2D Platformers / Metroidvanias

I think Super Metroid is hardly a game with poor visuals. I know you probably didn't mean to imply that, but one thing here is my preference about visual style. Super Metroid has that dirty/gritty visual style, Dread looks cleaner/slicker and I'm not sure I'm a fan of that (didn't like it in Prime either, which I played).

Another thing I didn't like in the gameplay footage was all the cutscenes, dialogue, character interaction and all that social nonsense. In Super Metroid, you get a short intro and that's it for all text in the entire game. Being the sociophobe that I am, I love that and to me the utter isolation is a core part of the Super Metroid atmosphere.

Again, not trying to say that makes one better than the other. Just trying to explain why (from what I've seen) Dread doesn't have the same appeal to me personally that Super has.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - 7.5/10

That's the first game of the Castlevania Advance collection. What surprised me was how tight the controls and especially the jump physics are, rather unusual for the series. I'm a sucker for that, I love fast-paced 2D action where I feel like I'm in total control of dodging everything through immediate jump controls.

I liked the fast-paced nature of most of the game, what I liked less is that you have to double-tap to run. That's not much of an issue for traversing the map, but it can get pretty annoying in frantic combat because your base movement speed is so frigging slow.

For most of the game, I thought it didn't really excel at anything but was very solid overall. Sadly the last third really did it no favour imo. It took a nosedive with a new sewer-like area that is painfully slow with its constant going back and forth between switches to raise/lower platforms and the spongy knights everywhere, then it gets really cheap with an onslaught of off-screen projectiles that freeze you, and that section just never ends.

Generally, in the late game it just increasingly relies on fake difficulty with lots of off-screen attacks, bullet sponge enemies, and bad checkpointing. And the final boss is crap. It felt like a 8 - 8.5 game to me for the first 70%, but the late game let it down.

Started the next one, Harmony of Dissonance, and one thing I absolutely hate already is the jump physics. I can't describe how floaty and awkward they are, I wonder how this could happen after the previous game got them so right in my opinion.

edit: playthrough time: 7 hours (according to the game)

NSMB U

Looking for something new, so I browsed platformers on Steam sorted by user ratings and got a truckload of "overwhelmingly positive" ones as most of them are on sale right now for under (often way below) €5. Gave all of them a short try already. The list:

Copy Kitty
Broforce
Cave Crawler (free)
Khimera Destroy All Monster Girls
Rogue Glitch
Crystal Caves HD
Downwell
Huntdown
Kero Blaster
Reventure
SteamWorld Dig 2
Super Dangerous Dungeons
Super Panda Adventures
Touhou Luna Nights

To be frank, in some cases I'm not sure where the "overwhelmingly positive" comes from, Khimera is a good example of that with its poor graphics and janky "combat" mechanics. It feels like one of those second-rate SNES games that didn't see a lot of development, but I'll try it further, maybe the level design gets really good at some point or something.

Broforce has a screen shake setting in the options, which visibly moves back up to 100% after changing it. Very funny, I love when games dis me after I paid money for them. The only thing I love more is a Steam refund.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is Kero Blaster, which is a lovely nostalgia nod to C64 action platformers. By those standards it's really good, if nothing special by general platformer standards. I don't see much in the way of replay value, but it's got a ton of adorable retro charm. Like it.

My favourite so far is Touhou Luna Nights, which is just another metroidvania that makes no secret of its inspiration by SotN. You're some anime maid and I like how e.g. it cheekily mimics SotN's player animation. One issue I have is--again--the mindless overuse of visual effects: there are so many effects going on when hitting an enemy you literally can't see it anymore, which is quite a problem in a game whose mechanics encourage you to fight them up close.

Apparently they were even aware of that, so you see a red "DESTROY" prompt on top of all the explosions, because otherwise there'd be no way to tell if the enemy's dead. Can anybody tell me what's going on in some game designers' heads?

Cave Crawler is just a very simple, extremely short exercise, by no means a full game--it's good that it's free because you wouldn't want to pay money for the 10 minutes of absolutely bare-bones gameplay here. It does, however, get my endorsement for best graphics in this list.

I bought Dead Cells on sale from PSN the other day, I think I paid a tenner.

I'd been looking forward to this one for a while, I'd heard it described as something akin to Rogue Legacy (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and the word 'castlevania' seemed to be associated with it, which excited me.

After playing for a few hours, I'm not overly impressed with it. Combat is decent fun, visuals are decent but a bit too clean, flash-gamey for me.

The main problem I have is that it lacks direction and focus, probably deliberately. I can see the appeal of just letting you loose to carve things up and unlock new ways to squash and slice enemies, but nothing is giving me any impetus. The mines in Spelunky had a marvellous feeling of exploration, the castle of Rogue Legacy made every room feel like a challenge and full of potential. Unfortunately, Dead Cells just feels like a trudge most of the time.

