The story of this game has been documented by a lot of people, starting originally as a prototype for a new Mario game with vertical levels and simultaneous multiplayer, to becoming Doki-Doki Panic in Japan, to becoming an actual Mario game in the West, because The Lost Levels was bullshit hard.
In hindsight, it's weird that Nintendo of America didn't allow Lost Levels to come over because of its difficulty, but allowed stuff like Zelda 2, but I digress.

Super Mario Bros. 2 plays very differently to the 1st game.
Instead of jumping on enemies, you pick up vegetables and throw them at the enemies.
Instead of saving Peach from Bowser, she's a playable character alongside Mario, Luigi & Toad, and you fight against a new villain called Wart.
Instead of defeating Goombas, Koopas and Lakitus, you defeat Shy Guys, Ostros, and Pokeys.

Of course, a lot of these changes come from its Doki-Doki Panic origin, but what I find so interesting is not only does this game expand the Mario universe ten-fold (even if this game is a dream, some of these elements carried over for future games), this game is a joy-ride from beginning to end!

I may be a bit alone on this, but I actually prefer this game over the original.
I have fun with both, and I do have some criticisms with this installment, but I just really like a lot of the stuff that Mario 2 offers.

While it may be a bit overdone nowadays, this title introduced the level themes we would see in future Mario games, like the Desert World, the Water World, the Ice World, you get it.

The characters all have their own unique attributes, and are really fun to play around with, and also add some extra replay value, and offer playstyles for either beginner players or more hardcore ones.

Yes, always fighting Birdo at the end of most levels can get tiring, and yes, some of the levels can get a bit long, but I had a lot of fun with this entry, and I'm really glad that it became a Mario game, even with many of its changes to the Mario formula.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a good game, and I had a lot of fun with it! :D

The original Castlevania is probably one of the most iconic games ever made, period.
From the amazing boxart to the monsters you fight, to that classic Belmont strut, Castlevania has a lot to make the famous (or maybe infamous) game that it is today.

Playing through Castlevania years ago was definitely a fun experience. While at the time of this review, I haven't really touched the NES version, thanks to the Anniversary Collection, I played the Famicom port they released a few years later, since this game originally released in Japanese markets on the Famicom Disk System.

The Famicom version of this game is pretty much the same as the original, but it includes an Easy difficulty, which is how I experienced the game a lot back then, since it made it extremely easy to pick up, play and beat in around half an hour.

I do wanna try the NES version eventually, to see its difficulty, but in terms of gameplay, the original Castlevania is pretty fun!

It can be a bit punishing, with you not being able to control your jumps in mid-air, but the act of whipping enemies and using sub-weapons to your advantage (especially the Holy Water and Stop Watch) never gets old.

And the music is really awesome, from tracks like Vampire Killer, Heart of Fire and Out of Time, it really gets you pumping for the quest to kill Count Dracula!
And for an NES game, the game looks nice. It has a nice contrast of colors, with Simon's sprite being mainly orange, with many of the backgrounds having a nice dark blue sky.
Complementary colors!

Overall, Castlevania is a classic, and it's really fun to play, even with its short length.