This is honestly what I was expecting with the Mario movie; nothing "deep" like the people who defend it would say critics wanted, but a charming little story with funny moments.

also, after being hyped up by the Smash community... Geno wasn't that great of a character; he had a cool design but I wouldn't say he was worthy of a slot. I'd honestly rather have Mallow since he is more of a main character than Geno is; Mallow is the character with a past and a bit of development, Geno is just along with the ride. I would still love to see both of them in a future Mario game to flesh them out though,

The best way I could describe my experience with this game is that scene of Ratatouille where Anton Ego is eating the titular dish. yes, this game does have quite a few flaws, however, it did made me fall in love with this franchise again.

back when I discovered Sonic for the first time when I watched Sonic X I wasn't that into videogames; I only really knew Crash Bandicoot and Mario but ever since I discovered many amazing videogames like Persona, Gravity Rush, Nier, The Legend of Zelda, Yakuza, Kingdom Hearts, etc and while Mario was still consistent and Crash came back with a flash, Sonic was just becoming more of a joke and I feel like my love for the franchise was also starting to become that: a joke, I liked Mania and the Movies, but I for the most part the franchise was just putting mediocrity, but this game did remind me why I liked these games in the first place for one simple reason: it made Sonic cool again

ever since Colours it really has been feeling like SEGA wanted to erase that coolness that made Sonic popular in the first place, like they were ashamed of Sonic's identity so they just turned these characters into parodies of themselves. I don't know what made them change their mind, but I really thank them for changing the route the franchise was taking. going back to the comparison with Ratatouille, just like Ego I was feeling like a kid again while playing this; the story, boss music and characterization of the characters felt the way it felt back into the 2000s, like it never went away

like I said previously, this game isn't perfect; the world is kinda empty, the minibosses respawing is very annoying and ruins the flow of the gameplay, the "puzzles" are beyond easy until the DLC story and the final boss was a bit underwhelming, but I will always treasure this game for bringing the franchise back and I sure hope that whatever the next Sonic game is even better and becomes the 10/10 game this franchise deserves

8/10

p.s. Sage was fucking adorable and even if the game was bad I would still give it the same score for that alone