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Super Paper Mario is super underrated and I feel like it's not talked about enough. This is possibly due to the handful of Paper Mario TTYD fans who began to play only to realize it was NOTHING like it's predecessor. The reason for this is pretty simple, and it has nothing to do with the story, characters, maps or overall lore. It has to do with the combat system. You see, instead of running into an enemy, spawning a cut scene, and then going into a standing strategic battle sequence where moves could be selected, Super Paper Mario simply leaned into an action game combat system, meaning that enemies could be killed IN REAL TIME ON THE SPOT, JUST LIKE THEY COULD IN ANY 3D MARIO! At first, I personally hated this aspect, as I thought it rid the game of it's foundations and made killing the enemies less satisfying - I still stand by the later here, as I do think the combat in this game is significantly easier - but once I got over this hump and continued my playthrough of the game, I began to realize it was beautiful in its own way. To begin, the game design and features are super interesting. The hub world is actually 2D, to which Mario can only go left or right. However, by hitting a button, Mario can flip to "3D" which puts him behind the space you just saw, unlocking an entire new perspective. It's used as a mechanic in the game to help complete level objectives, and is super satisfying to use. The devs did a fantastic job incorporating it into pretty much all of the gameplay. The nature of this mechanic sort of gave way to the name of the hubworld named "flipside". Essentially, in order to access new levels, you have to go into this 3D dimension - and as you complete and get further along in the game, this purple black hole in the background gets bigger and bigger, until you eventually unlock Flopside, an alternative reality to the 3D alternative reality you've unlocked. It's actually crazy game design and creativity on display by the devs. I will also note, the hub world's soundtrack is a banger too. Then we have the incredible characters. Just like Paper Mario TTYD, there are a handful of side characters that join your party to help with battles and navigation. I personally don't think they're as iconic as TTYD from a design and lore perspective, but they certainly hold their own. Throughout the game you'll meet them in similar ways to ttyd, but you will certainly not have to do the amount of backtracking and legwork. The main story characters and villains are great too. One that comes to mind is the butterfly named Tippi. She is like the goombella of the game, and is able to use the move tattle to give details about enemies, yet differs by how she permanently follows Mario even when he swaps characters, as she is the one behind the 3D ability. She is actually a very complex character and is somehow related to the villain, named, Count BLEEH. There's actually a super deep and satisfying story to it all, as everything ties together in the end in a way you weren't expecting. The coolest character by far though is Mr. L. Essentially, Luigi gets brainwashed by one of the villains named nastasia, and starts to manifest an alter ego. As a result, this man goes from the classic scared of everything in life Luigi, to I'm going to fuck shit up. And while doing so, changes his outfit to black goggles, green cape, and black overalls. He then becomes an actual villain in the game! I don't think there are any Mario stories or games where Luigi is a boss. In general, Super Paper Mario is so, so good, and like I usually say, the recent paper Marios have nothing on it. Like, i think in one of the most recent paper marios one of the enemies is literal tape? Like you are fighting just normal ass, tape? And then boss number two is a stapler? Like bruh get more creative - bring back Mr. L.

