When going through the Kingdom Hearts series for the first time, I knew about the various spinoffs that add additional plot points. I was told to skip this entry and go straight to KH2, so I watched a cutscene compilation to get up to speed. It wasn't until a year later that I gave the game a shot, and after playing it I don't think it's too bad!

The game takes place right after the events of the first game; Sora, Donald, and Goofy continue to look for Mickey, when they end up at a mysterious castle. This castle is run by a group called Organization XIII, a group of Nobodies (entities created when a strong hearted person becomes a heartless). The castle takes away all of Sora's abilities, replacing them with cards that tie into the gameplay.

The gameplay has this weird card mechanic: your attacks, spells, etc. take the form of cards. The same applies to your enemies attacks. You have to use these cards to attack, but the number of the card has to be higher than the enemies. You can create different combos and spells by combining 3 similar cards. The card gameplay seems incredibly confusing at first, but after a while you get the hang of it and it's quite fun to play.

The worlds in the game are the exact same as the first game (except the Tarzan world which is absent) although they take the form of randomly generated dungeons. You open doors in the dungeon with door cards that determine the layout of the next room. Going through these dungeons gets a little repetitive after a while, but I understand why it's like this as the game is on an inferior handheld.

The music of this game is of slightly lower quality compared to the first game, but they did the best they could in adapting them for the GBA's sound system. There's also some new songs in the castle that are pretty good.

Once you beat the main story, you unlock Riku's campaign. It's mostly the same as Sora's, but it's a neat little bonus that gives the game good replay value.

Overall, Chain of Memories is a fun handheld adventure that's a strange but welcome addition to the Kingdom Hearts series.

Ace Attorney is a series that I've known about for years and have wanted to get into for a long time, but I wouldn't get around to it until a few months ago. I can say with confidence that it's everything I expected and so much more.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney has you take on the role of Phoenix Wright, a rookie defense attorney who's main goal is to prove the innocence of his clients. The game is split into 5 episodes/cases, with the 5th case being a bonus one added to the DS port. Each episode in this game is super interesting in terms of writing and gameplay.

The main courtroom gameplay has you listening to witness' testimonies, looking for contradictions in their statements and presenting evidence to object. Each time you hear Wright yell "objection" "take that" or "hold it" which helps add to the excitement of the courtroom gameplay, as well as the music changing depending on how close you are to solving the case. Ace Attorney excels in its sound design.

Outside of court, you move around the crime scene to look for clues and talk to other characters. It's nothing too deep, but it's quite engaging and the interesting character interactions make it all the more worthwhile. My personal favorite is Miles Edgeworth, the prosecutor in the game who's never lost a case. The back and forth between him and Wright is super enticing and always had me on the edge of my seat.

The only reason I don't five it a full 5 stars is the episode Rise from the Ashes, which adds some incredibly awkward forensics gameplay mechanics that make it a pain to go back to. I get that they wanted to experiment with the DS hardware, but it doesn't work on rereleases of the game.

Overall, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney is a fun first entry in the series that leaves you wanting more. If you haven't played it yet, I'd highly recommend doing so.

When I first played Kingdom Hearts, I didn't expect anything special at first. I grew up loving Disney movies, but I had never played a Final Fantasy game other than 7. Lo and behold, Kingdom Hearts surprised me in ways I didn't expect and made me appreciate not just Disney and Final Fantasy, but the Kingdom Hearts series itself.

The first game follows a somewhat easy to follow plot; Sora, Riku, and Kairi are 3 kids who want to travel to other worlds. One fateful night, darkness attacks their home (Destiny Islands) and seperates the 3 of them. Sora winds up in Traverse Town, where he meets Goofy and Donald Duck (who are looking for Mickey Mouse). Sora wields a weapon called the keyblade, which chose him to help fight the darkness. These monsters called the heartless (created when somebody gives in to the darkness) are out attacking other worlds, so Sora teams up with Donald and Goofy to fight the darkness and look for their friends.

The vast majority of worlds in this game are based on Disney movies, which can be hit or miss. There's some bad worlds like Wonderland or the Tarzan world, but there's also some incredible ones like Halloween Town or Agrabah which bring the worlds of their respective movies to life, making you immersed in the worlds.