However, my biggest concern has little to do with the gameplay itself, but one of my biggest bugbears - DLC-gated thingies appearing in base game.

So many times now I've expended time, energy, health, collected keys, only to reach a door and to see a 'BUY XXXXXX DLC TO ACCESS' when you press R1.

FUCK OFF with that insulting, snarky, immersion breaking shite! If I ever had any desire of buying DLC for this game, it evaporated with this egregious trash.

Wow, yeah, that would also aggravate me tremendously.

Dead Cells is a weird one for me. I absolutely loved it for several hours and then suddenly got bored and left it. I recently went back and thought it was meh. Other roguelikes I can return to time and time again, but Dead Cells doesn't appear to be one of them.

Currently revisiting all the 8/16-bit Mario games (only the main platforming games I mean, not Super Mario RPG etc.), and damn they are so good.


Super Mario Land

This was my first Mario game actually, my first "console" was the original Game Boy. I think it's a little overlooked, and while it's not in the same league as the other games discussed here (except SMB1), I think it nails what it does, being just pure, simple, unpretentious fun. It's the easiest of these games but offers just enough challenge to not get bored, and I think it's remarkably well balanced as it never feels unfair.

What greatly helps is the stellar soundtrack which definitely belongs in the 8-bit OST hall of fame.

Graphics are as simple as it gets with its tiny sprites and blocks--on the upside that means it makes great use of the GB's very limited screen estate. You can always see what's going on, view distance is perfect, unusual on a system that tends to have screen crunch issues. I greatly appreciate that. Another thing I greatly appreciate is that there's also no slowdown or flickering ever, again unusual on this system (it was produced by the very person who designed the Game Boy, so perhaps no surprise).

It's extremely short, but again on the upside that means I can just casually play through SML1 from time to time if I have half an hour. Beautiful little game.


Super Mario Land 2

Today's hot take: I prefer SML1 to SML2. That may be partly due to not having played SML2 as a kid, so there's no nostalgia involved. Don't get me wrong, SML2 is clearly in a different league, it's just that I'm not enjoying it as much as I'd like. I think part of that is screen crunch thanks to the huge sprites and architecture and some slowdown here and there that comes with that, but I believe my biggest issue is that it feels somewhat floaty.

This is most apparent when watching enemies "fall", which looks more like hang gliding than falling--but I'm also having trouble warming up to how Mario handles. SML1's physics didn't live up to the NES/SNES games' ones either, but I found them snappier and more responsive.

Not sure about the difficulty, it leans towards the easy side throughout the game, until a sudden spike in the last stage which I find pretty unfair tbh.

The soundtrack is great, but imho I think SML1's was even better. This may be nostalgia again, not sure. I'd say SML2 is "objectively" a much better game than SML1, but it just doesn't quite click with me.


Super Mario Bros.

Doesn't hold up that well today, but I guess when it was released it was literally a game changer. The biggest issue is that it's very repetitive by the standards of later games (or any other in this post, even including SML1), but to be fair what it gets out of a ridiculous 40 kilobytes is astonishing.

The OST has written history, it's probably one of the best known musical pieces of all time all over the world.

What I love in particular is controls and physics. How Mario controls is so timeless and satisfying, I'm at a loss of words at how they got it so right on their first attempt. Easy to learn, difficult to master. I'm a sucker for great platformer controls and SMB1 somehow manages to still be premier league. It's beautiful.


Super Mario Bros. 2

Haven't finished it yet, about halfway through. Surprise #1: It's harder than I remembered. Not as hard as many other 8-bit games, but clearly among the hardest ones in this post. It can get pretty frantic and if you're not careful, you'll lose all your lives faster than you can count. Surprise #2: I'm actually having more fun than with Super Mario World.

As a kid, I always played Luigi because of his jump height. He's pretty floaty though, on my current playthrough I found my new favourite is Toad, very immediate controls, very fast-paced.

This game still gets some flak for not being a "true" Mario game, but I call BS. Back in the days, before SMB3, there wasn't really an established formula for Mario to be conservative to, and this is an amazing game that dwarfs SMB1 in most aspects and is one of the best NES games period. Besides, throwing enemies at each other never gets old.

I also love how surreal it is, like in one level you have to jump on the egg that Birdo shoots out of her mouth and travel on it to a distant spot. Video game absurdity at its finest.


Super Mario Bros. 3

What can I say about this that hasn't been said. It is fucking amazing. As far as I'm concerned, it's the champion of all games in this post.


Super Mario World

Another fantastic game, but in my opinion not quite as good as SMB3. SMB3 stages are very short, but since there are so many of them I wouldn't hold that against it.