Okay, yes this isn't melee. The characters aren't as fast, you can't wavedash or dashdance or L-cancel, and competitively this game is not as fun to watch, unless you're a fan of meta-knight. But all things considered, the game in itself is pretty good. First off, the amount of new characters introduced in Brawl would lay the groundwork for all the smash games after it, and for its time, seeing such a diverse roster was like a fever dream. We now had Wario, Snake, IKE, King Deedeedee, Metaknight, Olimar and Pikman, Pit, Wolf, Diddy Kong, Sonic the Hedgehog - a fan favorite originally supposed to be in Melee, however Sega had contacted Nintendo too late - and plethora of other new characters. Additionally, we had the introduction of a bunch of new items, stages, and the infamous super smash ball, which caused a guarantee K.O unique to each player. Collectables increased as well, as the game introduced two new incentives to keep grinding the game; stickers and music. They also added a ton more trophies too and a cool new way to obtain them. Instead of the mechanical slot from Melee we now had an actual pinball game. Events in event mode also increased, all of which were in my opinion, as fun or even more fun than melee. Then there was the classic and all star mode, amazing in their own right. Another aspect of this game that set it apart was the stage building mode. You could basically create a stage from scratch using the provided platforms, spikes, traps, levers, and a bunch of other objects provided. I remember having a shit ton of fun making these back in the day. The creative and asinine stages you could build, and then subsequently force your friends to play was immaculate. However, the one aspect many people do agree on that made this game stand out, was the Adventure Mode named, The Subspace Embassy. Okay, so before we get into the good stuff, I'll get onto the bad. The gameplay for the adventure mode could get really, really repetitive. Most of the gameplay, especially the sections where you were "traveling" from one area to the next, consisted of the same enemies, and much of the same obstacles. If you weren't fighting one of those robot guys, you were possibly fighting a Rob. And over time, you were essentially just using the same smash mechanics to progress through the levels. Yes, there was a bit of differentiation, but it's not the degree one might expect. For instance, if I wanted to, I could have just jumped over each enemy to make my merry way through, unless it was necessary to defeat the enemies to progress. However, it's wasn't horrendous. It could be fun. I'm simply just stating I felt as if the FUN didn't last as long as it could have, that's all. But now onto the great part of this mode: The god damn story man. Sure, after the 100th robot, and a spike that has hit me into the wall on 8 consecutive levels, it's normal to begin to contemplate whether Banana grams blindfolded would potentially be more fun. But, I will say the one thing that kept one going despite it all, was the allure of the cutscenes paired with the anticipation of what would happen next in the story. The game truly blends all these characters together, in a way that you have to play to understand what I mean. In fact, this story is so God Damn good, I make it a point to rewatch the cutscenes on YouTube every few months, just to tickle my emotions. Some people search up war veterans coming home or deaf people hearing for the first time to get a good cry. I search Brawl Adventure Mode Cutscenes. We are NOT the same. Anyway, the adventure mode goes like this: The world of Mario integrates with kirby, peach, zelda, who then meets link and yoshi, who somehow meet fox, DK, diddy, and falco. Then in another world, you have captain falcon and Olimar, who eventually run into the pokemon trainer and lucas. From there? Pikachu and Zero suit samus meet marth, roy and metaknight, who then meet Lucario and the ice climbers. King Deedee links up with Nes and Luigi, who then meet the mario crew with link and yoshi. Bowser integrates with ganon who works with Wario on the villian side. And then they ALL eventually converge together as a team little by little. The satisfying party was the seemingly randomness of some of the characters they decided to pair together, in addition to the cutscene of when the groups link. Also, when you reach the end you realize ganon and bowser were getting bossed around by Masterhand, but then you see that even the master hand was being controlled by Taboo. God, it's such a beautiful story and you just have to experience it yourself. We have never seen anything like this in a Nintendo game, and we most likely never will again. So, for that, I will be giving this game a high rating. The deduction though is due to the bit of mundaneness in the adventure mode, and the poor multiplayer mechanics. However, I still LOVE this game even with the aspects I deem unfavorable.

Here nintendo took the already tightly designed galaxy and polished it to an absolute mirror finish. Yoshi is back and I just know that blimp fruit powerup has activated something in the young minds of many players. The hub is much less soulful than galaxy 1's observatory but also much less obtrusive to navigate. And just what are the hell valley sky trees?

This is it. At the age of 8 I received a wii with this game for my birthday and from that point on was locked into the archetype of mario autist. No regrets. Sheds many of the movement options from sunshine and even 64 in exchange for some of the tightest level design the series has ever seen. Constantly throwing new ideas at you and moving on before they overstay their welcome. Freezeflame galaxy my beloved. Gorgeous orchestral soundtrack. The motion controls are fairly unobtrusive and hold up today but over covid I 100% the game on dolphin using an xbox 360 controller and it played just as well. Exactly one bullshit hard part (you know the one, where you gotta clear all the rubble by throwing bombs on an extremely short timer) but fortunately that's optional.