The main antagonist of the game is Maleficent, who's teamed up with a council of Disney villains to spread darkness throughout the worlds. It's really charming to see these villains interact, giving the game more of that Disney magic.

But how does the game itself play? Pretty well! While newer entries in the series do make the combat feel dated, it's still enjoyable for what it is. You can utilize different magic spells, as well as summon Disney characters like Simba or Mushu. The melee combat feels a little slow after playing other games in the series, but I still have a blast when I replay the game.

There's another gameplay element when you travel to different worlds; the gummi ship. It's not fun at all. You can customize your ship with different blocks, but I never bothered with that and just stuck with the default ship because I didn't care that much. The space shooter gameplay just feels like worse Starfox.

The music of this game is absolutely beautiful. Each piece fits incredibly well with the world or scenario you're in. The title theme of the game (Dearly Beloved) is one of my favorites. There's also the opening and ending theme, Simple and Clean by Utada. The lyrics kind of suck, but my god is it catchy.

Overall, Kingdom Hearts 1 is a classic that's brimming with the magic of classic Disney movies. If not for this game, I would've never found one of my favorite video game franchises of all time. If you haven't played Kingdom Hearts already, what are you waiting for?

Nickelodeon All Star Brawl is a platform fighting game similar to Super Smash Bros, released in 2021. The game had quite a bit of hype surrounding it, and some people even dubbed it the “Smash Killer” However, the game quickly became forgotten about after release… What happened to it?

The main reason for the game’s sudden decline was the hype surrounding it. Since it was being regarded as a “Smash Killer”, everyone started to raise their expectations for the game. While the game is very enjoyable, it’s not Smash Bros levels of standards… it’s a more simple platform fighting game. As a result, people quickly abandoned the game and went back to Smash. On top of this, the game was released on the exact same day as the final Smash Ultimate character: Sora. Sora was one of the most requested characters in a fighting game, and it’s a miracle that they were able to add him to Smash since he’s owned by Disney. It’s no wonder that everyone was playing Smash that day instead of Nick All Star Brawl. The game only sold around 100,000 copies which pales in comparison to Smash Ultimate’s 30 million copies sold. This is not only because of Sora, but because some people may have dismissed the game as being shovelware.

Despite all of this, the game was somewhat successful. I only got the game recently when it went on sale, but I've been having fun with it. While it’s no “Smash Killer” like everyone thought, it’s still enjoyable in its own right. It’s a simple and fun game that I can pick up and play, and it has quite a few Nickelodeon references that are nice to see. However, the game does have quite a few flaws.

My main problem with the game is every character feels way too similar in playstyle; some characters differ slightly but it’s mostly all the fucking same thing, so deciding on your main boils down to “pick your favorite character” which brings me to my next point… the roster.

There are a lot of characters that make sense, but some feel really weird. Only 2 of the ninja turtles made it into the roster (Leonardo & Michelangelo) which really sucks for people who wanna play as Raphael or Donatello. They also decided to include Helga from Hey Arnold but not Arnold himself, which feels really weird.

The game received 2 free characters (Garfield and Shredder), and then 3 DLC characters. The DLC choices were Jenny Wakeman, Rocko, and my personal favorite Hugh Neutron. Hugh was added as a meme character, but also because of the huge fan demand for having him in the game. It still feels weird having Hugh in the game but not Jimmy Neutron himself, but at the same time It’s great that they added him cause, it goes to show that they listen to their fans.

This doesn’t just apply to characters. When the game first launched, there was no voice acting present. Later on, they added voice acting to the game in an update. This really adds to the game; it makes it more enjoyable, and at the same time it proves that the devs really do listen, which goes a long way in a game like this. But it still really don’t get why the fuck they didn’t think to add it in the first place.

Going back to the roster, the biggest missed opportunity of them all is the lack of Fairly OddParents content. I think this may be related to series creator Butch Hartman leaving Nickelodeon in 2018, but Fairly Oddparents is one of the reasons Nickelodeon is so beloved. They even got Danny Phantom (another Butch Hartman show) represented in the game, so why not Fairly OddParents?