What surprised me on this latest SMW playthrough was that I struggled with the controls/physics. They're easier than those of the NES games--or so I thought--but somehow I found them less intuitive. I always think it should be easier to land on a certain spot in SMW than it was in SMB3, but somehow it was vice versa. I'm really not sure why that is, but something about SMW's jump physics feels a little off to me.

I also think it's less well balanced than SMB3. I mean, yeah it's definitely easier, but easier doesn't mean worse. What I mean is e.g. how the cape is so overpowered. In SMW, it feels like most of the game is designed with the cape in mind, while the fire flower is just an afterthought, something just kept there for old times' sake. In SMB3 however, I always felt like the leaf and the flower are pretty much equal, encouraging different play styles but neither being vastly better than the other.

I don't want to sound overly critical, SMW is obviously a fantastic game. But in my opinion, SMB3 beats it.


Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Also haven't finished this one yet. This may be another hot take, but honestly I don't enjoy this game a lot. This may again have to do with me not having had it as a kid, so there's no nostalgia. It feels very well made, very competent, but... I don't know, somehow it doesn't click. I've had several attempts at it before but never finished it, because I always got bored. I'm dedicated to finish it this time, but still, honestly, I'm not having a lot of fun. For whatever reason I don't fully understand myself.


Super Mario All-Stars

Loved this as a kid, I mean this was perhaps the first true video game remaster. The save feature was very welcome. But while revisiting the games with proper modern graphics was quite a thing at the time, revisiting those games today may feel more special in their original 8-bit glory than in the 16-bit remaster. And of course, the advantage of the save feature is rendered moot by having savestates now.

It's great that you have the choice now between 8- and 16-bit renditions of the SMB games, and you're free to prefer the 16-bit versions even though you're wrong. One thing that I think is not for the better is how the All-Stars games look very similar to each other, losing the distinct feel each NES game had.

That said, I must say that I think the sound effects of the NES originals are better, much punchier than the ones that All-Stars copy & pasted from SMW. And while the All-Stars versions of SMB2 & 3 are perfectly fine, they botched SMB1 by changing the physics so that you lose speed when crushing blocks. Playing SMB2 or 3 in their All-Stars versions is a matter of preference imo, but when it comes to SMB1, the NES version is the definitive one.

Didn't have a GB growing up so never bothered with any of the games - it's not the most well aged console ever made - but will have a look if they turn up on the Switch Online thing at some point

SMW is my favourite, maybe in part due to nostalgia but I just love it. I rarely use the cape to fly over levels now as it feels like cheating and all you're doing is really skipping the level, which is a bit pointless unless all you care about is finishing it. But going to the secret level with the four power ups and Yoshi, always two feathers. Also, Yoshi, Star Road! It changes the look of the whole game! So many secret exits and the best world map

For whatever reason I felt like taking on one of those sadistic troll games like The Lost Levels. Despite some reservations, I decided to give the AVGN game a try because it was supposedly meant to give you an oldschool bad unfair experience. However it's not nearly as hard, and actually not even as bad as advertised. Surprisingly it's a fairly competent platformer with a decent soundtrack, and it is so generous with lives and checkpoints even in its original difficulty mode (which means, tons of instadeath blocks) that it is outharded and even outtrolled by some Mega Man games. So far it took me between 6-10 minutes on first try to beat each level, but to be fair I haven't reached the final stages yet.

But that brings me to another game I just started playing, Ghosts'n'Goblins Resurrection (Skipped it before because of the rather steep €30--it's on sale now for €20, which I still find a little steep, but I don't regret the purchase). And boy, does it live up to its name. Despite unlimited lives and generous checkpointing it took me 50 minutes and 34 lives to beat the first level. It's beautiful. I have a feeling that finishing this is going to take a while. Can't wait to meet a bat-winged old friend.

Restarted Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom yesterday. Picked it up as a palette cleanser for Elden Ring, and it’s good choice. Really cheery, great music and a good Metroidvania. I got it on release but must have been distracted by another game as I only got half way through it first time round. It didn’t quite grab me the same way Wonderboy did when that came out. This time I’m really digging it though. Still has that antiquated NES feel to it’s combat. I didn’t know that these games existed till a few years ago. I always thought that If I made a game it be a metroidvabia based around animals, turns out between this series and Shantae they already exist.

I would also like to recommend Splasher. I completed it a few years back so I can’t really remember much about it but I was really enamoured with it. Really tight platforming with a .. I guess a fluud like mechanic where you can spray one of three, if I remember correctly, fluids ahead of you that can make you stick or bounce of objects. Think the other fluid was water which dissolves fluid. I really enjoyed it.

Super Mario Bros 2 JP (aka the Lost Levels)

I hated this as much as anyone else as a kid, but today I have to say it's... pretty good. SMB1 was great but its stages were really repetitive, and overall it was too easy for the most part. SMB2 JP fixes most of this. It's fun!

I never managed to complete Fez. It was very enjoyable, but I got stuck at some point and eventually gave up.