Barely anything is good about this game The movement feels very bad. Randomly generated weapons and enemies suck ass. The planets feel barren and it's disappointing how little there is to explore. The main story was not really needed and feels like a bandaid on a very bad game. I followed this game's development ever since it was in early access and it did not deliver on the promises I really dig the aesthetic and worldbuilding, but even with my high tolerance towards janky gameplay it just wasn't worth it. Even mods didn't manage to save this game for me, it would need a total rehaul

Out of all sandbox games this one has to be my favorite. The progression is pretty fun, there's always something to be busy with and a goal to reach. There's enough content and the mechanics are so robust you won't need to mod it to enjoy the experience. Hell, the only reason I mod it is because I just want More content on top of what already exist.

Look, I'm not going to lie to you. I have never played Terraria. Not once. I don't even fully know if you play it with a mouse or with your feet. But my friends keep telling me it's incredible, and these are the kind of people who have strong opinions about which version of a game is the correct version, so I trust them more than I trust most government institutions. From what I gather, you dig holes? And there are bosses? Someone told me there's a giant eyeball that flies at you, which sounds rude. There's also apparently a wall of flesh, which I refuse to think about too hard. People build castles in this game, and then zombies kill them while they're building the castles, which seems like a fair tradeoff for whatever else they were going to do that evening. I'm decent with AI tools and APIs, so I figured I'd just ask an LLM to summarize Terraria for me and call it a day. It told me Terraria is a 2D sandbox game where you mine, fight, build, and eventually defeat a moon. I have no follow-up questions because I am scared. My friend has 800 hours in it. His wife has left him twice. He says it was worth it both times. Rating: 9/10. The one missing point is because I'm pretty sure that eyeball thing is going to give me trouble eventually.

This game is the number one ranked game on the steam store for good reason. There's endless amounts of content in this game (especially if you include secret seeds and calamity/other mods). Year after year the incredible devs will keep releasing "the final update." And no matter how many times I've played through this, I keep wanting to come back to it and get friends to go through a new world together. In terms of the game play, the progression is incredibly fun and satisfying. There are so many different builds and items that are all unique and viable. Unironically, the crafting aspect of the game is one of the most gratifying and best reflections of the progression. Getting aglets and anklet of the wind to make lightning boots to then make frostspark boots (same with the lava boots) to make the terraspark boots. Same with the cellphone, when you combine all the seemingly useless trinkets you’ve picked up from the very beginning of the game, or the zenith that combines every single sword from every stage of the game to create one of the most powerful items. It’s just such a cool way to visualize all of the progress. The variety of movement options like the shield of cthulu or the balloons, boots, ufo/broom/fishron mounts, all feel very smooth and fun. The bosses are some of my favorites with the daylight empress fight being one of my favorite ones. The game challenges you to get better with your movement, creating arenas, and coming up with creative ways to outsmart the bosses. The pace of the game feels very good. Although the game gets harder and harder as you progress, it provides you with a lot of quality of life items (like pylons) that speed up all the other aspects of gameplay (except for clearing out the corruption, jesus christ). All in all, an incredible game. I still have yet to complete my 500 fishing quests, but I know for sure I’ll be back to finish that some day :)

Played this game right as it came out and have come back to it a number of times. It's great. There's tons to do, you can have a great time solo or with friends and you can replay it in so many different ways. Works well with mods and they're also supported well which is a massive plus for me. It might just be time to play this one again. I could use a little 2 block wide tunnel down a few thousand blocks and maybe pegasus boots + cloud in a bottle. Music is surprisingly fantastic, atmosphere is great. Art is stylized and knows what it's about. Gameplay is fun and everything just works well. No complaints from me.