Also, saying that Mario Galaxy 2 "leaves the first game feeling a little vanilla, a little 'safe' by comparison" is genuinely a perplexing take. Galaxy 2 is the definition of a vanilla and safe sequel. I totally get why Mario Galaxy 2 is ranked above 1, but that one statement really makes me lose trust in the whole thing.
Man, this kind of ranking was exactly what I was dreading when I clicked on it. This isn't a ranking of the best Nintendo games, this is a ranking of the most iconic Nintendo games. There's a near-complete absence of niche games. "Classic" games are ranked way higher than they deserve, simply on the basis of them being classics. Arcade Donkey Kong, SMB1, Zelda 1, and Mega Man 2 (the only Mega Man game on here somehow) do not belong on this list. And IGN and Nintendo Life continue to prove that Super Mario World is one of the most bafflingly overrated video games of all time. But this ranking was about what I'd expected from a list curated by gaming journalists. Where the "classic/iconic/important" factor matters more than sheer quality.
This review was written by the same person who reviewed the original Yooka-Laylee. Both games got an 8/10. If Replaylee such a significant improvement, why did it get the same score as the original?
How does Bananza Pauline growing up in New Donk City and mentioning her grandmother prove that Odyssey Pauline is her grandmother? I don't really see the logic here. None of that evidence goes against the idea of her just being a younger Odyssey Pauline at all
@Johnny44 Cloudy Court Galaxy is just Gusty Garden Galaxy but better.
Not to mention all the other amazing songs like Cosmic Cove Galaxy, Bowser's Galaxy Generator, Fated Battle, Puzzle Plank Galaxy, Sky Station Galaxy, The Starship's Journey, Melty Monster Galaxy, and more I can't think of off the top of my head. I totally get preferring Galaxy 1's soundtrack but saying it's MILES better is crazy. Both are at least on a similar level.
"Criticism was raised against the title's more approachable gameplay, lacklustre stealth segments, disappointing visuals, and more"
I haven't played this game (or any Bayonetta game) but the main criticism I've heard against this game is its story-- Kind of bizarre to not list that at all with the issues fans have with the game.
Anyway, Galaxy 2's soundtrack is probably my favourite soundtrack of any mainline Mario game, even above Galaxy 1's. Super happy about this, it took way too long
@The_Nintendo_Pedant "remember when Nintendo made new games for their new consoles?" Oh, so like Mario Kart World, DK Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Age of Imprisonment, Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon Legends ZA...?
@Ryo_Hazuki Huge fan of the soundtrack. Some of the best music from any Nintendo game from the last few years imo. No clue how it doesn't fit the game or is poorly mixed.
@ImpromptuR Nah, the first-person language isn't the problem. It makes the reviews more resonant and understandable rather than feeling distant like NL's older reviews, and I think that's a huge improvement. But there needs to be a balance. This review went too far in the opposite direction to the point of being uninformative.
Uninformative review. This review talks almost exclusively about the package as a whole, the history behind the package, and some anecdotes, and only reserves a single sentence to talk about the games themselves. It's unfair to expect in-depth reviews for all 50 games, but at least tell us a little more about some of the highlights. Give us more than a single sentence that vaguely lists some of the games' genres. Come on man.
Beyond the potential issues with the controls and content, this is one of the most visually unappealing games I have seen in a long time. Technically it's fine, but that art style is... not it. In addition to being soulless, it's also weirdly bleak and depressing. It makes me unhappy just looking at the game.
Weird how this article puts so much emphasis on "some features" (and even says "that's exactly how the Big N phrases it") when that's, in fact, not how Nintendo phrased it.
@9_10DOH64 The rankings are decided purely by the average rating of the game from thousands of Nintendo Life users. It's not based on any particular opinion. The "explanations" are usually just the concluding paragraph of the game's Nintendo Life review and have no correlation to the ranking.
The title of this game is so funny. I bet that Nintendo is expecting young children to tell their parents "Mommy, I want Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV for my birthday!"
So catchy.
It's worth mentioning that all of these soundtracks are from 1985 and earlier; nothing newer than that. I think this covers every single first-party NES game up to 1985 (aside from SMB1 which was already on there). I appreciate that we got these all at once instead of one a week.
@IronMan30 Not sure how you expected me to reply, I read it fine lol. It may be your opinion, but that doesn't change that your opinion is, itself, pretentious, and you really shouldn't be calling other people pretentious.
@IronMan30 Yes, and by saying that video games are any less of an art form just because of their method of interaction, you are being more pretentious than anyone else here. You can toss around the word pretentious all you want, but those are facts.
