Everything about this game is masterfully crafted. The "open world" of this game really feels like a more open version of Metroid. Where yes, you can explore down here, but you will likely die.
I beat this game about 2.5x for all the achievements, it was fun. It felt kind of anti-climactic making Sif's last boss soul weapon and just having nothing else to do however lol.
The lore hidden in item descriptions and extra NPC dialog is a great way to tell a story in my opinion. Not everyone wants to sit through hours long pre-rendered cinematic cutscenes. That's what the MGS series is for. Telling the story through gameplay is something FromSoft does extremely well.
Needless to say the art, music, sound effects, boss designs, and variety of gameplay styles make this game an easy 10/10.
A shame Lost Izalith was never finished with how cool the lore is with Bed of Chaos but whatever. Compared to the first half, the second half of the game just isn't as strong. But oh well, making games is hard. The DLC with Artorias is amazing too. He is easily my favorite boss to fight.
Praise the sun!
I beat this game about 2.5x for all the achievements, it was fun. It felt kind of anti-climactic making Sif's last boss soul weapon and just having nothing else to do however lol.
The lore hidden in item descriptions and extra NPC dialog is a great way to tell a story in my opinion. Not everyone wants to sit through hours long pre-rendered cinematic cutscenes. That's what the MGS series is for. Telling the story through gameplay is something FromSoft does extremely well.
Needless to say the art, music, sound effects, boss designs, and variety of gameplay styles make this game an easy 10/10.
A shame Lost Izalith was never finished with how cool the lore is with Bed of Chaos but whatever. Compared to the first half, the second half of the game just isn't as strong. But oh well, making games is hard. The DLC with Artorias is amazing too. He is easily my favorite boss to fight.
Praise the sun!
Easily the best way to experience Twilight Princess. Some extremely minor things I prefer in the GameCube version but overall irrelevant. I've 100% this game on both normal and Hero mode. I don't recommend anyone does that lol.
The slow beginning is a bit annoying upon replay but it sets up the Hero's Journey perfectly, capturing the Ordinary World of Ordon Village and all its residents quite masterfully. A really cozy village. I don't understand how Link has a giant tree house with no bed but whatever it's his life.
The complaints about items not being useful after their dungeons I don't find particularly relevant or that truthful honestly. That really only felt like the case with the spinner and even then there's a few secrets you can find in the overworld with the spinner. Everything else is extremely useful in and out of combat depending on the enemy you are fighting.
Another annoying part I always get stuck on is in the Lakebed Temple when you have to clawshot onto a grassy wall which is almost comically out of view. I get stuck there everytime and I've been playing this game for over a decade at this point.
My main complaint is still that the game is way too easy. You have so many movement options with the sword skills Link learns and the enemies are still fodder. I used maybe 1 bottle during the Hero's mode enemy gauntlet in the desert. Bomb arrows trivialize lots of tough enemies like Stalfos. Darknuts are the most interesting enemies to fight but once you get their pattern down they are cakewalk.
The most challenging thing was playing through the Wolf Link dungeons with the amiibo on Hero Mode. That actually got very frustrating and felt impossible unless you had Zelda and Sheik as additional healing Amiibos. Wolf Link feels unresponsive sometimes to how you want him to move and he is really terrible at fighting the ice enemies. Still I got through it to get the 10k rupee wallet and those last Amiibo stamps.
Crazy how this is likely the last traditional 3D Zelda game. Skyward Sword can be argued to be another traditional 3D Zelda game but I felt like its world was not as fun to explore as this one even with its janky ugly textures throughout Hyrule.
The slow beginning is a bit annoying upon replay but it sets up the Hero's Journey perfectly, capturing the Ordinary World of Ordon Village and all its residents quite masterfully. A really cozy village. I don't understand how Link has a giant tree house with no bed but whatever it's his life.
The complaints about items not being useful after their dungeons I don't find particularly relevant or that truthful honestly. That really only felt like the case with the spinner and even then there's a few secrets you can find in the overworld with the spinner. Everything else is extremely useful in and out of combat depending on the enemy you are fighting.
Another annoying part I always get stuck on is in the Lakebed Temple when you have to clawshot onto a grassy wall which is almost comically out of view. I get stuck there everytime and I've been playing this game for over a decade at this point.
My main complaint is still that the game is way too easy. You have so many movement options with the sword skills Link learns and the enemies are still fodder. I used maybe 1 bottle during the Hero's mode enemy gauntlet in the desert. Bomb arrows trivialize lots of tough enemies like Stalfos. Darknuts are the most interesting enemies to fight but once you get their pattern down they are cakewalk.
