Time for the October catch up, too much text returns, my beloved spellcheck gone again!
51. Super Mario World (replay) ★★★★
SMW could be seen as a platformer of two halves, one of course being your super mario run and jump obstacle course as expected, the other being a fairly exploratory adventure for secret exits that forge your own path across Dinosaur Land.
As a kid, those secret exits were fantastic, stuck at vanilla dome castle because Kamek's shenanigans were too much for me? Well I found the route to Vanilla Fortress on top of the dome so there, only to be halted by my inability to grasp the paired rising/falling mushroom platforms of butter bride 1. In which case I just found star road also in vanilla dome and somehow managed to puzzle my way to the warp to bowser's castle, I finished SMW without even reaching castle number 4. This shows the power of openness that permeates SMW's core design, where I may not be able to jump those mushrooms, but I can grab a blue yoshi and fly to a secret exit that on paper requires a switch palace from world 5.
Alas I'm no longer that wonder filled child, I'm a hardened grouchy veteran of the genre who is returning for a combo of that sweet mario platforming alongside that sweet nostalgia rush. And each time I return to world chasing my childhood joy, the cruel reality is that my ideals have changed, these secret exits just get in the way of me playing all the stages without retreading old ground, often placing secrets in tedious cave autoscrollers, multiple in ghost houses where I solved the puzzle many years ago or right by a standard exit making the stage revisit extra flavourless.
When you know all the secrets like the back of your hand, SMW is left with its solid platforming core, and a selection of mostly good yet dare I say, rarely great levels that don't deliver on the potential of World's mechanics, and never would be able to until the kaizo community got a hold of them.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons I love Mario Maker so much is getting to play my idealised fantasy version of SMW, I shun Nintendo's deliberate easier and open level design for tighter obstacle courses (but still not kaizo), the SMW 2 of my dreams that doesn't involve baby mario.
Drawing this back to SMW proper, I'll always enjoy my revisit to Dinosaur Land, the game's visuals are simple yet pleasing, the compact OST riffs off one main melody for the vast majority of it but with enough flair and variation to not make it feel stale, and while not my favourite Mario to control mechanically, it's still an excellent level of tight precision and control that makes simply moving about a joy.
I'm always noticing these days the unusual gulf in challenge between the game's overworld stages and the game's castles and forts. There's a kind of sparseness to a lot of the standard stages in SMW, right down to the valley of Bowser even that has the game's difficulty curve seem fairly static, you can't tell me that choco island's stages are really stepping up the challenge like SMB3 did at the equivalent world, as much as I love Dino Rhino, his stage ain't shiiiit. Conversely, the castles and forts are not only a step up from the grassy stages either side of them on the map, they do really up the ante throughout the game and they're quite uniformly excellent. Peak SMW for me exists in these cramped confines of dense hazards, no Yoshi, a cape culling ceiling, the best music track in the game and errr some naff bosses as per series tradition (except Bowser, he's pretty fun).
It's almost like the anti-SMB3 where I find the game's standard stages to be a constant hit of escalating platforming outings, only to screech to a tedious (but still tricky) airship halt closing out each world, funny how that works, well works for me anyway.
Thanks to the Switch app for the SNES including a pre completed version of SMW as well, I was able to take a more direct path through the game on a new save, and then jump to the SP version and simply play the stages I missed, making this one of the better replays for this game I've had, no more doing the Valley of Bowser 2 twice for me with it's tedious wall waiting spelunking.
So as you may be able to tell, my relationship with SMW is strange, like a past love you know you'll never be able to feel the same way about again, yet still can appreciate. I do get a bit of a stick up my butt about how infallible the game seems to be among the genre (especially highlighted right now in wonder discourse, I swear all the legitimate issues with wonder apply here as well but I guess we ain't ready for that convo), maybe it's envy, maybe there are in fact better platformers gosh darn it with more than like 5 stage themes, but it's still a great game that brought me fully into this hobby.
52. Super Mario Wonder ★★★★
Out with the world , in with the wonder, and let me tell ya, the initial playthrough of this game is probably the tightest and most constantly enjoyable one I've played this year, causing me to storm through to 100% faster than I'd like, without really a negative moment that I can recall, pure joy from start to finish that's left me a touch empty as I scramble for other platformers to fill the void (why yes, more are coming up!).
I'm a bit hesitant to stamp the "best 2D Mario" sticker over it so soon, because I'm stupidly, punishingly analytical at times of things I enjoy as you may have noticed, and stop to consider that Wonder's penchant for spectacular moments of gimmicked goodness might be this game's version of World's secret exit surplus, where I hunger for more platforming challenge in their place in the aftermath of that initial run. Which is to say I have revisited most main stages twice and you can only really wowee zowee at a number of these moments on that first go around, but what moments they are.