@IronMan30 And I'm being pretentious how? By telling you to be more open minded? You're the one who's trying to arbitrarily decide what does or doesn't qualify as art. That's maximum pretentiousness.
@Willo567 You're way off base here. The people who are complaining about this new update are people who willingly bought and were enjoying playing Mario Kart World online up until this point. Maybe to some people, having no option to drive 3 laps on the tracks online is a dealbreaker to their enjoyment of the game. It doesn't mean they're "rage baiting" or being "ridiculous". It just means they care about different aspects of the game from you.
The amount of people here being dismissive and making generalizations about people who care about things that they personally don't is just crazy. Holy crap.
@fenlix Something doesn't need to have major flaws to be an 8/10 instead of a 9/10 or 10/10, it might just not reach the heights of those higher scores. Also why are we forgetting that 8/10 literally means "Great"
@Jack_Goetz Happy someone else noticed this. It is refreshing to see the reviews being written in first-person, it's so much more convincing. I never got why they always stuck with saying "we" when it was clearly one person writing. Felt inauthentic. Just as this is a new era for Nintendo this might also be a new era for Nintendo Life reviews
Game looks great, super excited, but I just noticed something.
A Nintendo Life review where the reviewer refers to themself as "I" and "me" instead of "we" and "us"?? Didn't think it would ever be done. It probably isn't a huge deal but this one change is honestly a vast improvement and I hope you guys stick with this writing style. It's so much more believable when the writers come across as individuals with an opinion, rather than a collective hivemind.
I'm just concerned about the track design. The intermission segments between tracks look so dull and flat. However, the intermissions take up 2/3 of each race, so you only get to drive 1 lap on the actual track for some reason. And while the actual tracks themselves look solid, they also seem relatively simplistic to accommodate for 24 players and the more grounded open world setting, to the extent that most of the tracks probably could've been in the mushroom cup. The open world looks awesome but I'm worried about the implications the new features will have on all the tracks.
@EarthboundBenjy @Pillowpants @dew12333 @RupeeClock @Regulus6891 @Bunkerneath @Jade37 @calbeau @Bigbear1up @spottedleaf
Sorry for the mass ping lol, I just came across this thread right after playing the demo and wanted to clear it up.
For the people who were confused about the use of "Mario-inspired", I would say that it is a very apt description, and not just because it's a platformer. The trailer doesn't really display the Mario inspiration much, but after playing the demo, I think so many things about the game made it seem to me like the main intention was to take elements from the 3D Mario games and translate them into a 2D platformer. You got the movement of Odyssey and 64, along with the mission structure of Galaxy. Its design is very specifically "Mario".
Also the game's roll is basically a mix between the spin dash and Mario Odyssey's roll.
Give Super Circuit some more credit. That was the first game to bring back tracks from a previous Mario Kart game! Tell me that's not a huge addition to the series that influenced Mario Kart World.
Also I've never understood the take that Super Circuit is the worst game in the series. It's not great, but it's directly better than Super Mario Kart in every aspect.
@Tayrailbridge Total nonsense. DK "needs" a complete universe refresh after only like 6 major games in the DKC world (and 2 since 2010), and yet Mario's games can keep using the same characters and imagery in every single game?
@Qwiff Late reply but Returns is actually a good deal harder than Tropical Freeze (in base difficulty, not considering Funky Mode or anything like that). Dixie, who is only in Tropical Freeze, is a lot more useful for recovery than Diddy, and the levels themselves are a bit less tough or demanding of precision in Tropical Freeze. There are also other changes that Tropical Freeze made to make the game less punishing like how minecart and rocket barrel levels don't kill you in one hit anymore.
When I saw this, I thought they were just gonna add the first 23 songs in the soundtrack, but it seems like they went out of their way to specifically pick all the best and most important songs in the game. So, while I would like to complain about this... I'm also kinda satisfied at the same time?
Comments 97
Re: Top 100 Nintendo Games, As Chosen By Nintendo Life & IGN
Also, saying that Mario Galaxy 2 "leaves the first game feeling a little vanilla, a little 'safe' by comparison" is genuinely a perplexing take. Galaxy 2 is the definition of a vanilla and safe sequel. I totally get why Mario Galaxy 2 is ranked above 1, but that one statement really makes me lose trust in the whole thing.
Re: Top 100 Nintendo Games, As Chosen By Nintendo Life & IGN
Man, this kind of ranking was exactly what I was dreading when I clicked on it. This isn't a ranking of the best Nintendo games, this is a ranking of the most iconic Nintendo games. There's a near-complete absence of niche games. "Classic" games are ranked way higher than they deserve, simply on the basis of them being classics. Arcade Donkey Kong, SMB1, Zelda 1, and Mega Man 2 (the only Mega Man game on here somehow) do not belong on this list. And IGN and Nintendo Life continue to prove that Super Mario World is one of the most bafflingly overrated video games of all time. But this ranking was about what I'd expected from a list curated by gaming journalists. Where the "classic/iconic/important" factor matters more than sheer quality.
