User:Yoshi155

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Yoshi155 across NIWA

Hello there. My name is Yoshi155. Though you probably already know that based on the name of this page. I have a Nookipedia account, something else you can clearly see. My first video game ever was actually a Mario game: New Super Mario Bros. 2. But I'll get more into that in a different section. While when I joined this site, I was more indifferent to Mario and less knowledgeable on the series, that’s done such a 180 that it’s almost comical to look back. Mario is literally my favorite video game series now.

Anyway, thanks for making it this far into my page (even though it hasn't been that far). Time to get into more interesting things.

History with Mario

Like I said before, New Super Mario Bros. 2 was my first Mario game. The next game I got was Super Mario 3D Land. This happened when my old 3DS broke and I lost my original NSMB2 cartridge so when I got to buy a new one, I wanted to pick a game that I’d never played before. Unrelated, but one of the games there was OoT 3D, and I wonder how different I’d be right now if I happened to pick that game. But that’s unimportant. I like SM3DL, except I sucked at the game so I had to use baby mode assist items. And my file is the same one from then, so I’ll never be able to get sparkling stars, but oh well. Then, a few months later I started viewing things about NSMB2 again and decided “hey, that game does look kind of cool, maybe I should play it again”. I did. Then I bought Super Mario Maker for 3DS, Mario and Luigi: Dream Team, M&LBISBJJ, MK7, and, actually, I’m going to stop listing them. You get the point though, right? I love Mario games. So let’s move onto the next section, shall we?

Rating every Mario game. (That I’ve played)

What’s going to be going on here should be pretty self explanatory. I’ll be ranking every Mario game I’ve played on a scale of 1/10 to 10/10. And every time I play a new one, I’ll give a new ranking. Oh boy, this is going to be fun…

The front North American cover art for New Super Mario Bros. 2

Like I said twice, this was my first game ever. I used to love it, but now I definitely see the flaws. I still don’t get the hate. It is very unoriginal and does things that I think are kind of stupid. Like why would they remove spin jumping? I get that there's no motion controls, but NSMBU lets you spin jump with the L R buttons. Also, I like the secret worlds, but why did they change it from the last two games? Now there's only two normal forest levels (combined into the beach world) and one mountain level (combined into the sky world) outside of secret worlds. And there really should be more power ups, they should have kept the ones from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Also the music is mostly unoriginal, except for the overworld and athletic themes having vocals and the music that plays in a warp cannon stage before entering the cannon, and the rainbow course music, and probably a few others. At least the stage design is pretty good. It's a good game, but I think the NSMB series steadily decreases in quality each entry. 7/10.


The North American cover for Super Mario 3D Land

Another underrated game. It doesn't have much that stands out when compared to other 3D Mario games, which is probably the contributing factor to this. Despite this, and the lower difficulty, I was still finding myself entertained playing this game. Let's not forget that there's 8 more worlds after beating the game. And just like SMG2, there’s a hard challenge after beating everything. A fun game, so I'll give it a nice 7/10. How will its sequel hold up, though?


Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS North American box art

A game I actually don't think is that good. It’s Super Mario Maker except that it's handheld. So because of that, they removed a lot of features like the mystery mushroom and literally the ability to upload levels. What is the point of the game if they're going to make it so much harder for other people to even play your stages? Also I was really bad at making stages when I got the game, but I do have to give it the fact that it introduced me to the Super Mario Maker series. That doesn’t save it from a low 4/10.


North America box art of Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Confession time: I never actually finished this game. I’m on Neo Bowser Castle, but I just left it there for so long. I have to say that this game's music is really good. But that is just a Mario thing in general, isn’t it? The bros. attacks are pretty cool. One thing every Mario & Luigi game does that’s innovative and new is that. I love the bosses, too. I'll give the game a 7/10. A pretty good game, but not the best Mario & Luigi game.


Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle NTSC/PAL boxart

My first (Mario) game on Switch. Because of this, for some time all I could do on my Switch was play this game. It was really fun. The gameplay is also pretty good. There's good music and bosses. I just wish Mario wasn’t forced to be on your team. 8/10.


Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey Box art

This game is… kind of disappointing. The new music is, in my opinion, mostly worse than the original game's soundtrack. Obviously higher quality, but it just isn’t nearly as good. It’s still good, like, I really like the remix of Deep Castle and Grasslands, All The Way, I even think they’re better than the originals, but with a lot of them, I tend to prefer the originals. Another thing I don’t like is that they changed the title music. And no, adding all of those new themes doesn't make up for it. Let's stop talking about music for a second. The new side mode is just the one from Superstar Saga DX but with Bowser Jr., and the one from that game isn't even that good to begin with. They also skipped Partners in Time for some reason. But there is one thing that is just awful about the game. Why would they release it on the 3DS when DS games can literally already work on it? It's not like Superstar Saga Deluxe, because that game actually originated on a console that isn’t compatible with the 3DS. It's even worse because the Nintendo Switch was almost two years old, so it would have made so much sense to release it there instead. Even though I like the 3DS more, the Switch was so much more popular than it, especially during this time period. This game is usually blamed for being the leading cause of Alphadream's bankruptcy, and I can kind of see why. But I’ve been way too harsh on this game. After all, it is the way I experienced this game for the first time, and that does make it pretty good. There's a lot of things that are improved, such as being able to leave battles whenever you want, or polishing things, like making the carrot minigame actually possible. And the graphics are obviously way better, especially now that Giant Bowser battles actually use 3D models (and don't require you to blow into the mic to breathe fire). This game is a 6.5/10. Why couldn’t they just release it on the console that wasn't already on its way out?


Super Mario Maker 2 boxart

This game is really good. There's so many possibilities for good stages. Of course not everyone uses them to make good stages, but still. It has a story mode as an improvement to the original, and you can make Super Worlds. But there's still some things missing that really shouldn't be. Obviously, the worst offender is that nothing happens in the NSMBU style when there's a “bah” in a song. But as for things that are a little less heinous, why aren't ice flowers in the game? Or penguin suits? Beach should be a theme, and so should Volcano. Those aren't the only ones, but they're the first ones that come to mind. But I like what the game does have, so 8/10.


New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe boxart

Ah, yes. NSMBU and NSLU combined. They'll be ranked individually. NSMBU is pretty rehashed, which is typical for an NSMB game. Unlike NSMB2, there is a normal new power-up introduced: the Super Acorn. There's also the P-Acorn, but that's not important. Still, there's some things that could have been better. Like, why is NSMB2 World 3-B the only stage (to my knowledge) where Mini mushrooms is used other than for secrets? Why not here? Also, most secrets are not nearly as hidden as before. And WHY CAN'T I STACK 99 PENGUIN SUITS ANYMORE???? The Koopalings are at least really unique. Like I said, each NSMB game seems to have gotten steadily worse, so 6/10. Forget what I just said about the NSMB series for NSLU. This game’s amazing. There's way more difficulty and uniqueness. You can't even use Mario until the game is beaten. But at this point, they should have just made the plot to rescue Daisy instead. After all, at this point she'd only been seen in one mainline Mario game. Still this game gets a 8/10.


Boxart for Super Mario Party.

I always heard that people disliked this game, and do I understand that now? Well, no. I've never really understood the hate for this game. Sure, Mario Party Superstars is better, but I always though this game was good. There should definitely be more maps to play on, but still. The graphics are really good, and the food in the game actually looks tasty. I really dislike the raft mode. But besides that, this game gets a 7/10.


Box art for the game, Mario Kart 7.

I'm not actually the biggest Mario Kart fan. I have three MK games, but it's not really my preferred Mario series. This game is pretty good. The tracks it adds are good, especially the new rainbow road and it's music. I barely have anything because I totally suck at it, but I still like the game. 7/10.