If New Super Mario has ever lacked something compared to his modern day competition, it's…well a few things actually like music, visual oomph, inspired bosses…
But for me mostly it's that dash of spectacle, those set pieces that make you do the platformer pop off. Even back in the 16 bit days Sonic was running loops past Mario on this front, Sonic 3 & Knuckles alone has dynamic stage shifting moments of brilliance that made World look flat, and when NSMB Wii's big tricks would become rotating some terrain while Rayman Origins was having entire stages shift and morph before your eyes during frantic chases, it was hard not to see Mario as an example of fundamentally excellent but lacking in pizaz, Super Mario became that technical wrestler who was a master at their craft, yet fell into the shadow of the flashier charisma fuelled rivals who may not have been quite as mechanically sound, but they stole the attention and had the better entrance music.
Better late than never, because Wonder's main gimmick IS gimmicks, every main stage offering a segment that finally has 2D Mario break from expected formula and have me actually go "what the shit is happening?!" in a good way I assure you, none of which I want to spoil either. Let's jump back to that aforementioned visual oomph and music, while still not quite up to the levels of the very best here, Mario has got his groove back, the tunes are pleasing to the ear, the stage themes remix the usual grass/desert/snow/lava etc into flashier and much more standout examples of the tropes that are by far the best seen in the 2D series.
Where Wonder might even surpass the others though is it's gleeful animation, it's not so much the amount of frames and excessive detail, but more the amount of contextual little touches everywhere that breathe so much life into Mario and co, that it makes NSMBU, which I like a lot I'd add, seem positively DEAD inside by comparison.
And it's not just Mario, the suprisingly high number of other playable characters along for the ride all sing with their animated quirks, even Nabbit who looked like a bad romhack in NSMBU's gameplay as I recall.
The difficulty discussion is likely to be the main thing that hangs around this game's era reception, too easy? for me, absolutely, engaging despite that? you betcha.
The untapped potential in level gimmicks and enemies is truly felt, much like SMW above actually, there's the feeling that a Galaxy 2/NSMB Wii outing for Wonder's base would just wippity whop in a way that could make base wonder here seem a bit slight.
Still that's just a potential future, in this moment right now, Wonder is a blast and a game I'm already raring to replay in full, with friends? actually turning the online on? I've got options!
53. Pac Man World: Re-Pac ★★★
He's Pac and he's BACK, back to trying to figure out how to exist in a post arcade era. After delving into the pac man museum plus compilation last year, it's pretty clear Namco have never really known how to approach adapting their iconic mascot into entire generations of game consoles, puzzle games? Janky 2D jump n' runs? What if he's a ball you roll? What if we just do pac man again but with fancier visuals? And here with Pac Man World we land at "what if we do one of those pretty standard mascot 3D platformers that are all the rage in this PS1/N64 era and you collect bonus fruits and stuff to remind you it's still pac man?"
For what it's worth, Pac Man World (now re-pac'd into a modern day remake as something no one had on their bingo card last year) is a pretty respectable effort in reheating Pac Man. Carrying the same sort of vibe as Bomberman's 3D exploits of the same time period, Pac Man World isn't gonna blow anyone's minds, but it is a reliably good time that manages to keep some semblance of making you go "yep, that's Pac Man" despite the genre shift.
In Pac man World, Pac Man can bounce, this bounce is the secret sauce that helps elevate the game above it's fairly standard and narrow in scope level design. Pac's bounce is higher than his jump, it's both an attack and platforming tool, you can bounce successively, bounce, bounce, bounce….
Take a shortcut, cut a corner, chain off enemies with a satisfying bop, all with the power of bounce. Despite the fairly rigid feeling of other moves in the expanded Pac repertoire like the Pac spin dash, or the clunky pellet lob projectile, the bounce hits upon that most important aspect of platforming gameplay that's being simply fun to use, as well as perform some nifty time saving leaps.
Otherwise this is standard platforming fare, level design is linear with a few side paths and bitesized back tracking for collectables in a strangely formulaic manner, 3D space isn't made that great usage of as the game is mostly played from a horizontal perspective. Despite that the platforming is solid and each world stands apart with their own hazards and obstacles, I started getting more into it than I ever expected.
Pac-Lore is deep, there's a pac-dog? There's an evil robot pac-man for some reason? Pac-Man gotta save his family, is he part of the sad dad gaming legacy?!
You know, it's odd, I feel like no one ever talks about this game's original PS1 outing, the sequel has a bit of a cult following, but the original doesn't even seem to get the same kind of seven outta ten for kids nostalgia that the aforementioned Bomberman 64/Hero got, and I think it deserves at least that much if this remake is anything to go by.
I'm just saying that maybe platformer Pac was one of the better ways Namco tried to reinvent the franchise, so perhaps they can at least remake the sequel or even make a *gasp* brand new one!
It'll be swimming in sevens no doubt, sometimes though that's all you need.
54. Gravity Circuit ★★★★
Hot damn, this one really blew past my expectations, I expected a decent Mega Man/X like, and got a very real contender for the best Mega Man style game period.
So that should clue you in immediately to this game's general baseline, it's heavily based off the Mega Man series, aspects of classic, X and even Zero are all in here, slammed together into the ultra mega mega man.
A key gameplay shift is clear from the jump though, and that's instead of pew pew-ing lemons and not being able to look up (mega my arse), our hero here, Kai the "gravity circuit" just throws robo hands instead while using a hookshot for both grappling, ranged attacks and picking up/throwing defeated enemies.
