11 reviews liked by Zelpher


Whenever someone tells you that this is their favorite Mega Man game, you know for certain that this is the only one they have played.

From what I've seen of this, it really seems like one of these unfunny Dorkly parodies, except turned into a real game.

It’s about making the most of your short time in life yet it’s 82 hours long? Hypocrisy much?

The more time passes, the harder it is to wrestle with how weird this game is to recommend. I want to tell all my sweaty action gamers to start on Critical and skip all the cutscenes, and I sincerely believe it’s the way to play, but I also realize that’s not a realistic experience whatsoever lmfao.

That intrusive thought verbalized, it doesn’t change how I feel about the game itself. Not sure I have more to add on top of what I said in this video: https://youtu.be/RYdFpv9Ay7o?si=XKNPVk13CDzhNzn8

Shigeru Miyamoto has gone on record saying that Mario “isn’t the kind of game you necessarily have to finish, it should be fun to just pick up and play,” and as a kid I often really would boot it up solely to jump around Bob-Omb Battlefield for a bit and feel myself or whatever. A pattern I’ve observed with a lot of gamers is that, as they get older, they slowly prioritize finishing games over simply the inherent fun of playing them — and while I definitely feel that was accurate for my late teens/early twenties as well, I’ve since returned to craving those more innate pleasures.

It’s wild how much Nintendo got right about Mario’s animations and the overall sound design on this first attempt, conveying that perfect sweetspot between weight and nimbleness, something I honestly don’t get as much out of 64's successors. Similarly, the level design also manages to find this nebulous since-unmatched middle-ground between open-ness and tight pacing, with many of the stages presenting you with vertical, spiral-shaped layouts, made up of multiple digestible paths that intersect so seamlessly that you never stop to think about them as anything other than one cohesive whole.

Aspects that feel like obvious limitations, like being booted out of the level when grabbing a Star or the rigid camera, end up aiding the game’s pacing and overall structure the more you actually think about it. The way you bounce between different paintings within Peach’s castle, completely at your own leisure, mirrors how you tackle the obstacles inside those worlds; loose and free-form and whichever way seems enjoyable to you at the moment without even having to think about it. It all seems so simple, and yet I’m still waiting for another platformer that is this immediately fun and endlessly replayable.

I believe in Fran Seeker supremacy

Rarely have I ever played a game with a structure this puzzling. Despite having open-ended levels comparable to those found in 64 and Odyssey, Sunshine expects you to complete its missions in a linear oder. Because of that, there's little incentive to explore the game's various areas, unless you're specifically aiming for 100% completion.

Wouldn't recommend this to anyone except diehard Mario fans.


Xenoblade is good again, the world is healing

2 lists liked by Zelpher