Mario Kart Tour Google Play icon (version 3.2.0)

Mario Kart, but at the touch of your finger. This was actually my first Mario Kart game, and from when I got it until about early 2022, I was completely hooked. I finished every tour and wanted to unlock every characters. And I hoarded rubies to get characters. But nowadays, I don’t really play the game that much. I barely ever finish tours and the only reason I have so many rubies is because I'm never on the game to use them. The worst thing about this game is very obvious, which is the micro transactions. But this is kind of a given for any mobile game. There's even two Kirby games on normal consoles with them. But I digress. Anyway, they started to make the microtransactions get a little less worse. Now there's not as much randomization. But if you look past everything that you can pay for with real money, it's a good game that was unfortunately placed on a device known for games with microtransactions. But unlike a lot of mobile games, this game isn't a cheap cash grab. It's clear there's actual effort put into the game as it receives a new tour every two weeks. Even if now they're going to stop doing that. So because of this, it’s an 8/10.


Dr. Mario World Google Play icon (version 2.0.0)

This is the second out of the three Mario mobile games that currently exist. It has microtransactions, but I can't really remember how horrible they were. I would check the game to see, if it weren’t for one small issue. The game was discontinued, sadly. I don't really remember how good this game really was. I just remember constantly getting stuck on levels. The best way I can describe it is if Dr. Mario had a baby with Candy Crush. Then, unfortunately, the baby died in a car crash and only Dr. Mario and Candy Crush survived. What a weird metaphor. Anyway, this game also has a lot of artwork for enemies and characters, which I really like. But from what I can remember, I didn't check on this game too often. 6/10.


Icon of Super Mario Run, as of version 3.0.4.

I can't give this game an amazing rating because of one major issue. To even play anything past the first world, you have to pay $10. $10. There may not be any other microtransactions, but still. I never actually experienced the full game because I never had money in my account. And not only that, but there's no “bahs” in songs, so no more Koopa dancing or Goombas jumping. This is so disgusting that I can't even play the game with this knowledge. Okay, but for an actually serious complaint, worlds are really short and either end with Boom Boom or Bowser, which I only know from video footage. There's only four stages in a world, and there's only six worlds. And if you don't pay, then don't expect to have fun, because there's not much else to do. 5/10.


Box art of New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros. DS. Where do I even begin with how good this game is? The music is so catchy and iconic. I love literally every single song from this game. The power ups are different from later NSMB games, because fire flowers/super mushrooms are the only main power ups whereas later games have multiple. This doesn't mean that there's no new power ups. Mega mushrooms can be seen throughout the game. Mini mushrooms also exist, albeit mainly for secrets. The blue shell (not that one) seems pretty polarizing, as you either hate its controls or love it for its speed. I'm on the second side. The bosses are original, and besides Dry Bowser and Petey Piranha, who isn't new, are completely exclusive to this game. They may not be completely original, just versions of enemies, but still. It has all the basics about the NSMB series. Basic themes, linear stages, basic exits and secret exits, and more. But that doesn't make me like it less. As you can tell, I am very fond of this game, and I really want to get New Super Mario Bros. Wii so I would have played every NSMB game. But will I be coming back just for this game? You bet! 10/10!


Final North American box art for Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

You may remember that at the beginning this, in the Super Mario 3D Land segment, I said "How will its sequel hold up, though?". And now that we're at said sequel, I can say, it holds up very well. It's kind of a direct follow up in terms of gameplay. It's basically the same besides a few changes other than graphics. One major change is multiplayer, and the ability to use more characters than just the bros. There's even a secret character that you unlock after beating Super Galaxy. There's more power ups, more movement options, and more music. There's a remix of the snow theme from Super Mario 3D Land, except it sounds more wintertime. There's even a stage in reference to that game. There's a lot of changes, but obviously there's a page on this site where you can see that for yourself, so I'll just say that Champion's Road is this game's version of the hard endgame challenge. But there's one thing I haven't said about this game. Bowser's Fury. The side mode that was added in the Switch remake, the version I played. Aaaaaaand… it's okay. I mean, I didn't play it that much so maybe I don't have much room to talk, but I don't think it's anything special. This entire game gets a 10/10. It takes everything that made Super Mario 3D Land amazing and made it 10x better. Which should make it an 70/10, but whatever.