Aside from those missing characters, the roster is fine. Spongebob, Avatar, and Ninja Turtles take up most of the roster, but they’re the more popular Nickelodeon shows so it makes sense. But yeah, most of the character choices are pretty cool.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the gameplay. I still vastly prefer the gameplay of Smash games, but for what it is it’s a nice alternative. The gameplay is very fast which makes it good for competitive gameplay, however this may throw off more casual players. There are some easy difficulty options for more casual players, but the game seems to be aimed at players of games like Smash Melee (one of the more competitive smash games) which I don’t have a problem with, but like I said, this could make it hard for more casual players to enjoy the game.

Also, there really isn’t much replay value. The only real modes are the battles and an arcade mode. There’s also this weird sports mode, but I thought it was shit and didn’t play that much of it. So the main replay value comes from replaying the battle modes, which is fine but it doesn’t provide much single player content. There’s also online, but I can’t try that because it’s fucking dead now. I can see why the game was quickly forgotten about, since there isn’t much to go back to other than the main battles.

Overall, I think Nick All Star Brawl is a fine game. It’s nothing groundbreaking or anything, but for what it is I enjoyed it a lot.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins was released in 1992; 3 years after the original. It had the same development team as the first game, but this one greatly differs.

The game’s plot is actually quite different from the other 2D Mario games. Following the events of Super Mario Land, Mario returns to his castle… because apparently he has a castle now (I guess that’s what he spends all those gold coins on). However, his castle has been taken over by Wario, who first appears in this game and later becomes an important character in the Mario franchise, just like Daisy has. Now Mario has to retrieve 6 Golden Coins, to unlock his castle door and fight Wario.

The game is very similar to Super Mario World. Not only does it have a world map like that game, but it has the same art style as that game. These sprites look really good on Game Boy, and are a huge improvement over the look of the first game. Also, the sprites are bigger in size, but not too big that they cause screen crunch problems (like a lot of Game Boy Games). I think it’s one of the best looking Game Boy games.

The music is even better in this game; they made it way catchier than the music in the first game. It’s super fun to listen to, and doing so makes me want to replay the game every time I hear it.

The gameplay of this one is pretty good. It controls similarly to World, but was adapted well for Game Boy. Although the platforming does feel a little floaty at times, you get used to it quickly and it feels so much better than the first game’s controls. The level design is also pretty good. The levels can be quite challenging, which I really like because 2D mario games tend to be way too easy now (especially the New Super Mario Bros Series).

For powerups, the fire flower comes back. It actually has a visual indicator this time, to compensate for the Game Boy’s lack of color. There’s also a new powerup, the super carrot. This powerup gives mario bunny ears, which allow him to glide slowly, similar to the raccoon leaf in Mario 3 (without the flight). The powerup is really cool, however it allows you to easily glide over some of the levels. There’s one really annoying feature with the powerups though: grabbing a mushroom while you have a powerup makes you lose that powerup! Usually when you get a mushroom with another powerup, either nothing happens or you get to save that mushroom for later. But not in this game; I don’t know what the fuck they were thinking with this, it means that you now have to avoid mushrooms.

Water levels are back… but they’re not that good. Mario sinks like an anchor, and you have to mash A to swim up, which gets tedious.

The game’s world map consists of 6 different zones, each with one of the golden coins. These zones can be played in any order, and consist of 3-5 levels. They each have their own theme which helps them stand out.

The end of level bonus games return, but this time they’re completely different. You access these by ringing a bell at the top of the exit. There are actually 2 bonus games this time; a claw machine and a wire game. The claw machine lets you use a claw to try and grab power ups or 1 ups. The wire game has you send a shock through wires (some of these wires get destroyed by rats) and wherever the shock goes is the powerup you get. You don’t actually have to take the powerup in the wire game; if you don’t want whatever you win you can simply walk away.

This game also has completely new enemies, and they’re actually somewhat memorable this time; some of the enemies look really unique. Not only are there new enemies, but quite a few enemies from the console games come back, such as koopas and boos. Unfortunately, none of the new enemies ever returned in any future games, which is a shame cause they had some really cool ideas for this one.

However, the same can’t really be said about the bosses. They’re way too easy; they can be beat in just 3 hits, similar to the koopalings in mario 3. Although, one of the bosses is actually Tatanga from the first game. I think it’s really cool that they brought him back for this game, as it helps further tie the games together. This game is his last appearance in a Mario game, and he was never seen again…

Once you retrieve all 6 golden coins, you open the door to Mario’s castle and can finally face Wario. The castle level is probably one of the hardest Mario levels; it took me quite a few tries to complete. I really like how this one is designed, it’s like a final test of all the platforming you’ve been doing in the game.

