MiracleDinner
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i liked @Alex95 's top 150 so i'm doing my own, based on personal opinion
(edit: this list is no longer accurate as of me playing mario & luigi: partners in time which would definitely now be in my top 15 games)
Super Mario 64
sunshine left me dissappointed after i ventured back in time to visit the pre-galaxy 3d marios, so i was kinda worried that 64 would dissappoint me to and omg was i glad to find out that was not the case. whilst i don't enjoy it extremely much, super mario 64 felt like a true prequel to galaxy 1 that i'd been looking for. i may never have played the nds version, but i liked playing the n64 version.
it's satisfying to find secrets and to get stars, as the game is significantly more challenging to me than either of the galaxies. the open world style was in some ways refreshing, and it's impressive how about 15 worlds and 120 stars were fitted into this. and getting the caps was especially satisfying once you got to use them in the courses, and the wing cap in particular was very fun to use. overall it's a pretty good 3d platformer even today, and it has that nice nintendo polish as you'd expect, although i kind of feel the moveset was outdated - groundpounds taking too long, the victory pose whenever he did a backflip rather than feeling smooth, turning not feeling tight enough, wallkicks only having a few frames where you could do them before just bumping off.
that being said, i do have gripes about the open world style and all. i'm fine with having secrets but i guess my gripe is that the whole game is dependent on it: there's few places where you just get along with a 3d platform challenge and too much of the game is just looking for stuff - given how hard the secrets are to find makes it worse also. but it was especially painful cause, for example, i didn't pick up on the whole light thing: so the whole wing cap was inaccessible until i learned it from the internet. but now i know it, it becomes trivial to get on every subsequent playthrough. now of course that's not an issue unique to sm64 but it feels especially prominent in this game given how dependent it is on secrets. i prefer having many more courses and only having a few stars per course, as was in galaxy.
Super Mario 3D Land
whilst the game doesn't live up to 3d world, which i played first, 3d land had a lot of fun content to it. it's very similar to its sequel, so we cover some of that stuff later. but it was cool, and the tanooki suit was fun even though it was kinda broken. the 3d effect was useful but tbh not totally gamechanging, so it's fine to play in 2d. i enjoyed the galaxy references such as the cosmic clones and the athletic theme, which by the way is a great track dating to smb3. the boomerang suit was pretty dope as well. the game has so many levels it feels almost infinite, and the star coins were fun even if way too easy on the most part
Mario Party 9
whilst i concede this is mainly nostalgia talking, mario party 9 will always hold a special place in my heart. i would spend hours with the nostalgia squad: daisy, birdo, koopa, and yoshi and do free play endlessly. the minigames are really fun and make great use of the wiimote's abilities, although a few were frustrating e.g. being too based on luck. as for the board mechanics, they were creative and cool too but the things that would make you lose half your mini stars due to luck alone... no thanks
Donkey Kong Country Returns / 3D
i've only just started playing the 3ds enhanced port of this game but i used to play the wii one all the time
it's a solidly great platformer with tight controls and the levels were always great. it took me ages to get through it all as a child, and there was so much challenge postgame. i loved the diorama and puzzle unlocking, and the golden temple was a huge deal for me back then which it was really satisfying to finally achieve at age 13.
LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
an underrated title if you ask me, i have a huge history with this game. i'd enjoy the stories and hub worlds yes, but the thing which i really loved was the level builder. back then, i didn't have mario maker or minecraft, so this was the biggest creative tool i had. i loved using the different elements to make something new each time and mastering the mechanics to be creative. despite having six themes to choose from, the temple of doom was always my favourite movie, so i mainly used that theme to build levels, whilst using the mountain cave secret level from the temple of doom hub to farm coins. people complain about the lack of online sharing but tbh idc that much, it was still epic. the rest of the game is great too.
