Game #1335: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

 Cat Mario goes super saiyan.

 Often regarded as one of the best games on the WII-U, it finally made the jump to the Switch in the form of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, including the base game as well as a bonus new mini-game.

 3D World is basically an isometrical 3D Mario game, much like 3D Land on the 3DS. The big new feature is that it can be played in multiplayer, with up to three other players, taking control of Luigi, Peach and Toad... and Rosalina, near the end of the bonus stages. Multiplayer is... haphazard, to put it bluntly, characters are very quick, and it's very easy to accidentally get other players off-camera, which will get them into a bubble and floated right to the player in the lead, which, y'know, is sorta annoying.

 But that's nothing, as certain stage gimmicks just don't work in multiplayer. The jump-and-platforms-move hazard has been in the series for a while now, since Mario Galaxy I believe, but it was tough enough synchronizing between two players, with four... it must be impossible. But that's not considering how bad the controls are in multiplayer. Y is used to shoot and run, classic Mario stuff, but it's also used to grab items... and players. How many times, while try to shoot fireballs or boomerangs at an enemy did I accidentally grab my partner and throw them into a bottomless pit or an enemy? This also happened whenever I wanted to run and they were close by. Having the grab function tied to the run/shoot button is ridiculous, particularly considering how many buttons go unused.

 Thankfully, the game is fun, it's really fun. It's not the best Mario ever, but exploring the overworld is cute, and you can find goodies such as one ups off the beaten way. The power up selection is very strong too, featuring the Fireball, the Tanooki suit, the Boomerang, the Super Giant Mushroom, and, new to the series... the Cat power up! It gives Mario all sorts of fantastic new abilities, such as climbing walls and diving attacks that give you new mobility options. Heck, base Mario has all sorts of unnecessary moves, such as a dive and a roll that add a lot of charm and fun to the game.

 Besides the poorly implemented multiplayer, the only other big issue I had with the game is that unlocking the bonus worlds requires 100% game completion, and this doesn't end with you collecting all hidden coins in every level, it also means touching the top of the flagpole, for whatever reason. And considering this is a re-release, I would've liked Rosalina to be unlocked from the getgo, since you play 80% of the game without her.

 I've seen Bowser's Fury receive a lot of praise... I didn't care too much about it. It brings back pretty much every mechanic from 3D World, but now with a 3rd Person camera, taking place on a small sandbox. You have to collection Cat Shines in order to stop Big Bowser, who 'wakes up' every few minutes, and then you either have to fight him or collect a Cat Shine to make him go away. As a bonus it's OK, but by itself... forgettable.

 They also added a 2-Player mode... which is pretty much worthless, the second player gets to play as Bowser Jr, who can't die but also can't do half the things Mario can do, instead being able only to fly around and hit enemies. The camera doesn't even follow him, that's how much of an afterthought this 2-Player mode was.

 I might get in hot water for saying this... but I didn't feel that this game was anything special. It's a very good Mario game, it is, and trust me, I've just gotten off New Super Mario Bros. 2, so I know what a mediocre Mario game is, but this one just wasn't anything groundbreaking. And if they are gonna do multiplayer, they should try to do it right.

 8.0

Game #1334: Valis - The Fantasm Soldier Collection II

 I'm guessing the next one is gonna be numbered X?

 

 Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection II is yet another mediocre collection of mediocre games, these one made up of games that should've been on the cart. So, what is actually here? The final game, Valis 4, the cutesy spinoff, Syd of Valis and... the MSX and Genesis version of the first game, y'know, alternate version of the game feature on the first volume? There's no logical reason these games weren't feature in the previous cart besides greed, and to top it all off, it's missing Super Valis, the SNES version of Valis 4. Guess they are gonna release that one by itself since they clearly love money. And the translation is spotty at best, there are grammatical errors, and it's easy to see that the subtitles can't possibly much the amount of words characters spew, heck, in Syd of Valis, one line of text clearly says "12", but the subtitles make no mention of that number.

 Enough prattling about the collection itself, onto the games:

 Valis 4: The next step from Valis 3, this one features new trio of playable characters, each one has a unique skill that will be necessary to proceed, one is immune to environmental traps(Spikes, slides), one can double jump and one can slide.

 Much like before, the enemy placement is super cheap and the platforming and sliding is sometimes obnoxiously precise, all of this is mitigated with the Rewind and Save Anywhere features, making it the most enjoyable game in the cart. I thought it was a decent way to end a fairly unspectacular series of games.

 Syd of Valis: It's cutesy, so you might think it's easier, but nope, it's not. Enemy placement is as cheap as always, and the screen only scrolls when Yuko is dangerously close to the edge of the screen making avoiding some enemies nigh impossible. To add to all this, the game is a bit slippery, particularly with some armors.

 Oh, yeah, while level design is as lame as always, this game has a bunch of really cool ideas, such as equipment. As you go through the game you earn different weapon projectiles and different armors(That actually change how Yuko looks!), and you can swap between them at any time. This was such a cool feature, shame it never made it out of this game!

 Later bosses can be downright brutal... unless you learn how easily you can cheese them with the homing shot. 

 Valis(Genesis): While it has the same cutscenes as Valis 1, the levels are quite different. It was relatively enjoyable, shame it's so slow paced. Yuko runs very slowly which makes the game drag on a bit, but it's not half bad.

 Valis(MSX): The very first version of Valis.... this one is a mess. It's almost unplayable, the screen scrolling is incredibly choppy and the gameplay is very sloppy, you get creamed in seconds flat while bouncing all over the maze-like stages. As bad as it is, I'm happy that it's here, as a piece of history.

 Definitely not as good as the first collection, not that that means much.

 5.0