Wario’s boss has 3 different phases, and in 2 of them he uses a fire flower and a super carrot. It’s pretty cool to see him use the same power ups as you; it’s a really unique idea that isn’t really done in the newer mario games. It makes me wonder why they never brought Wario back in another 2D Mario game; I get that he’s busy with his micro games or whatever now, but it would be cool to have him in another mainline game. The boss fight is kinda easy, but it’s still fun. After you beat Wario, Mario gets his castle back and the game is over.

This game took me around an hour to beat, which I think is the perfect length for a game like this. It’s not too short like the first game, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome either. It makes it perfect to play on the go, which is an important aspect of handheld games like this.

Overall, I think Super Mario Land 2 is an enjoyable game. It’s fun, charming, and it’s a game I come back to every now and then.

Mario’s first handheld adventure. The game was released in 1989 as a launch title for the Game Boy. Prior to this, Nintendo had made a few attempts at handheld gaming with the Game & Watch systems. However, these were minimal frame LCD games that were reduced to simple arcade style games. As a result, Nintendo released the Game Boy; a handheld system that combined elements from the Game & Watch and the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Super Mario Land wasn’t developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, but by a different team at Nintendo. Because of this, the game is very different from the NES Mario games. The game takes place in a new location called Sarasaland; Mario has to rescue a new princess called Daisy from a new villain called Tatanga. While Daisy doesn’t get much screen time in this game, she gets brought back and given more personality in the spin off games; she’s actually one of my favorite Mario characters and the one I always pick in Mario Kart. She’s even set to appear in a mainline mario game: Super Mario Bros Wonder, which comes out later this year. As for Tatanga: He only got one more appearance after this game, but I’ll get into that later in the video.

Since Mario is in a new location this time, the enemies are completely different. Some enemies like goombas (albeit named goombos in this game) and piranha plants stay the same, but the other enemies are new. Even koopas act differently in this game; after jumping on them, their shell explodes after a few seconds. The new enemies in this game never came back for another mario game, but some enemies were reused for future mario concepts. For example, the zombie enemies that come back after being jumped on were reworked into dry bones in Super Mario World.

As for the main platforming… It's average. It plays similarly to the first mario game, but the platforming feels way less precise. The jumping feels similar to castlevania; you can’t really control your movement after jumping, so you have to perfectly time it. It’s not too bad, but it takes some getting used to. Also, the gravity is really strong; mario falls like a brick if you walk off a ledge without jumping. I often forget about this mechanic and end up dying because of that.

For powerups, you have the super mushroom and super star returning from the first game. For some reason, the star theme in this game is the Can-Can theme which feels very out of place, but this was the only time it was used in a Mario game. This is also one of the only Mario games where the fire flower is absent; in its place is a new power up, the superball flower. This new powerup is similar to the fire flower, but Mario can only shoot one superball at a time, which bounces diagonally. These can also be used to collect coins. This game is the only time this powerup is ever used in a mainline Mario game, and the powerup itself never showed up again until Super Mario Maker 2. There’s no visual indication of what powerup you have (due to the Game Boy being black and white) so sometimes I forget if I have the superball flower or not.

This game is the shortest mainline Mario game; there are only 4 worlds with 3 levels each, making a grand total of 12 levels in the entire game. As a result, you can beat the game in around 20 minutes if you avoid dying. I didn’t actually beat this one until recently; I did try it a few times as a kid but I never got around to finishing it.

The levels themselves aren’t that memorable. Because this is on Game Boy, they all look very fucking similar which makes it hard to remember individual levels. There is a water level and a sky level (which is the last level in the game) where you control a submarine and a plane. These levels are 2D shooters, which stand out because we don’t really see anything like that in modern mario games. However, the controls in these levels aren’t that good, and you’re either blasting through everything or getting fucking bombarded by enemies, which gets annoying.

The end of levels has a bonus game, which can be accessed by taking the upper exit in levels. You press A to stop mario and a ladder on a floor, and doing so lets you win either 1 ups or a superball flower. This is a pretty cool feature, as it gives you an incentive to go for the upper exits.