And it's an absolute blast, there's a very smash bros like approach to your special moves that you unlock across the game in place of robot master weapons, you build your own set of four directional specials that can range from damage to utility, alongside a standard set of directional melee attacks that don't use any resources like the special chip moves.
You can use an anti-air like uppercut, a rushing grab piledriver that never gets old, and it's all flowing like butter with the fast paced and precise style of mega man platforming, complete with wall cling clambering, dash jumps and what not, except everything feels infinitely smoother.
Visually I feel like the game lands appropriately between 8bit and 16bit styles, more detailed than most NES inspired outings, while utilising a more limited colour palette. Level design is pretty tight with only a few stumbles and a tendecny for easily missed yet always telegraphed enemies that exist to pop out at the last moment in some stages (looking at you ice stage!)
This might be my indie of the year so far, between this and pizza tower anyway, it comepletely stole me away from Dave the Diver which I purchased alongside it, just a very well executed spin on a gaming staple, where said spin really makes it stand out on its own despite the heavy homages to the blue bomber.
And damn do I kinda feel bad that the solid but not as spectacular Moonrider that was also a bit like a melee focused mega man (by way of Shinobi) came out in the same year as this.
55. Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2 ★★★
(me thinking I can squeeze in one more special trick)
Thinking back, it's crazy how much I overlook the fun I got out of PS2 classic THPS3, coming with my surprise crimbo PS2, I'd initially asked for pro skater 2 with its belated N64 release, instead I got one digit better.
But what of THPS2? I never did get to play it, well now it's time to finally fulfil that barely missed experience, oh and the original while we're at it.
Much like how I'm surprised how often I forget that Pro Skater 3 is in fact a really good game, I'm surprised I put this off for so long, what is THPS after all if not a time/score attack fuelled off shoot of the 3D platformer masquerading as a sports game.
After making my gnarly dude, in the vein of my THPS3 character that I legitimately thought was the coolest dude at the time (SOULPATCH), a very incorrect assumption and analysis on the folly of youth, it was time to do pro skater things.
Which turns out to be a lot of collecting, figuring out vague skating lingo and on occasion, some real "guide dang it" moments.
The gameplay has been updated to 3's mechanics (revert and manual for combo extensions), and possibly further with the wall rides and planting that I don't recall but do appreciate.
The stages and objectives however, well I'm not so sure, it's as basic as you'd expect from the grandpappy of early 3D extreme sports titles, why each stage has both "collect S-K-A-T-E" and a nigh on identical and vaguely themed "collect 5 macguffins" I'm not sure, usually with one more variant that may involving colliding with three hydrants or wall riding 5 bells or whatever.
And that's when it hits me, this is a collectathon first and foremost, the score attack part kinda falls into the background and doesn't tend to vary much per stage considering how you just revert and manual chain a couple of special tricks into some special grinds and bingo bango, I do wonder if points from gaps would be more important in a OG release score attack where you couldn't just lmao manual revert your way to numbers going brrrrr, as it stands gaps are just menu checklist fodder.
Now don't get me wrong, it's a fun core, pro skater's sense of flow and physics makes it consistently compelling to tackle the shopping list of tasks Tony Hawk himself was raised on (presumably he too ollie'd over a magic hobo 5 times), it's just not all that much more than that. Even with both games combined this is a quick to finish outing that opts to fluff out its progression through endless levelling and mini achievement like tasks not part of the original game.
Which is to say, when I get 100% out of both games but my trophy progress is at 30%, then the filler is real.
There's also a sense of real jank in some stages, if the mall was the first sign that linear stages are an awkward fit for this game, than downhill jam was just a flat out disaster.
I can safely say I enjoyed every stage to some degree in this game, except downhill jam, fuck downhill jam. All the weakest aspects of the THPS formula combine to create an unholy abomination of…
- uneven geometry that whacks out your movement in an inconsistent manner
- one way level design making backtracking awkward
- huuuuge gaps that require tinkering with all your stats to even make
- that final valve so cast in shadow that it took me an hour to find it
There's a few other hurdles in this game, I'm reminded of downtown's rooftop gaps objective, where the third and final gap involves not actually leaping from a roof to another roof like before, but simply leaping 40ft down to the pavement below and specifically needing to land on a rail there, at no point does the game suggest you need to actually land on this rail to complete the task, apparently doing the jump with your unbreakable legs isn't enough.
Then there's the gap transfers in THPS2 where the skatepark has like 6 or 7 different ones, but only 4 count towards the objective because, I dunno, maybe something in the sk8er lingo made those 4 more specific than the others. The same stage has a secret tape which requires the player to ollie off the teeniest tiny incline from an outside table, that inexplicably launches you 4 times higher than a standard ollie because reasons (also if these tapes still give me pro bails to watch, I missed it).
On the whole it's a fun game, just not one I really think lives up to the lavish praise. I get that modern TH games have included some of the actual worst games of their respective years, and this is a nice enough scrub up of a couple of nostalgia powered classics, thus making the gulf in quality between the series death and revival mammoth, but really this game is "holding on to what I am,
pretending I'm a superman"
