The only major flaws in this game are its "age" and the lack of flourishes but it's a true classic for a reason. The controls were very fluid in a time where many other platformers made your jumps stiff so it still feels good to play to this day. Everything about this game is super iconic and it's very fun to do a quick run through. This game still holds up but not to quite the grand standards it was viewed as back in the day. It's a good platformer but the genre has come so far since this release.

This game is awesome. It’s very fun and action-packed with just one button to attack. It has everything good from The Legend of Zelda but without that game’s pitfalls (It’s got the combat down but without the obtuse overworld secrets). Fun combat, though it can get VERY difficult at times and occasionally too much so. It is the unsung hero of the Famicom/NES library, definitely give it a play, at least with save states if the difficulty is too much for you. I would have loved to see this series iterated upon and expanded, a remake at least.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (J) is often touted as the most difficult Mario game and not in an engaging way. The game pulls a lot of cheap tricks and makes the player cross many blind jumps that it’s surprising this direction for level design was considered at all. The slightly touched up sprites are nice-looking but so much is reused that the game doesn’t have an identity outside of being difficult. It’s fun to say you’ve beaten it but not much more. A relic of a time where sequels were lacking direction.

Ironically, sluggish movement and lanky jumps would normally be a flaw in a game but Castlevania’s level design leverages it into an asset. In an era before games employed detailed graphics and sound to convey horror, this game uses your lack of control to make you feel more at the enemy’s mercy. I find that very interesting and I love mastering the boss and level design. The music is very iconic and great for the NES. With that said, the game is still pretty basic, simple, and some challenges feel cheap and a bit too far out of the player’s hands. They managed to get a lot of the series’s identity right and set in stone with this very first entry. Still a fun and worthwhile experience even today though.

The level of mastery you can achieve with this game is very fun. While the idea of basing the bosses on different nationalities is very archaic to say the least, the bosses still express a lot of personality even through the graphical limitations. The gameplay is very simple yet intuitive. It’s the type of game you will want to master and say you made it to the end. Whether you know the boss scripts by heart and want to speed your way through, or you turn every battle into a dramatic three-rounder decided right before the bell, this game is exhilarating. One of the NES’s greats.

It’s shocking how the mainline Mario series trailblazed so hard for the platformer genre and games as a whole in just its first few entries. The level themes may seem standard now but it’s important that this was the first major game to do the whole Grass-Desert-Water-Snow-Lava, etc. thing. Honestly a contender for best NES game period and absolutely holds up the most.
My only complaint is that upon a replay, the levels were a lot shorter than I remembered and I wish some of the really cool power-ups (Hammer Suit) weren’t so hidden.

I have to override my nostalgia for this game, even with it having been the very first video game I ever played as a baby kid…
While I stated in my review of Super Mario Bros. that its age was its biggest flaw yet didn’t matter… it does matter here because it really affects the game. The screen is so small, and the physics & movement feel very off. The game does have a lot of personality, every world having its own song is nice, the different set pieces are nice. But it’s really hard to bump this too high because it doesn’t feel as smooth to play.
It rates so high because it’s fun as a quick “complete a Mario in half an hour” and the aforementioned charm but that’s as much as I can give with the rest in mind.
Overall, it’s a fine enough and charming game, but its history as one of the first handheld platformers really shows.

This is really where Mega Man started. It has everything going for it too. Firstly, pleasing and charming graphics, in spite of NES limitations. Secondly, the soundtrack is phenomenal, not just back then, but now; best NES soundtrack easily and it isn’t close. The levels are very engaging, hitting a sweet spot of tough but fair. The Metal Blade invalidates a lot of enemies but, man, it’s fun to use. In my review of Super Mario Bros. 3, I mentioned that it was a contender for one of the best NES games and holds up in modern times. Mega Man 2 was the most poignant example in my mind that stopped me from definitively saying “the best”

Long-review short: Masterpiece.

This was one of the first video games I played, and it was the one that made me truly fall in love with the medium as a whole. This game does everything so damn right.
The spritework is great and holds up well. The controls and movement are the perfect amount of responsiveness. The level designs are very fun and have a lot of explorability, (even sidestepping the issue where Super Mario Bros. 3’s levels sometimes felt too short).
The music is some of the most catchy and iconic video game music in all history. The vibes and theming of each level are immaculate.
Everything this game brings to the table, from Yoshi/Baby Yoshi, to the expanded importance of the world map, to the secret exits, to the Cape Feather’s fun movement is a hit. All the enemy designs are really cool too.
I may be blinded just a tad by nostalgia but I legitimately can’t muster a flaw to write in. (Except the secret exits in World 5 being obtuse but that’s nothing)
I would very firmly put this in the category of games that absolutely everyone should play through at least once. Very easily one of the best platformers of all time, to this day.

I have very fond memories with this game. As a kid, my first playthrough was done alongside a friend, and we both challenged each other not to look up guides or anything.
We would explore the game and share details with each other when we both got stuck, trying to see who could beat the game first. Whenever I found a cool weapon he hadn’t, I felt a sense of pride. I imagine he felt the same when he showed me where he got an upgrade that I didn’t find.
That said… that’s the only context I hold fondness for and find it hard to return to and replay. The lack of a map was fun for a challenge back then but now it’s just cumbersome, the aspect ratio on the sprites is also not fun to work with. The game is just okay.