NSO Retro: Super Mario Brothers (SNES)

For my first Nintendo Switch Online Retro Review I decided to start with a classic – the original Super Mario Brothers. Well . . . sort of. Rather than play the NES (1985) version I decided to play the SNES (1993) version released as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection.

I did play a few levels of the NES version and whilst the original visuals do have their charm, I’d still recommend the more colourful SNES version for new players. And I am very much a new player to Super Mario Brothers. I’m not entirely sure if this is the first time I’ve played the game at all – because it’s likely I’ve played a little of one version or another down the years – but this is certainly the first time I’ve played the game through to completion.

So . . . did I like it? Well, yeah. It’s still a pretty solid and fun little adventure, but I’m guessing my feelings towards it would probably be quite different if I had played it back when I was a kid. There’s no real ‘nostalgia’ vibe for me, so I’m just looking at it through my cold, cynical old man eyes.

There are 8 worlds to progress through, each split into 4 levels and each world ends with a boss fight. Well, not much of a boss fight, to be honest – you just jump over his head once to grab an axe to defeat him. It’s the same for every world from first to last, although he does get a few new tricks along the way.

It’s a surprisingly short game – I played through it in two sittings – although that’s thanks to the ability to essentially Quick Save wherever I wanted in this NSO edition. That does remove any real challenge from the game but honestly, I might not have had the patience to get through the game without it.

Because like a lot of older games that want to encourage repeat play so you feel you’re getting bang for your buck, SMB has a fair amount of bullshit to catch you out and reset your progress. Mario can (unless boosted by a mushroom) only take a single hit from an enemy, and he can’t survive a fall.

So without that Quick Save safety net, you’ll probably be replaying a level multiple times until you learn the platform layout, enemy positions, jump distances and timing you need to get through. Each level is fairly short, but they do get more tricky as you progress with more finicky jumps and more annoying enemies – f**k those hammer throwing little shits!

The game mechanics don’t really evolve much at all. You’re scored by various factors, the most important of which is probably the time limit – the quicker you complete the level, the more points you’ll get. This does give the game an excellent score attack / speed running vibe, because with practice on your timing, you can really fly through these levels, barely touching the ground.

 

The game does throw some new challenges at you here and there, but by the end it’s mostly just repeating everything you’ve already seen. Oh, and I didn’t like those boss level ‘puzzles’ where you’re unable to advance unless you choose the ‘correct’ path to take – if you don’t it just loops you back to the start.

Once again, it feels like a bullshit way to make the player replay the level until they find the right path through trial and error because that clock is always ticking down. Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about that because of the Quick Save feature.

Overall, I had some fun with Super Mario Brothers and I can certainly understand its importance in Video Game history, but it isn’t a game I have any nostalgia for so I’m not going to be as gushing towards it as someone who does. I wouldn’t say it doesn’t hold up today because it does – to a degree – but I’d say it’s a game you’ll probably appreciate more for the classic it is, and less for what it offers you today.

Now Playing: Midnight Suns

When I saw Marvel’s Midnight Suns available for free on Epic I saw no reason not to give it a spin even though I’m not particularly interested in deck building games. But Midnight Suns isn’t just a deck builder, it’s also an XCOM style turn-based strategy game and RPG rolled into one – a combination that works surprisingly well.

You play as ‘The Hunter’ an original, customisable character created purely for this game. You’re resurrected to fight alongside the titular Midnight Suns – a collection of rogues, misfits and magic wielders – against the demon Lilith. Along the way you’ll recruit some more famous Marvel characters into your squad such as Captain America and Wolverine.

It’s a pretty cool mix and if there’s one thing Midnight Suns does well, it’s the way these characters are written and how they all interact – with the notable exception, unfortunately, of The Hunter, who I think I would have preferred as a ‘blank slate’ type protagonist.

The Hunter just isn’t terribly interesting compared to the established heroes. In fact, they kind of stick out like a sore thumb. You do get dialogue options to choose from, but The Hunter always comes across like a such a bland, boring git no matter what you pick.

Thankfully, everyone else is well written and I did like hanging out with all these Marvel superheroes – even if it does sometimes feel like half the game is a bizarre ‘Marvel Friendship Simulator’ because I just can’t imagine any situation in which Blade would want to go mushroom picking with me

I say ‘Friendship’ and not ‘Romance’ because despite the love hearts that unlock as you get closer to each hero, there’s no way Marvel are going to let you get jiggy with Doctor Strange. Overall, I must say I preferred it when the game focused on the Midnight Suns characters – like Nico and Magik – rather than the Avengers who I ended up not really utilising much throughout my time with the game.

