galactichole
1993
slowly starting to see myself take interest in shooters so I thought I'd give the OG another go; I'm not too huge on it anymore? probably my favorite game movement-wise and shooting demons is plenty fun, but I kept finding myself slightly irritated by enemy placement and having to walk a marathon finding key doors and such. I think I always go into this game thinking it's going to be adrenaline-fueled armageddon and forget how much puzzle there is to it (similarly with how uninterested I am in the soundtrack as a whole despite a few ripping tracks). 3 episodes is a little too much for me as well, I definitely got my fix of everything after completing just the first one. zero interest in playing through episode 4 or even DOOM II which is sad but it is what it is.
1992
1989
1988
1985
surprised by how many levels completely passed over me with nothing interesting going on in them. there's a good handful of fun stages but an almost equal amount where it feels like you just hold right and occasionally press jump when an enemy appears atop the completely flat ground. hard to critique though because every speck of this game feels perfectly as it should be, likely due to its immense legacy. a good time to return to every so often.
1985
1983
I don't think I can say this game is perfect anymore after giving it another go because 100%ing most of the levels is a travesty and I kept feeling that Yoshi was a little too slippery BUT it still remains a near-complete encapsulation of everything I want out of video games: overflowing with love, phenomenal presentation in every department, high skill ceiling yet still fun to mess around in, got me smiling at every moment thinking about it. it's the realness
2019
1993
Mario throws absolute shade towards Wario's puzzles which is wild considering how much of a strickler Mario feels with his time limit and sad sound effect when you break a wrong tile whereas Wario's just here to chill out with a hard-as-nails puzzle that you can accidentally mark a piece you didn't mean to as much as you like. chalk another one up for Mario being the worst character in his own universe
1983