The original Mario Bros. is honestly not very good. My main problem here is that the movement feels way too stiff and slippery at the same time. It's to the point that it's a struggle to get around the map and stun enemies to defeat them. (And those ice enemies can take advantage of your movement struggles to make platforms even harder to move on, which is real nice) The gameplay loop would be much more enjoyable if it wasn't so hard trying to maneuver yourself around. It also doesn't help that a much better version of this is included in all of the Super Mario Advance games as well as one of my favorite games of all time, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. You're much better off playing that version on one of those games. (I couldn't imagine paying money for a sort of Virtual Console release of this when that version exists)

This game somehow manages to be really frustrating yet so utterly lame at the same time. It's style and presentation is so completely unremarkable. It feels like it's trying to do a "throwback to the retro eras of gaming" thing and does it in the most generic way possible, and thus fails to do what made people enjoy those games in the first place. A good way to describe it is to think of how a TV show or something would make up a fake game for a character to play in a scene with the little knowledge the writers had on video games as a whole and then imagine that game actually being a real thing. The actual gameplay itself is where the frustrating aspects of the game come through. It's sluggish as hell, which doesn't combine well with the barebones and haphazardly designed stages that have no consideration of how the game plays, and as such makes the platforming really boring normally, and really annoying later on with levels that have multiple mechanics going on at once. Those mechanics can be particularly annoying, like the flickering platforms, the game's addiction with several kinds of instant death traps, and the goddamn ice physics which, if the jetpack didn't reset your momentum, would've made certain stages near unplayable, the list goes on. Said mechanics also suffer badly from all of the flaws of the general level design, in that they don't even feel like they had much thought put into them when used in the levels which makes most of the levels feel super similar to each other, and can even bring in situations where certain patterns just don't line up properly causing some very annoying moments to happen. These annoying moments come particularly when the game tries to amp up the challenge, like in the game's later levels, the ghost levels, and the secret levels. Certain moments like phasing right through flickering and moving platforms if you don't land directly on top of them, tight horizonal holes you have to time your jetpack just right or else you just get instantly killed even if you're a few pixels too low, or those dumb unaligned pattern moments I mentioned earlier. The ghost stages and the secret grannie stages are particular highlights of all of the game's bullshit at it's highest point. Practically all the annoyance from the mechanics shine here, especially the instant kills in the grannie stages. (There was one part in a grannie stage in the mountain world that had a literal enemy spam section and I really want to know who playtested that and thought it was okay)

So, whatever. This game's just completely uninteresting to finish and a frustrating nightmare to complete. It's just generally not worth your time unless you really want another completion like I did.

The first Hexcells was a nice little puzzle game, and this game is basically just more of that but amped up a ton. However, it's amped up to the point that I actually really didn't enjoy this one in comparison to the first. I feel that the mechanics they introduced here are just too complicated for my liking, especially ones like certain cells just flat out not telling you how many blue cells are next to them. (Like, thanks game, that's real helpful.) All the mechanics can also combine together so wildly in the later stages that it gets really hard to even find out where to start them. And it doesn't help that said later stages are almost always long and complex as hell, so they take an extensively long time to solve as well. And it also doesn't help that because of the extreme length and complexity of those stages, the mistake counter mechanic is especially punishing here. Having to redo a rather lengthy puzzle for completion if you made an error here or there is really frustrating. I just wish that this game didn't go to the extent that it did since the first game was pretty cool in my eyes, but here I really just didn't wanna bother.

Pretty neat little puzzle game. I'm not too familiar with something like Minesweeper which this game likely takes inspiration from but I feel it's a fun take of the style. The mechanics of counting around certain cells to pick out which ones to break or fill in are pretty engaging and get pretty satisfying nailing the solutions here, especially on some of the later stages. I don't think I'm entirely keen on the mistake counter mechanic though. It's kind of annoying to have to redo the whole stage you're on if you make an error in your judgement and turns some of the harder stages from a rather relaxed experience into a more anxious experience. Ah well, I guess there has to be some method of punishing people who just press everything to rush through.

An absolute masterpiece in game design, but in the worst possible way. A whopping 52 games in one package, and not a single one of them functions properly, can give some semblance of fun, or is even remotely worth any of your time. It's a game completely devoid of any qualities whatsoever, and it's one amazing trainwreck to behold. The most enjoyment you can even get out of this is probably just from laughing at it. I know me and my friends certainly had a great time doing that, at least. But I can't imagine you would be laughing if you were a naive little kid back in the 90's ripped off by it's absurd $200 price point.

You already know this is bad, as this game is super infamous, but my god is this just as terrible everyone makes it out to be. This isn't even a funny kind of garbage. It's complete agonizing putridness. Quite easily the worst game I've ever played. Nothing in it feels well made or even remotely finished!

The controls are the main highlight of this game's infamy, and for good reason. They're stiff as all hell and makes the basic movement you have to constantly do an uncomfortable chore. Plus none of the levels in this game feel like they were made with these controls in mind and all just feel like nonsensical messes of platforms scattered around for the sake of having some sort of level design. It also doesn't help when the game wants you to do things with precision, which you just can't easily get with controls like these. It's a struggle to handle with enemies because of this, as the most reliable way of killing them is by jumping on them. The only other method of attack aside from certain power-ups, the atom projectile move, quickly becomes very situational as the game progresses with more complex level layouts and more annoying enemies. Some enemies will just be an extreme pain no matter what you do, like the snake and the bird enemies, both of which have a very active presence in the last third of the game.