Re: What Are The 100 Best Nintendo Games? Here's The Chance To Make Your Voice Heard
If Tropical Freeze isn't in high on the list, I want nothing to do with it.
Also, the user vote on IGN doesn't work. Nothing happens when I click on it.
Re: Samus' Game Boy Outing Metroid II Returns In Latest Nintendo Music Update
Reminder that Super Metroid is STILL not on the app
Re: Review: Yooka-Replaylee (Switch 2) - Feels Like The Game It Was Meant To Be, Finally
This review was written by the same person who reviewed the original Yooka-Laylee. Both games got an 8/10. If Replaylee such a significant improvement, why did it get the same score as the original?
Re: Nintendo Adds One Of The Most Divisive Zelda Entries To 'Nintendo Music'
@Eel There are way more good NES soundtracks than you would expect
(if you look outside of Nintendo-published games)
Re: Donkey Kong Bananza: Ending Explained - Is It A Prequel To Mario Odyssey?
How does Bananza Pauline growing up in New Donk City and mentioning her grandmother prove that Odyssey Pauline is her grandmother? I don't really see the logic here. None of that evidence goes against the idea of her just being a younger Odyssey Pauline at all
Re: Nintendo Music "Special Release" Adds Tracks From Donkey Kong Bananza Today
@PolitiClank They're talking about the screenshots, not the songs themselves
Re: The Superb 'Mario Galaxy 2' Soundtrack Has Been Added To Nintendo Music
@Johnny44 Cloudy Court Galaxy is just Gusty Garden Galaxy but better.
Not to mention all the other amazing songs like Cosmic Cove Galaxy, Bowser's Galaxy Generator, Fated Battle, Puzzle Plank Galaxy, Sky Station Galaxy, The Starship's Journey, Melty Monster Galaxy, and more I can't think of off the top of my head. I totally get preferring Galaxy 1's soundtrack but saying it's MILES better is crazy. Both are at least on a similar level.
Re: The Superb 'Mario Galaxy 2' Soundtrack Has Been Added To Nintendo Music
@Not_Soos Don't worry, the song you're looking for is called "The Starship's Journey"
Re: "It Was A Bit Of A Perplexing Experience" - Hideki Kamiya On The Fan Reaction To Bayonetta 3
"Criticism was raised against the title's more approachable gameplay, lacklustre stealth segments, disappointing visuals, and more"
I haven't played this game (or any Bayonetta game) but the main criticism I've heard against this game is its story-- Kind of bizarre to not list that at all with the issues fans have with the game.
Re: The Superb 'Mario Galaxy 2' Soundtrack Has Been Added To Nintendo Music
Anyway, Galaxy 2's soundtrack is probably my favourite soundtrack of any mainline Mario game, even above Galaxy 1's. Super happy about this, it took way too long
Re: The Superb 'Mario Galaxy 2' Soundtrack Has Been Added To Nintendo Music
The Gusty Garden theme walked so the Cloudy Court theme could run
Re: Review: Kirby And The Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World - Kirby's Best Shines Even Brighter
@The_Nintendo_Pedant "remember when Nintendo made new games for their new consoles?"
Oh, so like Mario Kart World, DK Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Age of Imprisonment, Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon Legends ZA...?
Re: Nintendo Music Update Adds More Songs To Kirby And The Forgotten Land Playlist
@Ryo_Hazuki Huge fan of the soundtrack. Some of the best music from any Nintendo game from the last few years imo. No clue how it doesn't fit the game or is poorly mixed.
Re: Best Retro Throwback Nintendo Switch Games - Modern Games With Old-School Style
"We'll update with our own thoughts once we've dug through our backlogs"
Why do I have a feeling this will never happen
Re: Review: OFF (Switch) - A Worthy Remaster Of A Weird Cult Classic RPG
How did OFF inspire the development of Yume Nikki if the latter came out 4 years earlier?
Re: Review: UFO 50 (Switch) - A Wondrous Smorgasbord Of Retro Delights
@ImpromptuR Nah, the first-person language isn't the problem. It makes the reviews more resonant and understandable rather than feeling distant like NL's older reviews, and I think that's a huge improvement. But there needs to be a balance. This review went too far in the opposite direction to the point of being uninformative.