The enemies and bosses aren’t that memorable either; The only enemies I really remember are the exploding koopas and the vampires. And the only boss that I remember is the final boss: Tatanga. For the final boss, you’re in a plane and have to blast him with projectiles. After a few hits, he dies and the game ends with you rescuing daisy and flying away in a ship that was right next to Daisy, which makes me question why the fuck she didn’t just take that ship and leave? Aside from that, the bosses are pretty forgettable. You either jump over them and hit a switch, or for Tatanga and another boss in the game you just blast them.

The music of this game is actually pretty good. It’s catchy, fun, and super memorable.

The graphics aren’t that great, they’re really small, so for some of them you have to squint to see them, which is one of the reasons the enemies aren’t that memorable. I get that this is on Game Boy, but they could’ve made the sprites a little bigger.

But yeah, I don’t really have anything else I can say about the game. While it is a technical marvel for its time, it’s just kinda average and forgettable.

Super Mario World is one of the best Mario game i’ve ever played, and also one of my favorite video games in general. It’s a game that is very special to me, as it’s one of the first games I ever beat.

The game follows Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach on vacation to a new place called Dinosaur Land. However, Peach disappears as she has been kidnapped by Bowser and his 7 Koopalings once again. While searching for Peach, the brothers run into an egg that hatches into Yoshi. Yoshi tells Mario and Luigi that his dinosaur friends were also sealed in eggs by Bowser. With that in mind, Mario and Luigi head across Dinosaur Land to find Peach and the other dinosaurs. The plot of this game is very simple, however that’s to be expected in a mario game since the platforming is the main focus.

The platforming in this game is some of the best I’ve ever played. It has some of the best 2D Mario controls ever; the platforming is pixel perfect, and it controls effortlessly. This goes hand in hand with the amazing level design. Not only are the platforms in the levels well placed, but so are the enemies.

This game brings back the super mushroom, the fire flower, and the super star from the first mario game. In addition to this, there are some new power ups. This includes the super cape. Which allows mario to glide and fly similar to the raccoon leaf in mario 3, but the flying in this game is so much more fast paced and is only limited by any obstacles you may come across. There is also the P balloon, which allows Mario to float for a short time. This powerup isn’t that great, as it only lasts for a few seconds and just feels like an inferior version of the super cape.
If mario gets touched by an enemy, he loses the powerup he has and goes back to small mario. This game lets you store an extra powerup in a box at the top of the screen, which is really helpful if you need another powerup after getting hit. This feature is also useful for switching between power ups, depending on the type of level you’re playing.

This game also adds yoshi, a dinosaur companion. Mario can ride on yoshi, and use him to traverse the levels. Yoshi can eat enemies with his tongue, and spit out certain enemies such as koopa shells. Yoshi can also provide the player with an extra jump, however doing so sacrifices yoshi.

The levels in this game vary. The levels can consist of simple levels, more platforming focused levels, auto scrolling levels, and castle levels. In addition, this game adds in ghost houses, which are new to the series. These levels focus on the boo enemies, and are more exploration focused; completing these usually requires you to find a secret exit by thinking outside the box. Unfortunately, you can’t bring yoshi with you in ghost houses or castles.

This game has a world map that looks great; the levels and worlds flow into each other naturally. You can also go back and play previous levels; a feature that wasn’t in past mario games. This is really useful for finding secrets in this game. This includes secret exits, which are unlocked by finding a key and keyhole in a level. These unlock new levels, switch palaces, and star road; an extra world with more challenging levels. Completing Star Road unlocks a new world; Special Zone. This world has the most challenging levels in the game. Completing these extra worlds aren’t necessary to beat the game, but they’re nice to have as an extra challenge. Completing special zone changes the color palette and some of the sprites of the game; I’m not a fan of some of the changes, but it’s a nice little reward for clearing the extra worlds.

In the castle levels of this game, you end it by fighting one of the 7 koopalings. Although most of them can be beat in 3 easy hits, they all slightly differ from each other; this makes the fights way more entertaining than mario 3, where you could easily beat them in 3 hits. There are also fortress levels, where you fight reznor at the end. Reznor is cool in concept but is way too easy, however since it is only a mini boss i don’t consider this a big issue.