The plot, as a whole, is pretty decent. It’s nothing amazing, but there’s a few fun twists along the way and some really fun core story missions. As I said, The Hunter, as a character, is a weak link, but the story remains compelling enough to see you through. My only real annoyance was how abruptly the game wraps up after the final battle.

I think it would also have been nice to have multiple endings – or at least slightly more varied ending cutscenes – based on your relationship levels with different characters. In the end, none of that really feels like it matters which is weird considering it’s such a big part of the game between missions.

Midnight Suns gets off to a pretty terrible start though – so bad in fact, that I nearly gave up on the game. It’s a painfully slow opening that sees you fight some very short, very basic battles before arriving at The Abbey – your hub between missions. And it feels like you spend 90% of your time during the first 5 or so hours just running back and forth between characters at The Abbey.

The game drip feeds you everything so f**king slowly and I very nearly lost patience with it. I’m glad I didn’t, however, because it does pick up a lot as you progress. What doesn’t really get any better though is the general game structure. You have ‘Day’ in which you can embark on a single combat mission and then ‘Night’ which follows the completion of that mission.

Missions are split between ‘Story’ to progress the overall narrative and ‘General’ which are essentially just randomised, repeatable battles based on mission types from the story campaign. They exist purely to increase character levels and obtain resources. Oh god – resources. I need to talk about those.

It can be frustrating because the game won’t always let you progress at your own pace – it often locks story missions until you’ve completed specific research (that takes an entire day) or completed a General mission. It’s particularly annoying towards the end of the campaign when you’ve got all your heroes levelled up and their decks upgraded just the way you want and you don’t really need any more experience or items. You just want to get the f**k on with things. And you can’t, because the game won’t let you.

It also won’t let you do more than one mission per ‘Day’. The game locks you into a very rigid routine in which you can only do certain things at certain times. Want to upgrade your deck? You can’t at Night. Want to unlock another mystery of the Abbey grounds? You can’t during the Day. Midnight Suns also convolutes things to a completely unnecessary degree.

Let’s say you just want to upgrade one of your cards – you first need to create a copy of that card, so you head to the Forge. But to create a copy you’ll need a blueprint of the corresponding card rarity so if you don’t have one, you’ll need to create one by exiting the card menu and going into another menu to do that.

But wait, what if you don’t have the necessary resources to create that blueprint? Well, you can always run over to the Cauldron on the other side of the Abbey to swap out the resources you don’t need for the ones you do, a process that requires particular ingredients you’ll have to harvest from the Abbey grounds. Done that? Good.

Now run back to the Forge and craft that blueprint, and then go back to the card crafting menu and crate a copy of the card you want to upgrade. But can you upgrade it here? F**k no. Now you’ve got to run to the Training Ground where you can go back into your card menu but this time you’ll get the option to use your copy to upgrade your existing card. Oh wait, you want to craft some item cards to supplement your deck? Now you’ve got to run over to that other crafting station specifically for those cards and . . .

You know what would be so much easier? Just a single card menu where you can craft, upgrade or edit a hero’s deck all at the same time. There’s also a lot of annoying little animations you’ll rapidly start skipping through every time you embark on a mission, return from a mission, go to sleep, wake up etc.

I played Midnight Suns for just over 40 hours and that was focused almost exclusively on the main quest – when it would let me – although I did quite a few General missions early on even when I didn’t have to just to earn some resources or unlock some new cards. I also solved most if not all of the Abbey mysteries and challenges but was disappointed by how none of that meant anything at the end – like the relationship stuff, it’s another missed opportunity.

There’s just too much busywork involved before, between and after missions and it’s annoying having to go through the same rigid routine and series of repetitive animations for every single one. It really detracts from the best thing about Midnight Suns – the combat.

It takes some time but Midnight Suns really does get quite fun and engaging the deeper you go. Because it’s not just about your deck – it’s also about utilising the environment or the positioning of your characters to your advantage. It’s about building a deck for each hero in a way that works for you, but also figuring out ways to combine them effectively with other heroes to maximise your damage output every turn.