(edit: this list is no longer accurate as of me playing mario & luigi: partners in time which would definitely now be in my top 15 games)
Super Mario 64
sunshine left me dissappointed after i ventured back in time to visit the pre-galaxy 3d marios, so i was kinda worried that 64 would dissappoint me to and omg was i glad to find out that was not the case. whilst i don't enjoy it extremely much, super mario 64 felt like a true prequel to galaxy 1 that i'd been looking for. i may never have played the nds version, but i liked playing the n64 version.
it's satisfying to find secrets and to get stars, as the game is significantly more challenging to me than either of the galaxies. the open world style was in some ways refreshing, and it's impressive how about 15 worlds and 120 stars were fitted into this. and getting the caps was especially satisfying once you got to use them in the courses, and the wing cap in particular was very fun to use. overall it's a pretty good 3d platformer even today, and it has that nice nintendo polish as you'd expect, although i kind of feel the moveset was outdated - groundpounds taking too long, the victory pose whenever he did a backflip rather than feeling smooth, turning not feeling tight enough, wallkicks only having a few frames where you could do them before just bumping off.
that being said, i do have gripes about the open world style and all. i'm fine with having secrets but i guess my gripe is that the whole game is dependent on it: there's few places where you just get along with a 3d platform challenge and too much of the game is just looking for stuff - given how hard the secrets are to find makes it worse also. but it was especially painful cause, for example, i didn't pick up on the whole light thing: so the whole wing cap was inaccessible until i learned it from the internet. but now i know it, it becomes trivial to get on every subsequent playthrough. now of course that's not an issue unique to sm64 but it feels especially prominent in this game given how dependent it is on secrets. i prefer having many more courses and only having a few stars per course, as was in galaxy.
| Pros | Cons |
| feels like a classic whilst simultaneously holding up suprisingly well for a game of its age | overall not a huge fan of the style of level design |
| decent music | controls/physics/moveset needs some work |
| secrets feel satisfying to get | |
| wing cap is fun to use |
Super Mario 3D Land
whilst the game doesn't live up to 3d world, which i played first, 3d land had a lot of fun content to it. it's very similar to its sequel, so we cover some of that stuff later. but it was cool, and the tanooki suit was fun even though it was kinda broken. the 3d effect was useful but tbh not totally gamechanging, so it's fine to play in 2d. i enjoyed the galaxy references such as the cosmic clones and the athletic theme, which by the way is a great track dating to smb3. the boomerang suit was pretty dope as well. the game has so many levels it feels almost infinite, and the star coins were fun even if way too easy on the most part
| Pros | Cons |
| Solid 3d platforming gameplay ft. cool powerups | Too easy |
| Good music | Graphics on 3ds suffer a little bit, despite the 3d effect |
| Plenty of levels | even in proportion to the game's difficulty, the tanooki suit is hella broken |
Mario Party 9
whilst i concede this is mainly nostalgia talking, mario party 9 will always hold a special place in my heart. i would spend hours with the nostalgia squad: daisy, birdo, koopa, and yoshi and do free play endlessly. the minigames are really fun and make great use of the wiimote's abilities, although a few were frustrating e.g. being too based on luck. as for the board mechanics, they were creative and cool too but the things that would make you lose half your mini stars due to luck alone... no thanks
| Pros | Cons |
| nostaliga | some minigames are based on luck rather than skill |
| music | board mechanics are poorly balanced |
| pretty good graphics and artystle for a wii game | |
| fun minigames |
Donkey Kong Country Returns / 3D
i've only just started playing the 3ds enhanced port of this game but i used to play the wii one all the time
it's a solidly great platformer with tight controls and the levels were always great. it took me ages to get through it all as a child, and there was so much challenge postgame. i loved the diorama and puzzle unlocking, and the golden temple was a huge deal for me back then which it was really satisfying to finally achieve at age 13.
| Pros | Cons |
| great controls and moveset | you can't use diddy kong in single player |
| plenty of levels all with great design, as well as additional challenges | |
| 3ds version has an easy mode | |
| music | |
| nostalgia | |
| multiplayer |
LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
an underrated title if you ask me, i have a huge history with this game. i'd enjoy the stories and hub worlds yes, but the thing which i really loved was the level builder. back then, i didn't have mario maker or minecraft, so this was the biggest creative tool i had. i loved using the different elements to make something new each time and mastering the mechanics to be creative. despite having six themes to choose from, the temple of doom was always my favourite movie, so i mainly used that theme to build levels, whilst using the mountain cave secret level from the temple of doom hub to farm coins. people complain about the lack of online sharing but tbh idc that much, it was still epic. the rest of the game is great too.
| Pros | Cons |
| massive nostalgia | combat is too easy and simple, including vehicular combat |
| level builder is pretty cool | game as a whole can kinda get repetitive |
| good music | |
| hub worlds and secret levels are pretty nice | |
| cutscenes are pretty funny | |
| creative use of character abilities | |
| like the structure of the story levels |
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