Super Mario World is a game that holds a lot of nostalgia for me. Though I was born roughly 7 years past its inital releaes in 1990, or 1991 in America, it's one of the first video games I can remember playing. I had initially played when it was ported to the GBA as part of the 'Super Mario Advance' series. I was probably 5, maybe 6, years old the first time I picked it up. There's not doubt that I have many fond memories of the game as I've played it numerous times through the years. It's probably the first 2D Platformer that I fell in love with. After picking it up again on a whim through the Switch's SNES virtual console I still found myself having a fun time blasting through levels and saving Princess Toadstool from Bowser. In the 30 years since its first release, I'm sure there are many who share experiences similar to mine. However, looking past the nostalgia I found myself playing a game that is ultimately held back by a few flaws.Though before delving into my critiques of the game, I would like to start by going over the things that I like about the game.

If nothing else, it is pretty flawless in its presentation. The 16-bit graphics look as fantastic as ever. Every enemy looks unique and there's never too much going on screen to prevent you from knowing what's going on. Mario himself looks great, and the over-world map is easily my favorite in any 2D Mario game. It seamlessly blends the different worlds in Dinosaur Land together into an epic adventure as you embark on a quest to save the Princess. The game is also fairly flawless with its controls. The power-ups are easy to use and understand, and Mario's jumping just feels good. Other than a few spare moments where I felt like the game was eating my inputs, any mistake I made felt like my own. At its best, Super Mario World has some superb platforming segments that are a blast to run through.

The game also has a fantastic soundtrack. Koji Kondo's score is comprised of songs which utilize the same melody, and the SNES provided him with a capability to use more sound channels, leading to more complex arrangements using a variety of instruments. Each variation of the theme fits the level its in. Your typical level sounds chipper and upbeat, while the castle and ghost house themes fit the more ominous aesthetic of those levels. And if you're taking your time with a level, you'll notice how the pieces will speed up as the timer dwindles. I can remember being a kid panicking as soon as I would hear it begin. I also love the game's overall sound design. There's a level of satisfaction that's felt as each continuous stomp on an enemy yields an ascending note in a musical scale. And each effect, from the various "THWOMPS" as you pick up items or throw them around sound great. There's a level of weight and life as you can feel enemies and objects interacting with the world.

All that being said, the game does suffer from a number of flaws that prevents it from reaching a level of perfection. My main issue with the game, if boiled down to one specific thing, would be the power-ups. The main power-ups you will be utilizing through the game are the traditional fire flower, as well as Mario's cape, and his new dinosaur friend Yoshi. With the cape providing a level of near infinite flight for players, some of the levels can become trivial as you can simply fly overhead until you reach the end goal. There are a few levels where this becomes impossible due to various obstacles, and flying through those levels feels great. The thrill I felt from these levels makes me wish it wasn't so easy to just completely skip over large parts of the game. Though you could argue that it's up to the player to make that decision, that in itself limits the player to only using two other power-ups. If nothing else it might be nicer if there was a bit more variety. While this by no means ruins the game as a whole, it still feels disappointing as a player to have to provide challenge through self-limitation.

There's also a few minor issues that makes the game feel slightly unpolished. In order to maintain progress, the game will give the players an option to save after completing any Ghost House, Fortress, or Castle. While this is nice in theory, the game does not save any lives collected or power-ups the player was left with. If you start up a file that you're in the middle of then you will start as tiny Mario, no power-ups, and five lives. This feels at odd with the game's distribution of extra lives as any that you accumulate will disappear unless you refuse to turn the game off. Though there is a secret level early on where you can easily obtain any of the game's power-ups, that choice makes the maintenance of power-ups from level to level as a pointless endeavor as long as you don't mind backtracking to that area.

Despite its shortcomings, Super Mario World is still a great game. I never had a bad time playing it, I just wish it had a bit more polish to it. It's still hugely impressive as one of the launch titles for the Super Famicom/SNES, and is worth revisiting every once in a while if you want a fun game you can just pick up and play.

If I had to describe Dragon Quest in a single word, I would say that it's charming.

Dragon Quest, known as Dragon Warrior in the US until the mid-2000s, is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. My first experience with the franchise was playing the Definitive Edition of Dragon Quest XI on my Nintendo Switch. I loved it. I loved Dragon Quest XI so much that it became an implicit mission in my brain to play as much Dragon Quest as a I can. This lead to me deciding that I need to "do my homework" and play the original Dragon Quest. Rather than playing the version localized in the United States as Dragon Warrior, I decided to play a fan-translation of the Super-Famicom port, released in 1993 as part of the Japanese-Exclusive Dragon Quest 1&2. Featuring beautifully updated 16-bit graphics, the game also streamlines some of the overworld menu and contains a save function which was not present in the original Japanese release, which had a password system.

At its core, Dragon Quest is a simple game. You have a single party member, all battles are fought one-on-one, you only learn ten spells. Most of the game is spent traveling from point A to point B, managing your health and mp as you grind through random encounters. If you die you return to the starting castle, losing half of the gold you're carrying on your person. You go to a town, talk to the NPCs, find out you need to go somewhere else, rinse, repeat. When put into such blunt language this might sound boring, but there was a level of charm that came with all of this. The NPCs would occasionally say something that made me laugh or I would find myself in an encounter that I wasn't sure I could survive and I would get excited when I won. These small moments made for a memorable experience that I found myself cherishing. Through its gameplay and language I saw a strand of DNA that has been present in so many games I've played before.

It'd be easy to look at Dragon Quest as a relic of the past that has been iterated or improved upon over the past 35 years. Viewing it as some antiquated experience undersells the game. I initially played it because I felt like I should do it as a new fan of the franchise. And what I found was a new appreciation for the franchise and what its done for video games since it was released in 1986. You owe it to yourself to at least try it out.