The final boss of this game is bowser, and it’s one of the most unique bowser fights in a mario game i’ve played. Instead of falling to lava or a void like previous games, he flies around in a koopa car. To fight Bowser, you have to jump on the mecha koopas and throw them back at him. After 2 hits he will fly away, but come back to start the next phase. Inbetween these phases, he breathes fire on the floor, and after this peach will give you a mushroom if you don’t already have one. This boss ends after 3 phases. It’s one of the most fun I've ever had in a 2d platformer boss fight, it’s done so well and is always a joy to come back to.

The graphics in this game are so charming. Super Mario World was a launch title for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which makes it one of Nintendo’s first 16 bit era games. The game’s graphics still hold up really well to this day, and it’s one of the best looking games on the snes. The sprites use vibrant colors to make them really stand out; the same can be said for the platforms and environments in the game. The game also has some really well made sprite animations. My favorite animations are the ones that play after you beat a boss; a unique animation of mario destroying the castle will play each time.

The sound design in this game is really well done. Every level theme in the game has the same melody, but the instruments and pacing change depending on the level. For example, the castle theme is dramatic, whereas the underwater theme is calming. This helps to create immersion in the game, and also makes every song stand out from each other. The 16 bit sound effects also add to the immersion; every action in the game is accompanied by a charming sound effect.

Overall, I adore Super Mario World. It’s one of the most fun games I’ve ever played, and it’s one that I always find myself coming back to every once in a while. Go and play this game if you haven’t already, you won’t regret it.

Every single New Mario game completely changes the Mario you know. Whether that’s with Mario 3 adding in so many new features, Mario World adding in cool new animations, Mario 64 bringing Mario to the Third Dimension, or pretty much any other mainline Mario game, each new entry found some new and creative way to shake up the formula, However, after New Super Mario Bros Wii, that came to a halt. While New Super Mario Bros 2 and U are good games in their own right, they didn’t really change things but instead regurgitated elements from their previous entries, which made fans get sick of the New series, myself included. But I can say with great confidence that Mario Wonder shakes up the formula yet again, and is the most creative 2D Mario game since Super Mario World, which came out 30 years ago!

Instead of using the same recycled plot of Bowser kidnapping Peach, Wonder goes for something different. Mario and friends get invited to the flower kingdom by Prince Haru… I mean Prince Florian (it’s not the same flower kingdom from the ova). However, Bowser shows up and steals a wonder flower, which merges him with the flower castle into this giant smoke castle. So now it’s up to Mario and friends to stop Bowser and save the Flower Kingdom. Quite a simple plot, but do you need any more from Mario?

In this game, you get to choose which character you want to play. The character choices are the obvious Mario, Luigi, Blue and Yellow Toads, and Toadette, but for the first time in a 2D game since Super Mario Bros 2, you can play as Peach again, AND for the first time ever, you can play as Princess Daisy! The only mainline game that Daisy’s appeared in is Super Mario Land, so it’s really cool to see her return, let alone as a playable character. All of these characters play the same, but if you want an easier experience with the game, you have different Yoshis and Nabbit. They can’t take damage, but at the same time, they can’t use any powerups, which I think is a good trade-off. While it is slightly disappointing that the Yoshis are easy-mode characters, it’s still cool to have them be playable regardless.

But how does the game itself play? Well… it controls effortlessly! They seem to have combined the best elements of Super Mario World’s controls with the slightly advanced controls of the New series and mixed it all into a fantastic control scheme. You really feel like you’re in control of the game.

The staple powerups return, but there are some cool new ones. The first new one turns you into an elephant, which reminds me: before the game was released, Nintendo released some short videos to promote the game. One of them was this… yeah, turns out that Bowser has a thing for elephants. Anyways, as an elephant you can smash through enemies and bricks by swinging your trunk. You can also store some water in your trunk, which you can spray on small flowers to get some flower coins. I’ll talk about what the flower coins do later. Another new powerup is the bubble flower, which lets you shoot bubbles. These bubbles can be used to trap and defeat most enemies, but you can also use the bubbles as platforms. The final new powerup is the drill cap, which lets you defeat enemies using your head. You can also use this to burrow into the ground and even the ceiling. All of these new powerups are great to use and are all useful in their own way.