There’s a lot of cool attack animations for each hero, and it’s incredibly satisfying figuring out a strategy to beat each mission whilst taking the least number of turns. It almost turns into something of a puzzle game at times, because not every mission is simply about defeating enemies, but performing particular actions or achieving certain objectives.

There’s a nice variety of mission types you’ll discover as you progress but these might feel a little repetitive if you also do a lot of the General missions. I also think the game does a good job with its unique story missions and ‘boss’ style fights – although I really wasn’t fond of the random bosses appearing during some General missions because there are times you might just want to knock one out quick in order to progress the story and the game decides to f**k you over by shoving a boss in there and making it take twice as long.

Visually, Midnight Suns looks fine. Some of the faces look terrible though – I’m talking about you, Peter Parker. Music is good. You probably won’t get much out of it if you have zero interest in Marvel stuff because the game wouldn’t hold up as well without it. Overall, my initial impressions of Midnight Suns weren’t great, but it did slowly win me over. It’s a game that requires some patience and it sadly never gets as good as I wanted it to, but I still enjoyed my time with it and it’s certainly worth giving a spin if you got it for free or if you see it on sale.

7/10

Gallery: Forbidden West (Part 2)

Now Playing: Burning Shores (DLC)

Horizon: Zero Dawn was accompanied by an equally excellent DLC expansion – The Frozen Wilds. If you’ve read my review of Forbidden West, you’ll know that I thought the sequel to Zero Dawn was excellent, but not quite as good as the original. And that trend continues here in Burning Shores, the DLC expansion to Forbidden West. In other words – it’s good, but I don’t think it’s as good as The Frozen Wilds.

Burning Shores picks up soon after Forbidden West ends and sees Aloy travelling to what remains of Los Angeles to track down the last remaining Zenith. He is, at least, a more interesting antagonist than those in the base game, but I still can’t say I find the Zeniths as a whole terribly exciting as villains.

The main quest is surprising short, but what you do get is very good and it culminates in a very enjoyable final boss fight – which is also more than I can say about the base game. My only real issue with the main quest is the somewhat poor attempt at ‘romance’ between Aloy and a new character – Seyka. She only features within the main quest missions and given how limited they are, she and Aloy actually spend very little time together.

So there’s not a great deal of time for the two to build any kind of meaningful relationship. Which would be fine, if the game was only setting up a potential relationship in the future and these were its first steps, but the DLC ends with Seyka declaring that she wants to be with Aloy. I just didn’t buy it. The whole thing fell flat and felt hollow to me given how little time they actually spend together throughout the DLC.

And the problem is, there’s no real build up to it, either. Aloy, almost immediately upon meeting Seyka, is blushing and stumbling over her words like a love sick teenager and her behaviour feels entirely out of character and odd. And I like Aloy far too much as a character to see her entire personality change purely for the whims of the writers who it feels were desperate to introduce a love interest. I’m not saying Aloy can’t have a love interest and it can’t be Seyka, I’m saying the way it’s presented and written in the game just doesn’t work. It feels . . . well, forced.

There’s no natural progression to their relationship from start to end, there’s no clear shifting in Aloy’s behaviour or how she sees Seyka. Normally I wouldn’t really give much of a shit about something like this, but Aloy is one of my favourite characters of recent years and through a lot of this DLC I didn’t really feel like I was playing the same character. It feels like a situation where the writers twisted Aloy’s personality to better suit what they wanted rather than what would remain true to her.

Okay, enough complaining about that. How does the rest of the DLC stack up? Well, like the main quest, it’s pretty short. Compared to The Frozen Wilds, Burning Shores is much more lean with its content. I didn’t really mind, to be honest, because I felt the base game was stuffed enough, so I was ready for something a little more light. The side content is solid, but nothing spectacular. I will say I absolutely loved the new flying mount though – it’s so much more agile and feels faster than those in the base game. Plus – it can dive under the water which I had an absolute blast with when exploring the map. There’s a few new machine types to tangle with and some new outfits to collect. Like the base game, Burning Shores looks stunning and the new map has a lot of little fun areas to discover.

Overall, Burning Shores is a solid and fun expansion to Forbidden West. It’s not as substantial a piece of content as The Frozen Wilds, but there’s enough here that’s worth your time and you’ll get it included with the base game on PC regardless. I also think this DLC does show a welcome understanding that bigger isn’t always better, and a more focused experience can be just as – if not more – engaging. Hopefully they’ll keep that in mind for the next one.

7/10