The most challenging thing was playing through the Wolf Link dungeons with the amiibo on Hero Mode. That actually got very frustrating and felt impossible unless you had Zelda and Sheik as additional healing Amiibos. Wolf Link feels unresponsive sometimes to how you want him to move and he is really terrible at fighting the ice enemies. Still I got through it to get the 10k rupee wallet and those last Amiibo stamps.
Crazy how this is likely the last traditional 3D Zelda game. Skyward Sword can be argued to be another traditional 3D Zelda game but I felt like its world was not as fun to explore as this one even with its janky ugly textures throughout Hyrule.
We all know Mario Bros 3 is a masterpiece landmark in gaming so I will mostly just talk about my impression of the e-reader levels. Some of them are absurdly difficult and others are really creatively challenging, really cool to be able to experience them. Lots of cool moments with combining different elements from the different 2D Mario games like pulling turnips with the cape and fighting airships. All pretty cool stuff. Also has levels centered around the Tanuki suit, Hammer Bros suit, and Frog suit which were sorely missing in SMB3.
2007
This review contains spoilers
This game was essentially birthed from that Super Bowser Bros mini game from TTYD where they thought "hey wouldn't this be cool to make a whole game like this?"
Ultimately there is a lot of greatness in this game. Wandering around Flipside and Flopside seeing the ever growing threat of the void in the background juxtaposed with this happy music creates a foreboding feeling similar to the Moon in Majora's Mask. The lore of the Ancients and how they essentially enslaved the Pixls is a really dark take I wasn't expecting to see in a Mario game. So many iconic parts too like having your own brother turned against you as Mr. L and then going to rescue him in hell will forever be memorable.
Having Peach and Bowser show more of their personality is fantastic to see. This game is truly a delight for any hardcore Mario fan. The amount of references to PM64 and TTYD is great to see as well. Fighting against an otaku chameleon who collects retro Nintendo stuff is hilarious. That dating simulator "fight" was just some great comedy. So many little NPCs and minor storylines in both towns too, adds a lot of life to Flipside and Flopside. Tippi has a lot to add to the characters if you bother pointing the wiimote at the screen to tattle. You can tell this game was designed for the GameCube at first, having access only to the Wiimote sideways makes playing it kinda awkward especially with how often you have to switch to the menu to change characters/pixls.
The love story between Bleck and Timpani is a bit cheesy but ultimately it's a good message. Cool idea to have your tutorial companion actually have a relationship with the main villain.
Nonetheless, this game does have a few sour notes preventing it from getting a higher score for me. The tediousness of the gameplay, the basic puzzles, the braindead combat, etc. really add some dullness to the gameplay loop of an otherwise great game. The simple fact is that Mario as a platformer is designed for you to take about 2-3 hits before dying, not like 500 like they've designed for you in this game. The RPG mechanic and the platform mechanic do not mesh that well here IMO compared to the formula used in say Super Mario RPG.
You have so much potential having Mario, Peach, Bowser, and Luigi in your party for great character interactions which do not get used often enough. Due to the fact Mario is the only one with the ability to flip to 3D, it is more efficient to mostly play as him while swapping to the other characters as needed. Which is a shame. I've wanted to play as Luigi in a Paper Mario game for awhile and you barely get to use the man. At least they made Bowser lots of fun to use but he is ridiculously broken, he makes this game go from easy to braindead.
Also if you're interested in 100%ing this game, just don't. Although they've taken lots of steps to make cooking the recipes a lot less tedious with the recipe disks showing you what dishes you can cook and where ingredients are found, I ultimately found the cooking mechanic pretty pointless considering you are always healed constantly in the actual levels. It's really only useful for the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials. Which is a shame because getting craftables from levels and cooking them into something useful should just be a pretty easy gameplay mechanic to implement but it feels pretty much completely optional which is weird (this is an issue I have with the previous 2 Paper Mario games too).
Getting all the cards and maps is a complete drag also. The post-game is an absolute slog fest. If you didn't do the Flipside 100 Trials before the credits you are essentially looking at 400 repetitive battles you must do. Flipside 100 Trials, Sammer Guys tournament, and Flopside 100 Trials twice. The bosses are all completely underwhelming and it's hard not to overlevel yourself just going through the game normally to 100% it.
Despite these complaints, this game is still an absolute treat to play through to the credits at least once. I haven't gone through Sticker Star or Color Splash just yet, but it's a shame this was the last great Paper Mario game. Can't fault it for trying to do something new.