Speaking of more complex levels, they just get worse the further you get. Most people never see past the first few since they get so fed up with this trash that they drop it very early on. But I decided to go the extra mile and fully complete this for some goddamn reason, and my god do they just keep getting worse and worse after each one! Especially the last third of the game, it gets fucking BAD. Right after the first boss the game decides it's a good idea to introduce water levels, and they're so goddamn slow. Luckily there's only three of them so you don't have to deal with much, but the last six stages will make you wish you had the water levels back. The last third of the game is full of overly long, confusing bullshit that constantly wants alot of precision, which you just can't get with these controls. With the earlier levels, screwing up the platforming will often make you backtrack an uncomfortable distance back to where you started to make you do the platforming over again, but these last few stages really enjoy instantly killing you with tons of water everywhere instead, and like I said, you just can't get precision with controls like these! ​(Plus I would like to bring up walking off any sort of edge above water locks you into an instant death animation, and it happened to me so many times in the last few levels due to the controls so that's an extreme annoyance made all for a tiny sliver of comedic effect.) Stages 16 and 17 are extreme offenders of this, and they're the two stages that pissed me off the most. They want you to jump off of moving vehicles onto other vehicles of small platforms so many times, and almost always punish screwing it up with death. Hopefully you have a good surplus of lives, as the final third of the game will drain through them ludicrously fast. I never found out what happened if you got a game over since I kept restocking on lives in the first level (it's very useful to grind there for lives if you didn't use cheats to start the game with a bunch), but I'll assume it'll make you do the stage you were on all over again. I don't wanna imagine if getting a game over made you do the whole game all over again.
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And don't even get me started on the rockets. There's two in every level except for the two bosses, and you need to get them all to get the 'good' ending. They can range from lying out in the open, to overly cryptic bullshit that you'd need a guide to find out how to get. But either way they boil down to having to deal with Bubsy 3D more than anyone normally should. It's especially agonizing looking for them in the water stages, since their format makes them giant mazes for exploration, making you slog around looking for wherever they are or where hints on how to get them could be.

Two times through the game you'll get a boss stage instead of a normal stage, and these bosses aren't anything special. The first one is rather annoying with how you have to maneuver your glide onto a flying opponent (and confusing if you didn't know the area where he shot at also functions as a fan for some reason), and the second one is pretty easy but also rather confusing if you don't know that you have to make him slip on the bananas into the barrier and not just jump on him. You won't have to collect any rockets in either of these, as I don't know how they could shoehorn rockets into these situations. You do have to collect rockets on the final stage, since it doubles as both a normal stage and a boss stage. There's even two bosses there as well. The first one isn't very hard, just use the trees to jump on him, I'm not sure if I got lucky with the projectiles he drops but they weren't hard to dodge. The game's final boss however is terrible! They relentlessly shoot at you if you're anywhere near them, so you have to jump around towards the switch to activate the atoms you need to shoot, and jump around towards the atoms too. You're invincible whenever you're shooting an atom, but not whenever the atom shooting animation ends, and the Woolie Queens really like getting convenient shots at you right when that animation ends, so you just have to hope one of their shots don't conveniently hit you right when that animation ends. Luckily if you die after defeating one of them you won't have to deal with both of them all over again.

And after all of that, suffering through all of these increasingly bullshit and terribly designed levels, extremely frustrating enemies, confusing rocket part exploration, potentially annoying bosses, and one terrible final boss all while having to deal with these god awful controls, you're rewarded with a shitty ending no matter how well you did. Spoiler warning for here, by the way, but this is Bubsy 3D, so I highly doubt you care. If you don't get all of the rocket parts, Bubsy gets stranded somewhere out in space. If you do get all of the rocket parts, Bubsy gets warped through time all the way back to the prehistoric ages. In both endings the Woolies get rid of Bubsy and go forth with invading Earth. You just get shat on regardless of how much effort you put in. You don't even get a credits sequence or anything, just a massive middle finger of an ending. Oh well, I don't even care that much, I just feel relief to not have to play this any longer. Just getting to say that I 100% completed this is enough of a reward for me.

Whatever you do, stay away from this game. Most people would abandon this within the first few stages, and I wouldn't fault them for it. You don't even get a congratulations for making it all the way, just a slap in the face for finishers and completionists alike, but you're actively getting shat on if you're even playing this game, so don't waste your time and sanity on this. I went the extra mile and all I got was proof that this is absolute garbage.

Weird little platformer. It has alot of thematic charm too it but alot of frustrating jank as well, mainly from certain parts being rather confusing and with how the combat works making tanking your way through certain enemies the simplest way through. (Like the first boss I actually game overed on and had to look up what to do because I couldn't figure out how to damage him) The game isn't that tough even with these aspects though, since it's fairly generous with things like heals, so it doesn't really get annoying.

I mean, it's cool that they tried something like this for the time, but man this game is just a frustrating mess. My biggest gripe is with how badly Sonic controls. His movement here is really awkward with a d-pad control scheme, and is only made worse by the isometric view. Destroying normal enemies can be annoying with the confusing trajectory caused by the isometric view and control scheme, and can be nightmarish when more complicated terrain comes in requiring you to stumble your way around slopes, fans, electric ground, and projectiles. It's also nightmarish when the game wants you to pull off more precise platforming with controls like these. (that one part of Gene Gadget act 2 is pure pain) You have to search out for normal enemies too, as they hold the Flickies that you need to progress, and they can be a pain to manage as they scatter everywhere when you get hit, or whenever they come in contact with any sort of obstacle, leading to more stumbling around just to gather them all back up again.

The special stages are mostly just whatever. They're pretty easy except for the last one which is surprisingly bullshit. Something else I found to be surprisingly bullshit as well were the boss fights. They're were I lost most of my lives due to their wonky hit detection and near-instantly disappearing rings. (the Volcano Valley and Panic Puppet bosses are particular highlights of this)

But at least the music's nice, as per usual with this series. But other than that and the visuals, this is just some sort of failed experiment that makes me want to go back to the 2D sonic games on the Genesis.