*Played this game on the Nintendo Switch.

Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels is probably the OG troll game. There are so many weird, chaotic, and down-right dogwater moments in the game.

To begin, the game is just really an expansion of Mario 1 since they both share the same visuals, the same enemies, and the same tight controls.

Despite that, Lost Levels provides 32 new levels (with an additional 4 levels) and they are... definitely levels to be remembered for the good and bad.

New to the game is the poison mushroom, the jump springs, the winds, and the hilarious warp zones that purposely send the player back.

The first few levels aren't to bad, though some elements foreshadow the chaotic nature of the game. By World 3, the difficulty ramps up and the game becomes artificially difficult.

You got long pits or tall platforms that has you find hidden blocks. You got the Cheep Cheep being a lot more aggressive and can coordinate to jump whenever you jump. You got underwater sections where it's pretty narrow and the Bloopers usually blocks those paths. Near the end, you need to jump to a platform that is way to high, but to get over you'll need to walk over invincible blocks that you'll probably not know since you past through them. Since you can't go back to the left, you'll need to purposely die to go to those blocks.

But, the worst type of levels in the game is the infinite levels that needs the player to either find a specific pipe or go through a specific maze-like paths. While the former is mostly annoying, the latter is a nightmare to get through as those are stuck in the Bowser Castle levels and they are already difficult to begun with.

From my tangent, my issue with the game is the artificial difficulty that relies way too much in obtused forms of going through levels. It's one thing to make a difficult NES game, but is still fun to play. It's another to make a difficult NES game, but is artificially difficult and thus it doesn't become fun to play.

Despite that, I did feel the satisfaction of conquering the game the moment I beaten 8-4 with the World 9 levels being an epilogue celebration (with the very last level being so basically easy that the game is trolling you).

Overall, despite having some good levels and the satisfaction of beating these levels is relieving, the artificial way the game handles difficulty ultimately hurts the game and makes me turn away from any replays I could've done. 2/5.

*I played Paper Mario on an actual Nintendo 64 about a decade ago. This recent run was played through the Nintendo Switch.

Paper Mario is a comforting game and a nostalgic one. This was the very first JRPG I ever played and it stuck with me for many years.

For starters, the gameplay is pretty basic yet pretty fun. Mario has several commands to use (like jump, hammer, items, and strategy) and some of them has action commands that help deal more damage or help defend Mario from taking damage. Some actions require the use of badges to perform newer moves which cost flower points (Paper Mario's MP system). The battle system is simple, yet the action command keep the player's engaged in every fight.

For the overworld, Mario goes through different parts of Mushroom Kingdom to find the seven Star Spirits. The enemies are shown in the world, thus the player has the choice to either skip battles or fight enemies.

Mario is also accompanied by a handful of memorable partner characters from a Goomba that can tattle to a Boo that slaps the enemy. While they don't get much characterization, they are all memorable for their utility in battle.

The NPCs are all mostly nameless, though all of them are charming with their witty dialogue. Some may have names and some may be involved more than once, but overall they are simple, but fun to read their dialogue.

The visuals still hold up well with all the characters being paper cutouts in a setting that is still 3-D in nature. Yeah, every sequel may look visually better, but I still feel this held the storybook feel of Paper Mario the best (haven't played Thousand-Year Door yet so don't confirm if I'm wrong).

The pacing is excellent through the start and end. The game has 9 chapters (Prologue and Chapters 1-8) and each chapter doesn't take longer than two to three hours. Combine that with the fast battles, and this game respects the player's time.

Difficulty is pretty well balanced, though it depends on how much HP, FP, and BP you raised, the badges you equipped, and how well you use the action command. The only time it felt unfair was against the Chapter 7 boss and the final boss, though that's only because they were the only ones that regenerated a lot of health back.

Music is comforting and nostalgic. The music is solid in all fronts from the main battle themes, the dungeons, and the town themes. Favorites probably include the Chapter 3 boss theme, Shy Guy's Toybox, Flower Fields, the entirety of Chapter 7's music, the final dungeons, and the final boss.

The only negative I can really say about the game is that ultimately my badge builds all centered around using the Power Bounce badge. While initially hard to use early game, it become the best ability for the rest game due to the damage output it provides through executed well-timed action commands. It kind of invalidated a lot of the other badges that probably would've been useful.

Overall, Paper Mario is a great game that paved the way for me to become the JRPG-obsessed guy I am today. It's a solid beginner JRPG and a fun game that is really short and well-paced. Easy 4.5/5.

Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is a game that in theory should be really awesome, though really is a game that just... exists. It's a fighting game crossover (akin to Dissidia or Smash Bros.) with Nihon Falcom's most popular series being the Ys and Trails series. The fighting system is in 3d using Ys Seven's combat as the basis.

To start with the combat, it's alright. I do like the idea of using Ys Seven's combat in a fighting form, though it gets repetitive overtime. You got skill points, skills, dash, flash guard, and the special skills with the new addition being the jump command. It was weird to jump on the Ys Seven, though you probably be able to kind of get use to it. Finally, you got an assist character which provide special bonuses to character during a fight (from higher damage output to faster rate of skill points).

The game has a story mode campaign with five characters as their lead. For my run, I only did Adol and Estelle's campaigns. The story is nothing to right home about. Heroes from the worlds of Ys and Trails meet each other, fight each other, and work together to beat up a greater evil. It's pretty barebones, though the fanservice is neat and it does tie in the Xanadu series too.

In terms of playable characters, they absolutely did the Ys side dirty. At the time the game came out, Ys just had Ys Seven and Trails finished its Liberl Arc through Sky the 3rd. While the Trails side of the cast is solid (with Lloyd Bannings being a cameo to promote the Crossbell arc), the Ys side of the cast was disappointing. Nearly all the playable characters of Ys side all came from Ys Seven, while only one other playable character is from a Napishtim game. While I didn't dislike the Ys Seven team, I felt there still better candidates that should've been promoted to playable status. Only reason why this happened is probably because since the basis of the fighting game is from Ys Seven, it would've been quicker to use leftover resources to save time in terms of building a 3-d model and character skills. Thus, we got almost the entire Ys Seven team being playable.

A highlight of the game was the stages. Many of them were transitioned well and they all had great songs to accompany them.

Speaking of songs, while Ys vs. Trails uses music from their respective series, there are new remixes and original songs composed. Like always, Falcom makes banger songs and the songs in the game was excellent to listen. Seriously, the Ernst remix didn't had to go so hard!

Overall, Ys vs. Trails is a game that simply exists. You get an interesting fighting system, fanservice, and banging ost. Though, the combat does become repetitive and the story is nothing to right home about with a bad representation on the Ys side in terms of playable characters. It's game that I'll say go check out of curiosity though I can understand it you outright skip the game altogether. It's a game that is ultimately just harmless and that is its most positive quality. However, the idea of Ys vs Trails is still not a bad idea if executed better. Maybe one day we can something like that in the future... 3/5.