rêverie
Bob-omb
- Pronouns
- he/him
welp, call me a nintendo fan, but i have only played alan wake 2 super mario bros. wonder - so, here goes:
(B+) (edit: maybe would also say an A-, but i'm sticking with 4 stars)
i have always been a fan of 2D mario games, even the lowest rated NSMB (3DS) i played the heck out of. wonder, thankfully enough, puts all the NSMBs to shame in almost every aspect. to start, the art style truly is a wonder - the animations are so lively, the colors pop, the backgrounds and themes are really beautiful. this is absolutely one of the aspects of the game that i have no qualms with.
the gameplay itself also feels snappier and more fun to control than the NSMB titles. i felt like i really could control my characters in dire moments when subtlety was needed. i also very much appreciated that all the characters included (another lovely addition) played the same, so i could use each of them without feeling handicapped in some way. my only problem with that is making yoshi an "easy mode" character as i would've loved to use them without feeling like a noob.
with the levels themselves, i felt like this was another upgrade over past iterations, to some degrees. W1 was possibly one of the best W1s ever, it felt like it went on forever and there were so many different paths you could take. W2 and W3 though gave me a little worry as i felt less impressed. W2 felt like most other ice levels and was only serviceable to me, with some standouts. W2, on the other hand, i enjoyed its theming but it felt so incredibly easy it had almost no staying power to me. i also felt that it was a fun take on a world to not have a castle at the end, but this could've been done better. after these two worlds though, the game took off and never looked back. i truly loved the last half of the game - the fact that the desert world was possibly my favorite when desert worlds are almost always the worst?! absolutely magic.
out of the three new power-ups; bubble, elephant, and drill, the latter was certainly my favorite. i loved how drilling into the ground made you interact with the courses in a completely new way. i wish this was actually used more and to varying effects - i can certainly see interacting with the levels themselves as a interesting route to take in the coming games. my least favorite was bubble - loved the color combo of the power-ups on the characters but it was largely boring to use and really didn't feel helpful most of the time. elephant was certainly fun and had its uses as well.
what takes it down to only a B+ for me though, is the music and length, i.e. shortness. the music here is definitely a step up from NSMB days and i heard some genius themes, but it truly felt like they could have gone even farther and tried harder to produce something really one-of-a-kind. in the end, i ended up cranking out 20 hours with this game, definitely not short for a 2D platformer, but it seemed like the team had so many ideas that i wish they expanded even more on. i feel like we could've gotten more secret levels, more branching paths in the levels themselves, etc. it's telling, then, that my biggest qualms are simply that i just wanted more of everything!
all in all, SMBW is a magnificent return to form for the king of platformers and truly lives up to the expectations of it being a joyous romp through some drugged up mushroom kingdom. can't wait to play it again in a few months after i've forgotten 50% of it!
edit: wow, i was not expecting to write that much. oops
(B+) (edit: maybe would also say an A-, but i'm sticking with 4 stars)
i have always been a fan of 2D mario games, even the lowest rated NSMB (3DS) i played the heck out of. wonder, thankfully enough, puts all the NSMBs to shame in almost every aspect. to start, the art style truly is a wonder - the animations are so lively, the colors pop, the backgrounds and themes are really beautiful. this is absolutely one of the aspects of the game that i have no qualms with.
the gameplay itself also feels snappier and more fun to control than the NSMB titles. i felt like i really could control my characters in dire moments when subtlety was needed. i also very much appreciated that all the characters included (another lovely addition) played the same, so i could use each of them without feeling handicapped in some way. my only problem with that is making yoshi an "easy mode" character as i would've loved to use them without feeling like a noob.
with the levels themselves, i felt like this was another upgrade over past iterations, to some degrees. W1 was possibly one of the best W1s ever, it felt like it went on forever and there were so many different paths you could take. W2 and W3 though gave me a little worry as i felt less impressed. W2 felt like most other ice levels and was only serviceable to me, with some standouts. W2, on the other hand, i enjoyed its theming but it felt so incredibly easy it had almost no staying power to me. i also felt that it was a fun take on a world to not have a castle at the end, but this could've been done better. after these two worlds though, the game took off and never looked back. i truly loved the last half of the game - the fact that the desert world was possibly my favorite when desert worlds are almost always the worst?! absolutely magic.
out of the three new power-ups; bubble, elephant, and drill, the latter was certainly my favorite. i loved how drilling into the ground made you interact with the courses in a completely new way. i wish this was actually used more and to varying effects - i can certainly see interacting with the levels themselves as a interesting route to take in the coming games. my least favorite was bubble - loved the color combo of the power-ups on the characters but it was largely boring to use and really didn't feel helpful most of the time. elephant was certainly fun and had its uses as well.
what takes it down to only a B+ for me though, is the music and length, i.e. shortness. the music here is definitely a step up from NSMB days and i heard some genius themes, but it truly felt like they could have gone even farther and tried harder to produce something really one-of-a-kind. in the end, i ended up cranking out 20 hours with this game, definitely not short for a 2D platformer, but it seemed like the team had so many ideas that i wish they expanded even more on. i feel like we could've gotten more secret levels, more branching paths in the levels themselves, etc. it's telling, then, that my biggest qualms are simply that i just wanted more of everything!
all in all, SMBW is a magnificent return to form for the king of platformers and truly lives up to the expectations of it being a joyous romp through some drugged up mushroom kingdom. can't wait to play it again in a few months after i've forgotten 50% of it!
edit: wow, i was not expecting to write that much. oops
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