North American box art of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

In November, I started playing this game. At the time, the only Mario & Luigi games I played were the ones I’ve already listed. I only just beat the final boss a week ago, but this game is amazing. The gameplay is good. The Bros. Attacks are really cool in this game, I like how the Bros use each other for Bros. Attacks, even though I prefer what happens in later games, where they use items. Another thing I like are the advanced Bros. Attacks. They’re difficult at first, but eventually, all of them just become muscle memory. It was really fun learning how to use the super attacks and unlocking them. I almost wish later games had something like that. The only issue I have with the gameplay is the difficulty. The bosses that were challenging for me were Queen Bean, Chuckolator, Trunkle, and the final boss. Everything besides that was either easy or not hard, but not easy. It’s not just the bosses that aren’t that challenging. A lot of areas weren’t the hardest, either. The thing is, nothing after Joke's End was challenging for me. That’s not that good of a sign when that’s the second to last area of the game. With every boss after that, I would intentionally not use my strongest moves, like, instead of using the advanced version of Swing Bros., I would use Splash Bros. or Advanced Bounce Bros. The Koopalings and Fawful were big reasons why I did that. Again, the final boss is hard, but the majority of the game is fairly easy. There’s also not much post game content, besides a few things you can go back to do after unlocking new skills. Anyway, the music is really good. Teehee Valley is very catchy, I actually went there to grind a little specifically because of the music (and also because the enemies are pretty strong, but still), and Bowser's Castle is a stand out. Every other song is good, too, and tends to fit well. Finally, the writing is good, too. I never noticed before how funny Mario RPGs are before, but this game had a decent amount of moments that made me laugh. The game gets an 8/10. The best Mario & Luigi game is the original Bowser’s Inside Story, but this is high up there. This is also the game that got me back into Mario as I kind of fell out of love with it after I started playing Animal Crossing. But now, I love Mario even more than Animal Crossing. And that’s all thanks to this game.


North American box art for Super Mario Land

Super Mario Land is a pretty average game. That’s really all I can say about it. If I’m being totally honest, I’d actually say it’s the worst mainline Mario game, besides a certain game. This game just doesn’t have that much substance. It can be best described as “SMB1, but shorter.” Sure, it’s obviously worth noting that Daisy was introduced here, and that there is a cool new (and only) power up, but besides that, it’s just a game that I’d say would be good to play on a car ride, but not really anywhere else. 4.5/10. Of course, being a Mario game, getting crowned the worst mainline Mario game really isn’t an insult. This is actually a pretty fun game, just not that great. One thing I can say is that the music is outstanding, however. The overworld theme, world 2’s music, the shooter music, and the credits are just examples, but every song in the game, even ones like the game over theme, are really good. This game almost makes me feel nostalgic even though, as of the time I’m writing this entry, I played the game for the first time about two months ago. Maybe if there were more stages and better physics, this game could be at least a 6/10. I wonder if there’s a game that does that…


North American box art for Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

…and that’s this game! Wow, I ended up liking this game way more than I ever thought I would. This is a super underappreciated game. First, like Super Mario 3D World, it takes everything that could be improved in the original and makes it into its best self. The graphics are better, the controls are better, there’s more than one power up, there’s more worlds, they took every problem I had and erased it. Before I played this game, I didn’t know that much about it. I had no idea there were secret courses in this game, but it adds more exploration to its already unique idea of being open world. It tracks things in a different way, too. Instead of getting 100 coins and going back to 0, you can hold up to 999 coins and spend them at a casino. You can also get a Super Star if you kill 99 enemies, which are also tracked. The worlds are really interesting, too. There’s worlds from a forest to a giant house to a Mario robot? This game is so weird and I love it. It’s definitely worth playing, and it’s on Switch, too. If you have GameBoy games on Switch, I highly suggest you check it out. 7.5/10.


United States box art for Super Mario Bros.

Yeah, so I kind of forgot about all the retro games I played. I also have to put this game and a few others here. But did I forget about them because they were bad? Well… maybe with this one. Look, this game is not horrible, but I think its legacy is better than the game. It started an amazing series, but the game itself has aged kind of poorly. The controls are clunky, and there’s your average artificial and ridiculous NES difficulty, especially towards the end. While nowhere near as bad as its Japanese only sequel, I think it’s best to remember what this game did rather than how good it actually was. Sometimes that doesn’t happen, like with the first Star Wars movie. That one tended to be better than the following movies (and, if you’re a prequel basher, the chronologically preceding movies). But in this case, the series has aged so much that it’s hard to come back to this one. If I replay this game, it’s probably only for the novelty factor, especially the original considering how the remakes are superior in every way besides nostalgia. 5/10. You might hate me for saying that, but I have to give my honest opinion.


