Bio
Pseudointellectual baseball and economics man.
Personal Ratings
1★
5★

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Liked

Gained 10+ total review likes

Roadtrip

Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap

3 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 3 years

Favorite Games

Super Metroid
Super Metroid
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Portal
Portal
Dark Souls
Dark Souls
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy

029

Total Games Played

000

Played in 2024

002

Games Backloggd


Recently Reviewed See More

Marth, you have to stop, your movement too low, your map designs too dependent on you running around everywhere, your stats nerfed from the first game enough to make it so you can't handle yourself easily in combat anymore, they'll kill you.
(First Fire Emblem game that feels genuinely enjoyable to play on a moment-to-moment basis, but the story is all overly long exposition dumps, the Marth reliance is particularly annoying in the remake of the original game, and there are just a variety of QoL things this game doesn't have that are actually sort of unusual for 1994, a point at which other JRPGs were getting pretty polished).

Nice little game, very much a proponent of the idea that games should be shorter and that the scope creep of modern video games is ridiculous. Charming and fun, but lack of challenge in many ways can rob a big way video games can have depth, and I find the tone of it a bit insufferably twee, particularly the emotionally manipulative music playing over a twist near the end that feels a bit silly. It has what I can sort of describe as video game Sundance Brain, like this is an indie movie trying to be the most heartfelt thing possible to get picked up for distribution by A24, and while I enjoyed the experience, I also rolled my eyes a decent bit during its most important moments.

Obviously the best 2D Mario game of the 21st century, everybody agrees on that one. What I dare to propose here is that perhaps it's the best 2D Mario game ever. This is the first time since Super Mario World all the way back in 1990 that a 2D Mario game feels like it was the total focus of Nintendo's core Mario team. It's not quite a full 3D team endeavor, Koizumi isn't credited, but it's clear some of the 3D game brain trust was employed here, with some of the clever ideas that originated from the player base in the Super Mario Maker games getting folded in there. This is just a 2D Mario game bursting with creativity in a way that is usually expected from the 3D games, with idea after idea that hits nothing but net at this way that's perfectly paced for either a one-weekend burst through the game or a longer 100% playthrough (I, of course, am writing this after completing the latter), constantly inventive and managing to bring in just the right amount of old stuff in with the new stuff (the decision to almost entirely ditch old enemies helps a lot for this). The fact that every proper level has a wonder flower provides for this wonderful expectations establishment and subversion, like a good action setpiece in a movie.
Of course it's also a mainline Mario game, so the basic controls and level design are the best in video games, I'm not sure if there's a single level that stands out as any kind of dud even if some are better than others. In short, it's, well, wonderful.