. You are able to get NASCAR style races and original road courses set in Radiator Springs and these races just have so much charm to them. The tracks are surprisingly well designed, even if the backgrounds can look familiar since they are all in the same environment. The story can feel a bit like a collection of races and minigames in the first three chapters, but the last two start to create a nice narrative that has a lot of payoff in the end. The game also has a great roster where you can play as Lightning McQueen, Doc Hudson, and legendary NASCAR driver Richard Petty as The King. The controls occasionally didn't work, especially on powersliding, but that is either the game or how old my PS2 controller is. I also felt like the driving was stiff sometimes, but most of the time it was really good. Cars is a fun racing game with the charm of being with these characters again and one of the better licensed games out there!

(Played on PC but I'll mark as NES)

Now this is a Disney platform! I loved Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers but this one was a step up. Holy crap I loved this. I'm a huge fan of Disney and these characters so I might be a bit biased but I really loved this game! The music is phenomenal, specifically The Moon Theme which has been regarded as one of the best game themes ever apparently. I had a lot of fun progressing through all these levels and I thought they were all really fun. The game can get repetitive since it's the same 5 templates the whole way through, but with each adventure it's different every time with new enemies and layouts for a completely original platform game. I loved it so much.

GRADE
A+

Dang this is a surprisingly fun shooter. I'm not a big fan of online free games on PS4/Switch/Xbox/PC, etc., but this one managed to deliver on everything it had to offer. This has better gameplay than some of the COD games I've played and this isn't a 60 dollar game. This is a bit of a mix of Fortnite, Halo, and Portal. It has the same menu layout and loading as Fortnite, it has the vibes of Halo, and the idea of portals is none other than Portal. This combines all three of those games into something phenomenal that is all fun, awesome, and quality. The graphics in this game are stunning. The maps look amazing and are creatively designed. All of them are unique in there own way and bring something to the game. The gameplay is smooth with the shooting, running, portals, and other things makng it a pleasant experience to playthrough. Splitgate brings a bunch of aspects from fan favorite games into one, where it really shouldn't work, but for some reason it does. My few complaints are that I really wish that this wasn't easy for people to hack. Sometimes I'd die just by walking by someone without even being hit. I also wish that you could see what weapon you are using if you are in the back row of a team in the menu before you start playing since some of the guns look VERY similar to each other. While it has it's flaws, it's still a free game and a fun one indeed. It's extremely playable and one of my favorite shooters. Can't wait to play this with friends!

GRADE
A-

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels has some really fun levels, but honestly it's mainly just the first on hard mode with worse controls and no originality. You can't tell the difference between this and the first and the game doesn't have anything to make it stand out. The boss fights are the same, some of the levels are copy paste, and the gameplay is the same and somehow worse. There are fun levels and I'd say every world has one or two good ones, which isn't good at all. I liked some additions like the wind but other than that Lost Levels is a useless sequel that I find more annoying and irritating than fun.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a different take on the Mario platformer (for reasons everyone knows) and while it's nice to get that, it doesn't feel anything like a Mario game and this take gets old after a while. At a technical point this game is really good with great graphics for a NES game and it controls quite nicely. The game also gives us Shy Guys and other future characters for the franchise. The levels themselves are designed well enough, but the problem is this just gets old quick. The first world is fun but after a while it just gets boring with the repetitive nature of this. There isn't really anything to hook you into the game. The first didn't have a story but you have that drive to rescue Princess Peach. This takes place in a dream and the clear narrative really isn't brought out, so there isn't enough here to bring you in. Despite all of this, the game has enough redeeming qualities to keep the game enjoyable enough to play. It was impressive for an NES game but it didn't do too much for me.

Super Mario Bros. 3 takes this franchise to the next level. Not only does this set the groundwork for most future Mario platformers, it is able to stand on its own as THE Mario NES game. I really enjoy the first Mario, but even that one can sometimes feel a little more like an arcade game than console. This one however feels like a console game. With the heavy amounts of extra things like minigames and rewards to the world map, it's shocking that this came out on the NES. It does have that NES feel while also standing the test of time and feeling like a game that would feel welcome coming out today. I have some criticisms like the entirety of World 6 was pretty weak to me. I hated the blue and white striped backgrounds and there were too many autoscroll levels. World 8's autoscroll levels with the tanks sucked too, but other than that the levels were fantastic. There was a lot of variety and each world has a specific trait to it. It's rare now to find a platformer like that, and Mario 3 did it in the 80s. While I don't think Mario 3 is a perfect game like some do, I sure as heck find it close to that as its a phenomenal platformer that was groundbreaking and stands the test of time!

👍70%

With the upcoming release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, I thought I would start playing the Kirby games (some replays too). The first Kirby game, Dream Land, is your typical, generic platform game. It doesn't bring anything new to the genre and it doesn't try anything different. The levels look pretty much all the same as well but at least there is variety in the enemies and boss fights. The game itself isn't really that bad of a game. It's still fun to play and a nice start to the Kirby franchise. Kirby is a fun character to play as and you don't get bored of him at all. Sometimes the controls can feel a little stiff, but in the end they work. One thing about this game that I'm happy is in here, is the continue option. In some GB games, you lose all your lives and have to start over. At least this game had the decency to let you restart on the last stage if you ran out of lives instead of sending you all the way back to the beginning. This game probably wouldn't be remembered if it wasn't a Kirby game, but I would still recommend it to frequent platform players and fans of the Kirby franchise.

👍68%

This game really doesn't do anything differently from it's predecessor. The level designs don't really change and it looks exactly the same way. The controls show no improvement over a three year difference (which usually happens in platformers) and the bosses aren't unique. It's basically a much longer version of Dream Land 1. But you know what, it's fun. There's no shortage of charm in this game and all of the characters are fun to play as. The game is easily bingeable and it doesn't get old at all. My biggest complaint with it though is that it feels more like an expansion of Dream Land than a sequel. It's fun regardless, but since it doesn't do anything differently and feels exactly like the first, it's more like Dream Land 1.5. Hopefully Dream Land 3 shows some improvement and feels more like a sequel. This game is a lot of fun, but there is room for improvement. I'd still play it if you like the first game though and other Kirby games!

I loved it! I actually preferred this one over Kirby's Adventure and I'm not sure why. My only problem with this game is it's really easy when you start out but other than that I love it! I think the short time that this game has works because if you're on a road trip, here's a Kirby game you can play in hand held and it's one you can beat on the road since it's short and simple! It also has unique stages with cool enemies. Another thing I really liked is that the boss fight is just Dedede instead of him and another bigger boss fight. That's really all I have to say about it. It's just a lot of fun and a nice short game!

GRADE
A-

👍68%

Sonic CD is another solid Sonic 2D platformer that to me improved upon the first game. It introduces the time travel elements and while I don't think they were utilized the best, I enjoyed how they changed up the levels a bit to add more variety and personality. The introduction of Amy and Metal Sonic were also nice to see as they are iconic characters in this franchise. This entry also has more entertainment value than the first. I was able to binge through this game easily while I took a couple of days to beat the first Sonic. This game just adds more personality and variety than the first. My issues come in at the level design and memorability. The level design is good enough, but I found myself in frustration for some levels because it just wasn't designed all too well in those spaces. I liked the speedway ones but the rest of them can kind of get mixed up with each other and not many levels stand out to me as classic Sonic levels. That is also a factor in memorability as I don't know how much I will specifically remember. I'll remember the original stuff like the time travel and characters, but the levels themselves are a bit forgettable. Sonic CD is a fun platformer that improves upon the first game. I am very excited to play 2 and 3 as I heard they're massive improvements on 1 and CD!