North American box art for Super Mario Bros. 3

Super fun game. 9/10.

Okay, fine, I’ll give a detailed description. There’s a common debate over whether this game or another game are the best 2D Mario games. If I had to pick one, I’d say the other game only slightly wins here. It’s pretty close, but that game is just a little better. Anyway, about this game, it hasn’t aged as poorly as the first. Despite being occasionally unfair and sometimes having… questionable level design, most of the time, this game is very fun. It’s hard, but it tends to feel like natural difficulty and not artificial. The power ups are super fun, too. Except the Frog Suit, but even that’s fun underwater (it’s also the only way to make underwater fun). This game is fun whether it’s the original or a remake. I totally recommend this. After all, it inspired 3D Land, and as you know, I love that game. Like I said before, this game is a 9/10.


North American box art for Super Mario World

This is the game that is a point of debate for the best 2D Mario game. Like I said, Super Mario Bros. 3 is better, but this game is no Hotel Mario, either. First, they introduced Yoshi here. What else needs to be said? There’s a lot of fun stages and groovy music. Speaking of that, the Star World/Special Zone stages are also fun to play. They’re all challenging but fun. Slightly fun. I hate Mondo with a burning passion. This game also isn’t as hard as Super Mario Bros. 3 because it’s not an NES game, but it’s not easy, either. Ghost houses can also leave you stuck if you don’t know what you’re doing, making this a fitting introduction for those types of stages. I totally recommend this game. One of the greats of the Super Nintendo’s library along with games like Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Link to the Past, and Kirby Super Star. Play this game! Play it right now! Also play those other games! 8.5/10!


North American box art of Super Mario 64.

So about a month ago, I got a copy of Super Mario 3D All-Stars. I’m not going to be ranking that game since there’s not enough changes for it to really warrant that, but I will be ranking the games in it. Since I’m a completionist, I’m 100%ing each game before moving on to the next so expect that to take a while. Anyway, right now I’m on this game. I was pretty new to 3D Mario games, as you should be able to tell from this list (yes, I have played 3D Land and World, but those work pretty differently from normal 3D Mario games and are more meant to be 2D Mario games in a 3D space). But after playing this game, I think I like them more than 2D games. First, the stage design is pretty good. Some stages are way more difficult than others (I swear if I fall in quicksand one more time), but after I got good at the game, it wasn’t that bad. I also like how open world it is. It’s less linear than even later 3D games, which isn’t really a bad thing. The camera is… less than stellar by today’s standards, though. But everyone knows that. Another thing I want to compliment is the music. Every song fits well with where it plays, except for a few (Slider should not play on Rainbow Ride). Like, Dire, Dire Docks will never be fun no matter what you do, but that music… it almost makes me give it a pass. Speaking of Dire Dire Docks, I have to talk about the stars. First, the hints aren’t always the best. This isn’t the case most of the time, but sometimes your hint is just “Metal-Head Mario Can Move!,” or “Blast Away The Wall”. I don’t know how you could do some of these without a guide. Now, where Dire Dire Docks fits into this is the 100-coin stars. These can range from fun like in Bob-omb Battlefield to frustrating in a stage like Jolly Roger Bay, where there are barely 100 coins and so you have to pick up almost every one. Dire Dire Docks is the worst, or at least the least fun, example of this because not only is it a water level, but it manages to be worse than Jolly Roger Bay’s (which is also a water level and has even less coins) by forcing you to do at least some of the red coin star (one of the most boring stars in the game) since there’s 8 red coins and only 106 coins in total in the stage, and also in general spreading the coins far apart, which is only worsened by this game’s bad render distance. And when you die with a lot of coins, you can actually feel yourself die on the inside, especially in Rainbow Ride (I hate that star SO MUCH) and Tick Tock Clock. And the last bad thing about stars is being forced out of a stage when you get a star. Considering how many stars you can get by picking a mission that’s not even dedicated to it, it doesn’t seem that hard to fix this except for on specific stars, like boss ones. But it’s not a big deal. This game is awesome! 9/10!


