Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Top 5 Mario Games I Still Need to Play

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Mar 102025
 

Happy Mario Day!

March 10 is Mario Day, and even though I’ve played and loved quite a few Mario games in my time, there are still several notable ones that I haven’t played.

So today, I decided to take a look through at the top 5 Mario games I haven’t played yet, but would like to someday.

5. Bowser’s Fury

When Nintendo brought Super Mario 3D World to the Nintendo Switch, they added a new side story called Bowser’s Fury. Unlike the main game, it’s more of a free-roaming collect-a-thon, which is the type of 3D Mario game I enjoy the most. I was interested in Bowser’s Fury ever since we saw what it was like, but I still haven’t picked it up.

I didn’t enjoy 3D World enough to play the main game again, so I’d really be buying it only for Bowser’s Fury. I’ll probably pick it up someday if it gets a good sale, but right now it’s not a priority.

4. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

I’ll never forget how quickly my opinion on Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle turned around, from complete negativity toward the idea when it was rumored to unexpected interest once it was revealed. It’s an idea that sounded terrible to me but ended up looking great when I actually saw it.

I still find rabbids unappealing, but the strategy RPG gameplay has me intrigued. I picked it up in a sale a while back, so one of these days I’ll get around to playing it.

…Since I also picked up its sequel in a sale, I sure hope I enjoy it.

3. Paper Mario: The Origami King

My feelings on Paper Mario: The Origami King are all over the place. It’s gotten the most positive feedback of any of the newer Paper Mario games, with many people saying it’s a fantastic game, but I still hate the thought of having scissors and staplers as bosses. Still, my feelings toward it have softened, due to both Bug Fables giving me what I wanted and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door being remade.

I’d still like to see another true RPG Paper Mario, but in the meantime I might just check out Origami King to see for myself what it’s like.

2. Super Mario Galaxy 2

For someone who rambles about loving 3D platformers as much as I do, it might be a bit of a surprise that I still haven’t played Super Mario Galaxy 2. There are a few reasons for that, but the biggest one is that while Super Mario Galaxy is closer to my preferred style than 3D World is, for example, its levels are still more linear than those of 64/Sunshine/Odyssey. So while I enjoyed Galaxy, I wasn’t exactly champing at the bit to play Galaxy 2 (especially since I heard it’s even more linear).

Still, I have it and I love 3D platformers, so I should play it one of these days.

1. Mario & Luigi: Brothership

The newest entry on this list is, of course, Mario & Luigi: Brothership. When they announced a new Mario & Luigi game during that amazing Nintendo Direct, I couldn’t believe it. I preordered it right away and waited eagerly for it to arrive…

…except my backlog got in the way, so instead of being played at launch, Brothership got politely set aside to wait for later, and it’s been waiting ever since. I’m still eager to dive into it to see how the return of my beloved Mario & Luigi series stacks up against the previous ones, but it just hasn’t happened yet.

Conclusion

Maybe I should start one of these today to celebrate Mario Day with…

Anyway, these are the top 5 Mario games I still need to play, but what about you? Got any Mario games you’ve been meaning to play but just haven’t gotten around to yet?

Astro’s Playroom is a Fun Little Platformer (and I’m Excited for Astro Bot)

 Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 092024
 

One of the few standout titles from the June State of Play for me was the 3D platformer Astro Bot.

Astro Bot came out a few days ago (on September 6, the same day as the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection!), but while waiting for it, I decided to play Astro’s Playroom, which came pre-installed on the PS5.

Astro’s Playroom part tech demo, part 3D platformer, and part PlayStation celebration.

It shows off various aspects of the PS5 controller while you explore 3D platforming stages as a cute little robot and collect coins and collectibles related to PlayStation’s history. There’s a room in the central hub where all these collectibles go on display.

Stages are mission-based rather than the more open collect-a-thon style I prefer (with one exception), but they’re still a lot of fun, with a lot of little secrets to find. My only complaint is that I didn’t enjoy the parts that were heavy on motion controls very much.

In addition to finding collectibles, there’s an additional set of collectibles you get through a gacha machine by spending coins found in the levels. Unlike real gacha, this is fun. For one thing, there are no duplicates. For another thing, coins are pretty readily available.

And the collectibles made me so nostalgic. Seeing an old PlayStation console or a PS2 controller made me think back to the days when I used to play those all the time. It was a nice trip through PlayStation history.

Astro’s Playroom is a short game and only took me a few hours to play. But those were a fun few hours, and it left me excited to see what they’ve done with a full game in Astro Bot.

Bakeru Coming West on September 3, Demo Available Now

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with:
Aug 142024
 

Last year, Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru came out for the Nintendo Switch only in Japan.

It’s a 3D action platformer developed by Good-Feel, the company behind games like Yoshi’s Woolly World and the recent Princess Peach: Showtime, and is seen as a spiritual successor to the Ganbare Goemon series.

(The producer of that series founded Good-Feel.)

Set in “Fairy Tail Japan,” you set out to defeat the evil spirits and save Japan, using drums for combat and transforming into different forms to use different abilities.

And it’s coming west!

Titled simply Bakeru for its western release, the game will be out on September 3 for both Switch and PC. A couple new attacks and a new enemy have also been added, which is interesting.

Sadly, it appears like it will be a digital-only release in the west.

I’ve never played the Goemon games, but there’s a demo available for Bakeru, so I gave it a try. It seems like it will be a lot of fun! It’s stage-based, which I don’t enjoy as much as the more open collect-a-thon style of 3D platformers, but it still seems like the sort of game I’ll want to play eventually.

Are you interested in Bakeru?

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