Ultimately there is a lot of greatness in this game. Wandering around Flipside and Flopside seeing the ever growing threat of the void in the background juxtaposed with this happy music creates a foreboding feeling similar to the Moon in Majora's Mask. The lore of the Ancients and how they essentially enslaved the Pixls is a really dark take I wasn't expecting to see in a Mario game. So many iconic parts too like having your own brother turned against you as Mr. L and then going to rescue him in hell will forever be memorable.
Having Peach and Bowser show more of their personality is fantastic to see. This game is truly a delight for any hardcore Mario fan. The amount of references to PM64 and TTYD is great to see as well. Fighting against an otaku chameleon who collects retro Nintendo stuff is hilarious. That dating simulator "fight" was just some great comedy. So many little NPCs and minor storylines in both towns too, adds a lot of life to Flipside and Flopside. Tippi has a lot to add to the characters if you bother pointing the wiimote at the screen to tattle. You can tell this game was designed for the GameCube at first, having access only to the Wiimote sideways makes playing it kinda awkward especially with how often you have to switch to the menu to change characters/pixls.
The love story between Bleck and Timpani is a bit cheesy but ultimately it's a good message. Cool idea to have your tutorial companion actually have a relationship with the main villain.
Nonetheless, this game does have a few sour notes preventing it from getting a higher score for me. The tediousness of the gameplay, the basic puzzles, the braindead combat, etc. really add some dullness to the gameplay loop of an otherwise great game. The simple fact is that Mario as a platformer is designed for you to take about 2-3 hits before dying, not like 500 like they've designed for you in this game. The RPG mechanic and the platform mechanic do not mesh that well here IMO compared to the formula used in say Super Mario RPG.
You have so much potential having Mario, Peach, Bowser, and Luigi in your party for great character interactions which do not get used often enough. Due to the fact Mario is the only one with the ability to flip to 3D, it is more efficient to mostly play as him while swapping to the other characters as needed. Which is a shame. I've wanted to play as Luigi in a Paper Mario game for awhile and you barely get to use the man. At least they made Bowser lots of fun to use but he is ridiculously broken, he makes this game go from easy to braindead.
Also if you're interested in 100%ing this game, just don't. Although they've taken lots of steps to make cooking the recipes a lot less tedious with the recipe disks showing you what dishes you can cook and where ingredients are found, I ultimately found the cooking mechanic pretty pointless considering you are always healed constantly in the actual levels. It's really only useful for the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials. Which is a shame because getting craftables from levels and cooking them into something useful should just be a pretty easy gameplay mechanic to implement but it feels pretty much completely optional which is weird (this is an issue I have with the previous 2 Paper Mario games too).
Getting all the cards and maps is a complete drag also. The post-game is an absolute slog fest. If you didn't do the Flipside 100 Trials before the credits you are essentially looking at 400 repetitive battles you must do. Flipside 100 Trials, Sammer Guys tournament, and Flopside 100 Trials twice. The bosses are all completely underwhelming and it's hard not to overlevel yourself just going through the game normally to 100% it.
Despite these complaints, this game is still an absolute treat to play through to the credits at least once. I haven't gone through Sticker Star or Color Splash just yet, but it's a shame this was the last great Paper Mario game. Can't fault it for trying to do something new.
While I think most Mario fans have understandably grown tired of the New Super Mario Bros series (especially when something as infinitely fun as Mario Maker 2 exists), I think in respects to this game, it's important to keep in mind that in 2006, there wasn't really a 2D Mario game for 13 years.
Well that's what all the Nintendo YouTuber people say anyways. In reality, Nintendo was actually remaking all the classic Mario games for the Super Mario Advance series (technically starting with the remake of SMB1 and Lost Levels as Super Mario Bros Deluxe for the GBC).
I'm bothering to mention this because NSMB essentially started development as Super Mario Advance 5. And while I don't think they did anything particularly revolutionary with this game, they added a lot of key mechanics Nintendo learned from making the remakes of the old Mario games and the new 3D games.
The Star Coins were essentially a concept carried over from the old remakes. In Super Mario Deluxe's Challenge Mode, you could find red coins hidden in levels. And of course in Super Mario World, the dragon/Yoshi coins were a collectible given more significance in the Advance remake. It's nice to see the origins of the Star Coins and it's cool to see this collectible executed well. None of them are too aggravating to get, some of them are hidden well enough to the point it lets out that sweet serotonin rush when you find it. Sometimes you can't even get them all in one go for levels due to needing power ups like the mini mushroom, adding to the replayability of levels.
