aipompous
In a word, cruel. By the halfway point every other cave sublevel comes with enemies that'll horribly maim you and your army in new and creative ways. And somehow I still like it. The fundamentals of Pikmin are still here and dungeon-crawling adds some meat on top of the time-management and puzzle-solving in the overworld. As annoying as it can be, I find the combat pretty engaging and it feels good to beat tough enemies once you learn their vulnerabilities. It can be a very fun game; just be prepared to sink in a lot of time if you need to reset levels a lot in caves.
1988
Probably my favorite of the first four Mario console platformers. Simpler stages than World, but everything comes and goes quickly so there's rarely an annoying gimmick that sticks around for a while. I wish later Mario games had world maps as uniquely structured as this ones in this.
1985
I've beaten both the original version and All-Stars and both are pretty equal in quality. It still plays well today, but most of the later 2D Mario games are a few steps up on it.
1988
I played the All-Stars remake because it has infinite continues. Outside of the loose controls I think it holds up well, though I don't miss the gameplay style that much.
2013
Pretty fun for what it is, just a twin-stick shooter with a handful of rail shooter stages. Only high-score chasers are going to get much out of the extra content; outside of that it's easy enough to blitz through.
2013
It definitely is an early indie rogue-lite game. It's aged pretty well but things start 2/3-shotting you quickly unless you spend time grinding which isn't very fun. Once you get past the curve it can be pretty fun.
1990
Somewhat Mega Man-like but not as polished or deep. It's still pretty fun but it's best to go into the sound test menu to turn continues to max so you don't have to restart. Music's very good.
1994
I didn't expect to be a big fan of Rare-era Donkey Kong but I had a good time with this. It's on the simple side but it's fun to play and lasts as long as it needs to. Hunting for bonus areas sucks ass so I'm docking it half a point for that.
2015
Really neat puzzle-platformer that gets so much out of a single concept, with some of HAL Laboratory's charm sprinkled in. The only reason it's a 4/5 is that I expect the later games to be even better once I get to them.
1988
Play the Japanese version, the U.S. version's limited continues are an annoying change. It's a fun metroidvania though I wish your upgrades had a greater effect (aside from Wall 2 which just makes the final area super frustrating) and it was easier to find hover and gun pickups.
Fun, simple, and dirt cheap. It's at least worth a look if you're into PS2-era platformers even though there's not much to it.
2012
An obscure indie metroidvanias, mostly being based around its light puzzles. Hard to get a hold on initially, but it starts feeling more fun once you get another ability or two and have more control over how you traverse the rooms (the early game is a lot of fumbling around aimlessly). It does what it does pretty well in the short playtime and I'd like to see a more polished successor if the dev is still active.
Short fun Shovel Knight-esque platformer. Your movement feels good and works well for the stages and bosses. It's on the short side and the graphics are kinda cruddy but it's a free game so that doesn't matter much.
I'd like it a little more if it weren't focused on the endless modes, those start feeling a bit samey after a while and get frustrating when you can only take one hit. The challenge stages and character variety are pretty good, though. I dropped it after the credits because legitimate 100% seems absurdly tedious.
2010
Janky as fuck and probably not legitimately good, but I enjoyed slamming myself against it enough for base 100% (I'm not going for the Boy achievements fuck that). Only play it if you can bear many hours of frustration crossed with a decent amount of fun.