North American box art for Super Mario Sunshine.

This game is fairly controversial, but I think it’s awesome. The controls are even better than in Super Mario 64, mainly because of FLUDD. The nozzles are all really fun to use. The camera, while not always perfect, is mostly an improvement over Lakitu. Also, the missions are improved. In Super Mario 64, they just made you do random things in the stage, and some could be done without even selecting the mission for that star. In this game, they’re called episodes for a reason. They all involve Mario restoring the area back to how it was like before. Like in Noki Bay, where Mario has to help clean the water, eventually having to fight a huge eel. Gelato Beach mainly revolves around the Sand Bird hatching, and Ricco Harbor has you clean up some inky goop. And unlike Super Mario 64, the stage design tends to change depending on the mission, so you usually can’t select episode 1 and do episode 4. I prefer it this way because every area has a story. But there are some valid criticisms with the game to address. First, the difficulty. Every stage has at least one shine that’s a giant difficulty spike, mainly, but not exclusively, in the form of secret stages. Some of the more infamous secret courses include the Sand Bird and the Chuckster stage. I don’t actually hate these stages. They might bring back bad memories and traumatic flashbacks… but they’re fun bad memories. That sounds so dumb… I’m just saying that the fact that the game is hard doesn’t make it bad. Now don’t get me wrong, some of them are just bad, but a few bad stages doesn’t ruin the game. Another criticism that I can agree with is the progression. In Super Mario 64, to get to the final boss, you have to have obtained at least 70 stars. Here, all you have to do is clear Episode 7 of every stage. That means that that if there’s any shine that’s too hard for you, which, like I said, definitely exist, and it’s before episode 7 in any stage, too bad. You have to do it to get Corona Mountain. You can’t just get shines somewhere else because the amount of shines don’t matter if you haven’t found Shadow Mario in every area. That also means that any shines that aren’t one of those, like 100 coin shines, episode 8 shines, hidden shines, Delfino Plaza shines, or blue coins, are completely pointless if you’re not going for 100%. While it makes sense story wise, it’s definitely not a good choice in terms of game design. Speaking of blue coins… they kind of suck. If you go to the boathouse, you can talk to Tom Nook and give him 10 blue coins for a Shine Sprite. There’s 240 in the game, and the raccoon guy has 24 shines, so you have to get every single blue coin. I don’t think these would have been as hated if, say, there were only 16 or 20 blue coin shines so you didn’t have to get every single one, just a majority of them. But no, you have to get every blue coin. There’s 30 in each area, excluding Corona Mountain, which has 10 (9 of which are absolutely EVIL), Delfino Plaza, which has 19, and Delfino Airstrip, which has 1. Some of them are easy to find; clean a Pianta/Noki, wash some graffiti off a wall, etc. But some have incredibly cryptic placements. Spray some random lamp, go all the way out to the sea and swim to the ground, stuff like that. And to make matters even worse, while some blue coins appear in every/a majority of episodes, but some only appear in one. And the game doesn’t tell you which ones. The most it does is tell you how many blue coins you have in an area, so you’d better have a guide handy. Noki Bay in particular has some of the most well hidden ones. Also, 100 coin shines return. They’re somehow even worse now. Well, only in one way, which is that in some stages, only certain episodes even have enough coins to give you the shine. This just means that it’s possible for you to get very close to 100, but not have enough coins left in the stage because you picked the wrong mission. I had to use a guide for this just so I could find out which episodes to pick. Finally, the voice acting. To be honest, it’s kinda bad, but it’s like a Sonic game. It’s super cheesy, but that makes it good. But Nintendo will probably never do it again. Despite all these criticisms, I still adore this game. I still can’t decide whether it’s better than 64 or not. So it gets a 9/10. It’s super fun.


Boxart for Super Mario Galaxy.

