hexxter
Everyone's been saying "Best 2D Mario since Super Mario World," which honestly isn't that high of a bar to cross (it pretty much just means... better than New Super Mario Bros. Wii?), but I will say this is the first 2D Mario in 3 decades to be able to COMPETE with World. This game is an absolutely magical experience that should be seen by everyone. It's so great to finally see Mario be able to set an example for the genre it created once again and see people finally give 2D platformers the respect they deserve.
The only complaint I can give is that the bosses aren't very good and there aren't many of them. but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the fantastic level design we see across the rest of the game.
I beat the game in a day, but I can't wait to start going for 100%.
Update: After 100%ing the game, I have a few more comments,
Postgame was kinda disappointing. Mostly just a special world with 1 stage for each world and a few final challenges. Better than the NSMB games, but nowhere near as good as 3D World's post game.
Not a fan of how small some worlds are. Worlds 1, 2, 4, and 6 are all incredible while Worlds 3 and 5 are basically half-worlds and they suck.
I really like how the wonder flowers are mostly optional. Some levels feel very different if you play them without touching the flower and it makes going back to collect the flower coins much more fun. I honestly kinda want to go back and do a no-wonder-flower playthrough just to see how it would go.
Overall, I wouldn't call it the best 2D Mario, but still a great game. It's probably neck-at-neck with Mario 3D World for me, and I love 3D World.
The only complaint I can give is that the bosses aren't very good and there aren't many of them. but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the fantastic level design we see across the rest of the game.
I beat the game in a day, but I can't wait to start going for 100%.
Update: After 100%ing the game, I have a few more comments,
Postgame was kinda disappointing. Mostly just a special world with 1 stage for each world and a few final challenges. Better than the NSMB games, but nowhere near as good as 3D World's post game.
Not a fan of how small some worlds are. Worlds 1, 2, 4, and 6 are all incredible while Worlds 3 and 5 are basically half-worlds and they suck.
I really like how the wonder flowers are mostly optional. Some levels feel very different if you play them without touching the flower and it makes going back to collect the flower coins much more fun. I honestly kinda want to go back and do a no-wonder-flower playthrough just to see how it would go.
Overall, I wouldn't call it the best 2D Mario, but still a great game. It's probably neck-at-neck with Mario 3D World for me, and I love 3D World.
2019
I love talking trash about this game and it's hard for me to call it one of my favorites, but the truth is I spent over 100 hours beating it, so clearly they did something right here.
2018
One of the best platformers ever made. I have 100s of hours and 1000s of deaths and I still can't get enough of it. Absolute masterpiece.
2022
I have conflicting thoughts on this one. Clearly this is one of the best adventure games ever, and one of the best open worlds, so it's clearly a masterpiece. Most would say it's Fromsoft's best, but I still think I like Dark souls III and Sekiro more. Bosses get a little too hard at the end, enemies have needlessly long and fast combos all throughout, and it's really easy to overlevel, which makes for a more frustrating experience than most Fromsoft games for me. Overall though, it's an open world Dark Souls game and that's all I need. Also it probably has my favorite character designs in anything ever.
2021
My favorite 2D Metroid. Somehow even better than Super Metroid and even competes with the Prime games. Can't wait to see what Mercury Steam makes next.
2017
My favorite video game. I do a new playthrough once yearly. It's not a tradition, it's just because I always want to play it. That's all I have to say.
Fun as hell hack-n-slash, but a very bad Metal Gear story in my opinion. I kinda think this game assassinates Raiden's character, which makes it hard to enjoy the story for me. Still one of the most dumb, fun games ever made and I love it.
Some of the most I've ever been emotionally invested in a game's story. Xenoblade Gameplay is kinda mediocre to me, but I stay for the story and presentation.
1998
I do not like this game. The story is great, but the PS1 gameplay jank completely ruins it.
2006
The only video game ever to almost make me cry. 10/10
Story is great, but Xenoblade combat is.... not good.
This game has not aged nearly as well as people say. It's made needlessly frustrating through poor hitboxes, enemies that hit way too hard, and obscure mandatory secrets, making this one of my least favorite Zeldas. Not a bad game at all, but I'm probably not playing it again.
1994
My favorite JRPG if you don't count Thousand Year Door. Insane how a game with a story this good came out on SNES.
Great Metroid game, but this honestly might be the only game I've played that I would say is TOO short.
One of the best 2D Mario games and you can't convince me otherwise.