AceRetro TM (Ace)

A nice, laidback mainline Mario game save for the final castle that has to be done in one clean shot with no checkpoints. The level design may not be as sophisticated as its NES or SNES brothers, but there are a ton of unique set pieces and it’s worth experiencing at least once for that alone. The Jason Goombas in Pumpkin Zone alone make the whole thing worthwhile LOL.

Good but the quality and difficulty is wildly inconsistent. For every good level (Under Pressure) there seems to be a god awful one (Spin Dizzy). There is a lot of fifth generation jank to deal with here- depth perception and Pac Man’s tendency to just roll off certain surfaces was something I could gladly overlook as a 6 year old but sadly can’t these days. Still has a lot of charm if you’re willing to look past its flaws. Like most early 3D platformers, it also helps if you have a little nostalgia for it.