You also meet talking flowers in every level. They’re usually just there to say something to you, but they can occasionally give you small hints at secrets in the level.

The local multiplayer in this game works similarly to previous entries, however, you can no longer jump on each other or throw other players into pits, and instead pass through each other. I can see why they made this change since multiplayer in the new games would get rather chaotic. But if another player uses Yoshi, then you can ride on their back and get carried through the entire level. This even applies to elephants and other Yoshis. Unfortunately, you can’t create a 4 player stack of Yoshis which I think would’ve been cool, but it’s understandable why this isn’t an option.

In addition to local multiplayer, you can also play with friends online! The other players appear as ghosts that you can’t interact with. However, online multiplayer works slightly differently from local. If you die, you turn into a spirit, and if you interact with another player then you’ll get revived. You can also get revived by a player standee, which anyone can place anywhere in the level. But if you’re like me and… have no friends… then you can play with random people online if that’s something that interests you! Whether you play this game alone or with friends, it’s still an incredibly enjoyable experience!

Another thing this game does that really impresses me is it gives everything expressive animations. The New Super Mario games kept reusing the same basic animations, but for this game, they decided to increase the animation budget, which went a long way! Characters are more expressive, enemies get scared when you’re about to attack them, you no longer warp through pipes but climb through them… the list goes on, but it goes to show how some extra small animations can go a long way, especially in a game like Super Mario. The game also received a new art style, which looks amazing! To me, this is the best-looking Mario game, as well as the best-looking game on the Switch.

Something else this game does differently from previous entries is Mario and Luigi’s voices. Ever since Super Mario 64, Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi have all been voiced by Charles Martinet. However, just a few months ago, Nintendo announced on Twitter that Charles would no longer be voicing the characters, and would instead become a Mario ambassador, which nobody currently knows what exactly that is. In this game, Mario and Luigi are voiced by Kevin Afghani, who does a fantastic job at voicing the iconic plumbers! I likely wouldn’t have even known they had a new actor if I wasn’t informed beforehand; he’s that good!

Now let's talk about the world map and level themes. I won’t reveal each world, but I can confirm that this game has some unique worlds that aren’t just “grass, desert, ice, water, jungle, mountains, sky, lava” which is a very refreshing change of pace. Since the game takes place in a new kingdom, they were able to be expressive with the world map. Speaking of, some parts of the world map are linear, but for the most part, you can run around freely and choose which levels you want to play. And the levels themselves are fantastic; they all stand out from one another, and no two levels feel identical to play. There are also some break levels, where instead of moving from A to B, you complete a small challenge. You also have pop-up shops, where you can spend flower coins to get items such as badges. Oh yeah, let’s talk about the badges.

The game has a huge variety of badges that you can buy or collect. They all have their own different abilities and uses. For example, the cap badge lets you slowly glide down using a makeshift cap, or the crouch jump badge brings back the Mario 2 crouch jump. There are even some support ones if you want to make the game easier, but every single badge changes the game in one way or another.

You might be wondering “How difficult is the game?”. Well, the difficulty in this game can vary. Each level has a star rating from 1 to 5, with 1 being the easiest and 5 being the most challenging. You’ll mostly come across 3-star levels, which are fairly balanced. The entire game isn’t a spring breeze like New Super Mario Bros 2, but it also isn’t an unfair or painful experience like The Lost Levels. I’d say they got the difficulty balanced just right, which makes the game a fun experience.

The music is nothing short of incredible, which is to be expected from a Mario game. Each level theme fits right in with the game, and one thing I find cool about it is that when you become an elephant, the music becomes trumpet-based. I can’t even begin to explain how good the music is, so take a listen!

If you find a wonder flower in one of the levels, you get a wonder effect that drastically changes the level. There isn’t a single one that I disliked; I thought they were all good in their own way. Sometimes the level itself changes, and sometimes you get a power-up that completely changes the way you play; there’s a huge variety of wonder effects in the game that make the levels even more fun to play. Sometimes these can make the level easier, but there are ones that make it more challenging, like the levels where Bowser tries to blast you from the background, or cosmic Mario from Galaxy shows up and follows you. There are also musical wonder effects, where the enemies will start to sing. In one of the musical levels, King Boo shows up and starts singing opera… now if that isn’t awesome, then I don’t know what is! There’s one wonder effect in particular that made me lose my mind, and it’s in the level high voltage gauntlet. If you grab the wonder flower in this level, you become metal, and that iconic music starts playing. I was overjoyed when I saw this in-game for the first time, and I’m still in disbelief that they brought it back. The wonder effects in this game are fantastic!