Everyone says this is one of the greatest Mario games (or video games in general) of all time. And I have to agree that it’s a really solid Mario game. The controls are way stiffer than Sunshine and 64, so it took me a while to get used to the controls. Despite being a lot less loose, the controls are really good and fun to master, and the game is actually just as cheesable as any of the previous 3D games. I mean, name one person who’s done the Good Egg Galaxy hidden star the intended way. Exactly. I will say that sometimes, for inexplicable reasons, the game will just make you run around in circles when you try to go in a straight line. Not sure why that happens sometimes. Anyway, another highly praised aspect of the game is the music. This is definitely one of the best Mario OSTS of all time. I love pretty much every song in the game, even the non orchestral ones. They’re all super pleasing to listen to. One thing that I’m not a fan of is the motion controls, though. Considering that it’s a Wii game, they’d obviously have to be shoehorned in. They’re usually okay, like with the Star Pointer, but a lot of stars are made way harder because you’re forced to use motion controls. The Switch version alleviates the pain of any bubble blowing star because in handheld mode, you can blow Mario’s bubble using the screen, but the Star Ball and Manta Ray surfing still require motion controls. I’m sure they realized how annoying this was considering that all of the Trial Galaxies use those mechanics, and these are supposed to be the hardest stars in the game. Speaking of hard missions, this game definitely has those. They’re mostly in the form of Prankster Comets (or… sometimes trash). These are incredibly satisfying to beat, so it’s a little disappointing that you can beat the main story without ever playing any of these, meaning they’re only really necessary for 100% completion. Anyway, Speedy Comets tend to be easy so long as you have an ounce of skill, and Cosmic Comets are pretty run of the mill unless you’re playing as Luigi. Fast Foes Comets are only used for galaxies, so besides that, the hard comets tend to be Purple Comets and Daredevil Comets. I don’t find any of the Daredevil boss fights that challenging (not even Bouldergeist) besides maybe Major Burrows, but the one that makes you play through an entire mission is nothing short of agony. The only one like this is the one for Melty Molten Galaxy, Lava Spire Daredevil Run. This one is super tough because while the mission isn’t very long, the fact that you go back to the beginning if you ever mess up once will always be there in the back of your head. The Purple Comets usually have challenge. The hardest ones are the ones that play the Purple Comet theme and tend to have a time limit. The ones without a time limit aren’t as hard, but they’re usually very tedious, especially Purple Coins by the Seaside. But like I said, even the missions that are painful to play are very satisfying to complete. If there’s one major thing I wish I could change, it’s Super Luigi Galaxy. After getting all 120 stars and beating Bowser again, instead of getting a postcard or lives, you can replay the entire game as Luigi. There’s pretty much no changes besides a few differences in Luigi’s move set and physics (like drowning faster for some reason) and Cosmic Luigi being an absolute sweat compared to Cosmic Mario, so it’s pretty much the same thing Super Mario 3D Land makes you do. It sucks in both games because there really should be more changes. In this game, why not make Luigi visit different planets during missions? While I haven’t played it, this game’s sequel has a much better idea in general, just having 120 Green Stars to collect after finding all 120 Power Stars. It feels a lot less like padding compared to forcing you to replay the same game and get all 120 stars again, since at least you’re actually doing something slightly new. But besides those major issues, this game rocks! You might say that the game is overrated, but I say that it deserves the praise. 10/10!


International box art for Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, from Nintendo Switch Online

To be honest, this is one of, if not, the worst mainline Mario games. Like I’ve said before, I like a little challenge in games because it adds some spice. But this game goes overboard. It’s not just hard, it’s bad stage design. Most Mario games tend to feel like they were designed fairly and for the player to have fun, like any good video game. This game doesn’t. All of the stages feel like bad Super Mario Maker levels. Forcing you to use invisible blocks to continue, absolutely atrocious pick a path castles, making the stage endlessly loop unless you enter a hard to reach pipe, and more. There’s also annoying enemy placement and some incredibly nasty platforming, this game doesn’t feel like it was designed for pros. It just feels like it was designed to troll you. That’s what makes a hard game a bad game. The fact that it feels like it was designed with the intention to make you angry. So because of that, I can’t give this game higher than a 3/10. This is Kaizo Mario before Kaizo Mario.