It's a 2D top-down indie game about going around and having feelings and relationship drama and stuff PSYCHE IT'S ALSO A MECHANICALLY RICH, ENGAGING JAPANESE-STYLE ROLEPLAYING GAME. It's both! Often you just get one or the other but this game is BOTH and that's great.

This game rules, actually.

I CAN'T SEE WHERE I'M GOING

Good characters, banger soundtrack, and great voice acting (especially Binko; I don’t know when the last time I heard a voice actor have that much fun was). Unfortunately the overall plot becomes pretty generic and predictable. Also, the few puzzles which aren’t insultingly easy are impossible nonsense.

The addition of color makes this game SO much better. It’s still only kinda good, though. The sky levels suck.

BEFORE ACTUALLY PLAYING THIS GAME: Wow, I love the aesthetic and music of PaRappa the Rapper. What a singular, beautiful work. Thank you, Matsuura-san.

AFTER ACTUALLY PLAYING THIS GAME: I'm going to become the Joker.

A solid 6/10 old school JRPG when it's not doing something to actively piss me off. Unfortunately, it's doing something to actively piss me off about 80% of the time.

A lot of the scenarios feel like chores and there's many mandatory middling mini-games. Great graphics, music, and characterization of the Mario Bros, though.

The writing and pacing aren't as good as the main game. A lot of story concepts and character moments come out of nowhere. But Yuffie's mechanics and the new minigame are really fun.

The graphics are great and the characters are fun to just hang out with. But that's about all that I like. The pacing is abysmal, with many dungeons which are annoying and/or unnecessary. The plot is uninteresting. The mechanics didn't really click with me. A lot of the game's emotional beats seem to depend on you caring at all about Leon, and I sure didn't. He's a jerk with no redeeming qualities!

I played this game a lot as a kid, and upon revisiting it I was delighted to find that it's actually pretty dang good! Similar to The Ninja Warriors in that you only brawl on one plane. The gameplay isn't as deep as in The Ninja Warriors, but the later levels definitely require some skill. If you have nostalgia for MMPR and the SNES, you should definitely play this.

It's Kirby's Adventure, so I certainly can't say it's bad, but I find some of the aesthetic choices (particularly the backgrounds) weird. Ultimately, I do think I prefer this version, though, just because the framerate doesn't constantly struggle.

What appears to be an overly simple management sim slowly turns into one big, clever riddle. And it's a brilliant riddle.

I played this when it came out and always held the opinion that it was mid. But I replayed New Super Mario Bros. (2006) in 2024 and you know what? It rules! The level designs are great. My only complaints are that Mega Mario isn't actually very fun and having to play as Mini Mario is kind of a buzzkill.