Another thing I couldn’t talk about last time is the bosses. Since the Koopalings don’t show up for this game, you’d think they came up with some unique and original bosses, right? Oops! All Bowser Jr. At first I thought his boss fight was awesome; he gets his own wonder effect that changes his appearance to make him look menacing, and then changes the boss room layout with wonder effects. However, he shows up for every single palace in the game, and although the terrain is different each time, he still has the same attack patterns as before which makes fighting him start to get kind of tedious. And Worlds 3 and 5 don’t even have an end-of-world boss, you just get given the royal seed. I get that people may be sick of the Koopalings now because of the New series, but I feel like they could have actually worked well in this game. Like imagine if they all had their own new wonder forms, that make fighting them feel different to any previous entries. Literally, anything else would have been better than fighting Jr 4 times (no offence Bowser Jr), which is a shame because there are so many cool ideas seen throughout the game, but it’s the bosses that get the short end of the stick. However, I did enjoy the final boss. You fight a smoke cloud bowser, who you have to defeat by jumping in time with the beat to hit him. It was a little too easy for a final boss, but I did enjoy the fight; it felt unique.

One other issue I have with the game is that you can’t create multiple save files. You only get one save file per Switch account, so if you wanna completely replay the game then you either have to create a new account or erase your save data, which I’m not doing since I spent so long completing everything. Granted, you can replay every level at any given time, but it doesn’t feel quite the same as starting from scratch. This isn’t the only switch game to do this, but it’s such a shame that there’s something like this in the game to hinder its replayability.

Speaking of replayability, this game does in fact include a special world. You access this world by finding secret exits in levels, similar to how you’d find the star road in Mario World. But unlike Mario World, you have to find every single entrance in every world to play all of the levels. If you get 6 wonder seeds in this world, you can unlock the semi-final test, a reprise of the Piranha Plant Parade level from World 1, which was one of my favourite wonder effects. It’s much harder than the first version of the level, but it’s still really fun. And if you get every single wonder seed in the special world, you unlock the final test, a level that uses multiple wonder effects at once to test your experience with them. It’s one of the hardest levels in the game, and actually took me a few tries to beat.

But that isn’t the end of things! There is a secret final level. To unlock this, you have to go back and collect every single wonder seed, every single 10-flower coin, and reach the top of every single flag pole. I didn’t mind doing this; it was actually quite fun to revisit a lot of levels since they’re really fun to play. However, this also includes the search party levels, which I didn’t enjoy. In these levels, you have to find 5 wonder coins that merge into the wonder seed, which wouldn’t be that bad, except for the fact that most of them are hidden in the most cryptic places possible. I had to look up a guide for that, which I had to wait a while for since I played this at launch. But those levels aside, it was still really enjoyable going back to get everything. Once you have everything, you can finally unlock the final final test, which is without a doubt the hardest level in the entire game. This one tests how experienced you are with every single badge in the game. It may not seem too bad at first, but if you only used certain badges during your entire playthrough, you’re gonna need to adapt quickly or struggle, as I did with the spring and invisibility badges. This level did take quite a long time to beat, but I pulled through and beat it in the end. You actually get the final badge in the game for beating it; the sound-off badge. This badge replaces some of the sound effects with uhh… yeah. It’s more of a novelty badge, but it is kind of a cool reward.

You’d think that’s everything, but there’s one last objective to get 100%. Remember when I brought up standees in the last video? Well, collecting all of them must account for something, right? So, I took some time to grind for flower coins so that I could buy every single one. And once I did, what was the reward? A black background on the title screen. This reminds me of the postcard from Mario Sunshine, but here you’ll see this background every time you boot up the game, to remind you that you’re a super player.

To conclude, I think that Super Mario Bros Wonder is an incredible experience that everyone should play, as it’s definitely worth your money. I can guarantee that you’ll all have as much fun with the game as I did, so go play this game, you won’t regret it!