In terms of Mario's movement, he feels great. The addition of the wall jump and triple jump, something we are used to by now, really adds a lot of depth to 2D Mario's gameplay. Being able to save yourself from a bad jump with a well timed wall kick feels sick.
The music I feel like is also important to mention due to how prevalent Koji Kondo's vision was with the sound design. You'll notice that enemies will essentially dance in tune with the song's beat, changing their movements in accordance with the soundtrack. Thus, if you are in rhythm with the song, you will be able to predict enemy movements and avoid them more efficiently. Really cool idea although sometimes the OST does feel like it needs a tad more variety.
Overall lots of great level design, so many great ideas thrown around it's too hard to list them all, but one that particularly stands out to me is the one where you are riding a giant Wiggler the whole level, and you have to time your jumps with his body to get to some important stuff like Star Coins and power ups.
Speaking of power ups, I felt like this game had a pretty good balanced system. Especially how you only can store one extra power up rather than the absolute hoarding you can do in other games. The Fire Flower is of course the most common, but seeing the Mini Mushroom and Mega Mushroom get a lot of use in this game is really cool. Crushing stuff as Mega Mario or finding secrets (even whole different optional worlds) as Mini Mario is also a joy. But by far the most underutilized power up was also the coolest, the Blue Shell. I really don't see why Nintendo didn't develop a level with this power up in mind, what a wasted opportunity. Crazy they haven't brought it back either.
Anyways I've done enough ranting. My tl;dr is this game is pretty sick. Relatively slept on due to how many NSMB games there are now. This one is unique not only in being the first one but because its level design was designed around single player, not multiplayer like the console sequels would add. I really like Mario, easily my favorite game series, I feel like this one was a lot of fun to 100%.
Easy 4/5
Well that's what all the Nintendo YouTuber people say anyways. In reality, Nintendo was actually remaking all the classic Mario games for the Super Mario Advance series (technically starting with the remake of SMB1 and Lost Levels as Super Mario Bros Deluxe for the GBC).
I'm bothering to mention this because NSMB essentially started development as Super Mario Advance 5. And while I don't think they did anything particularly revolutionary with this game, they added a lot of key mechanics Nintendo learned from making the remakes of the old Mario games and the new 3D games.
The Star Coins were essentially a concept carried over from the old remakes. In Super Mario Deluxe's Challenge Mode, you could find red coins hidden in levels. And of course in Super Mario World, the dragon/Yoshi coins were a collectible given more significance in the Advance remake. It's nice to see the origins of the Star Coins and it's cool to see this collectible executed well. None of them are too aggravating to get, some of them are hidden well enough to the point it lets out that sweet serotonin rush when you find it. Sometimes you can't even get them all in one go for levels due to needing power ups like the mini mushroom, adding to the replayability of levels.
In terms of Mario's movement, he feels great. The addition of the wall jump and triple jump, something we are used to by now, really adds a lot of depth to 2D Mario's gameplay. Being able to save yourself from a bad jump with a well timed wall kick feels sick.
The music I feel like is also important to mention due to how prevalent Koji Kondo's vision was with the sound design. You'll notice that enemies will essentially dance in tune with the song's beat, changing their movements in accordance with the soundtrack. Thus, if you are in rhythm with the song, you will be able to predict enemy movements and avoid them more efficiently. Really cool idea although sometimes the OST does feel like it needs a tad more variety.
Overall lots of great level design, so many great ideas thrown around it's too hard to list them all, but one that particularly stands out to me is the one where you are riding a giant Wiggler the whole level, and you have to time your jumps with his body to get to some important stuff like Star Coins and power ups.
Speaking of power ups, I felt like this game had a pretty good balanced system. Especially how you only can store one extra power up rather than the absolute hoarding you can do in other games. The Fire Flower is of course the most common, but seeing the Mini Mushroom and Mega Mushroom get a lot of use in this game is really cool. Crushing stuff as Mega Mario or finding secrets (even whole different optional worlds) as Mini Mario is also a joy. But by far the most underutilized power up was also the coolest, the Blue Shell. I really don't see why Nintendo didn't develop a level with this power up in mind, what a wasted opportunity. Crazy they haven't brought it back either.
Anyways I've done enough ranting. My tl;dr is this game is pretty sick. Relatively slept on due to how many NSMB games there are now. This one is unique not only in being the first one but because its level design was designed around single player, not multiplayer like the console sequels would add. I really like Mario, easily my favorite game series, I feel like this one was a lot of fun to 100%.
Easy 4/5
Interesting to see Capcom's take on Zelda again, they really nail it here. They've combined almost everything great about the classic 2D Zelda while borrowing some new elements out of 3D Zelda (e.g. rolling)
The spritework really brings out the timelessness of the GBA. So much little details in the animation like the way Link's hair flops while he is moving. As many others have said, Wind Waker style perfectly translates to the GBA. It's a delight seeing characters like Beedle in 2D.
The music is also superb. The classic songs like Hyrule Field and the House music is complimented by some new additions like the Minish Village music.
This game is extremely tight. So much content packed into every little area, there is always something new to do in almost every screen when you get a new ability or item. Makes exploring every area thoroughly feel extremely rewarding. The game is perhaps lacking in some iconic Zelda items like the Hookshot but the addition of shrinking down into Minish size to open up secrets and progress further I think makes up for it.
My one major complaint is the Kinstone fusion system, it is absolutely absurd. I guess it's one way to add another resource other than Rupees while getting rid of the trading side quests but I found it annoying. Another huge complaint is the figurine system, a complete waste of time. If you play this game don't bother 100%ing it unless you are insane like me.
This game is realistically probably a 4 stars for most people but for me it's 4.5 just because I enjoy seeing taking what works from the Zelda formula while building on it. Capcom did some cool stuff like using a villain other than Ganon and adding sword techniques for Link to learn. They should definitely be given props for that.
The spritework really brings out the timelessness of the GBA. So much little details in the animation like the way Link's hair flops while he is moving. As many others have said, Wind Waker style perfectly translates to the GBA. It's a delight seeing characters like Beedle in 2D.
The music is also superb. The classic songs like Hyrule Field and the House music is complimented by some new additions like the Minish Village music.
This game is extremely tight. So much content packed into every little area, there is always something new to do in almost every screen when you get a new ability or item. Makes exploring every area thoroughly feel extremely rewarding. The game is perhaps lacking in some iconic Zelda items like the Hookshot but the addition of shrinking down into Minish size to open up secrets and progress further I think makes up for it.
My one major complaint is the Kinstone fusion system, it is absolutely absurd. I guess it's one way to add another resource other than Rupees while getting rid of the trading side quests but I found it annoying. Another huge complaint is the figurine system, a complete waste of time. If you play this game don't bother 100%ing it unless you are insane like me.
This game is realistically probably a 4 stars for most people but for me it's 4.5 just because I enjoy seeing taking what works from the Zelda formula while building on it. Capcom did some cool stuff like using a villain other than Ganon and adding sword techniques for Link to learn. They should definitely be given props for that.
It is arguably one of the weaker of the Mario & Luigi games due to its linear world (with not much incentive to explore), it lacks some attack variety with the Bros that Superstar Saga had (due to removal of SP), not that many fun mini games, and a relatively lackluster story due to the Shroobs being unintelligible.
Nonetheless, the details of the attack patterns of enemies in this game and the depths of the combat overall make it a timeless classic for me. For instance, there is this robot enemy that will throw a bomb with an M or L on it (obviously indicating who is being targeted) and when you parry the bomb back, the robot gets damaged and seems to be malfunctioning, and now when it throws the bomb, it is actually targeting the opposite bro. Just lots of small details in enemy fights like that are really enjoyable for me.
I enjoyed the music but no particular song really stands out for me, the babies were incorporated very well, and the relationship between Baby Luigi and Luigi is one of the highlights of the game. The expressiveness of the Bros without dialog carry the cutscenes.
For me I am very biased cause I love Mario RPGs so I put this game at 4 stars but it could definitely be 4.5 or 5 stars if it actually bothered developing the Shroobs at all and made the world actually fun to explore maybe with fun mini games to go back to.
Nonetheless, the details of the attack patterns of enemies in this game and the depths of the combat overall make it a timeless classic for me. For instance, there is this robot enemy that will throw a bomb with an M or L on it (obviously indicating who is being targeted) and when you parry the bomb back, the robot gets damaged and seems to be malfunctioning, and now when it throws the bomb, it is actually targeting the opposite bro. Just lots of small details in enemy fights like that are really enjoyable for me.
I enjoyed the music but no particular song really stands out for me, the babies were incorporated very well, and the relationship between Baby Luigi and Luigi is one of the highlights of the game. The expressiveness of the Bros without dialog carry the cutscenes.
For me I am very biased cause I love Mario RPGs so I put this game at 4 stars but it could definitely be 4.5 or 5 stars if it actually bothered developing the Shroobs at all and made the world actually fun to explore maybe with fun mini games to go back to.