Re: Review: UFO 50 (Switch) - A Wondrous Smorgasbord Of Retro Delights
Uninformative review. This review talks almost exclusively about the package as a whole, the history behind the package, and some anecdotes, and only reserves a single sentence to talk about the games themselves. It's unfair to expect in-depth reviews for all 50 games, but at least tell us a little more about some of the highlights. Give us more than a single sentence that vaguely lists some of the games' genres. Come on man.
Re: Review: Drag x Drive (Switch 2) - A Real Baller With Friends, But Is There Enough To Do?
Beyond the potential issues with the controls and content, this is one of the most visually unappealing games I have seen in a long time. Technically it's fine, but that art style is... not it. In addition to being soulless, it's also weirdly bleak and depressing. It makes me unhappy just looking at the game.
Re: Nintendo Announces New 'Hello, Mario!' App For Switch And Mobile Devices
"Here's-a my brother Luigi now to tell you a whole heaping spaghetti pile of information-a!"
"Hello Mario"
Re: Nintendo Music Update Adds "Some Features" For Those With An Expired NSO Membership
Weird how this article puts so much emphasis on "some features" (and even says "that's exactly how the Big N phrases it") when that's, in fact, not how Nintendo phrased it.
"Some functions"
Re: Best Donkey Kong Games Of All Time
@9_10DOH64 The rankings are decided purely by the average rating of the game from thousands of Nintendo Life users. It's not based on any particular opinion. The "explanations" are usually just the concluding paragraph of the game's Nintendo Life review and have no correlation to the ranking.
Re: Best Donkey Kong Games Of All Time
You all did not seriously just rate DK 94 over Tropical Freeze. Yes it's good for a Game Boy game but let's not exaggerate its quality.
Re: Random: DK Enthusiast Breaks Switch 2 In Bananas Spray Painting Job Gone Wrong
@The21zonz Did you miss the title of the article lol
Re: Review: Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV - A Fantastic Addition To An All-Time Party Game
The title of this game is so funny. I bet that Nintendo is expecting young children to tell their parents "Mommy, I want Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV for my birthday!"
So catchy.
Re: Nintendo Music Update Adds 26 "Old-School" NES And Famicom Game Albums
It's worth mentioning that all of these soundtracks are from 1985 and earlier; nothing newer than that. I think this covers every single first-party NES game up to 1985 (aside from SMB1 which was already on there). I appreciate that we got these all at once instead of one a week.
Re: Rainbow Road Master Is Back In Mario Kart World, And He's Already Setting Records
3:39 is a crazy typo lol
Re: Miyamoto Views Games As 'Products', Not 'Works Of Art', Says Ex-Nintendo Dev
@IronMan30 Not sure how you expected me to reply, I read it fine lol. It may be your opinion, but that doesn't change that your opinion is, itself, pretentious, and you really shouldn't be calling other people pretentious.
Re: Miyamoto Views Games As 'Products', Not 'Works Of Art', Says Ex-Nintendo Dev
@Thirteen1355 ^^ Exactly. Every art form is inherently different. And their specific method of interaction is part of the intent behind the art.
Re: Miyamoto Views Games As 'Products', Not 'Works Of Art', Says Ex-Nintendo Dev
@IronMan30 Yes, and by saying that video games are any less of an art form just because of their method of interaction, you are being more pretentious than anyone else here. You can toss around the word pretentious all you want, but those are facts.
Re: Miyamoto Views Games As 'Products', Not 'Works Of Art', Says Ex-Nintendo Dev
@IronMan30 And I'm being pretentious how? By telling you to be more open minded? You're the one who's trying to arbitrarily decide what does or doesn't qualify as art. That's maximum pretentiousness.
Re: Miyamoto Views Games As 'Products', Not 'Works Of Art', Says Ex-Nintendo Dev
@IronMan30 TIL that the method of interaction automatically makes something not art, apparently.
I think we all know who is actually being pretentious here.
Re: Miyamoto Views Games As 'Products', Not 'Works Of Art', Says Ex-Nintendo Dev
@IronMan30 How is it pretentious to call video games art? That's just what it is. The same way that movies or sculptures are art.
Re: Fans Reckon Nintendo Has "Killed" Mario Kart World With Its Latest Update
@Willo567 You're way off base here. The people who are complaining about this new update are people who willingly bought and were enjoying playing Mario Kart World online up until this point. Maybe to some people, having no option to drive 3 laps on the tracks online is a dealbreaker to their enjoyment of the game. It doesn't mean they're "rage baiting" or being "ridiculous". It just means they care about different aspects of the game from you.
The amount of people here being dismissive and making generalizations about people who care about things that they personally don't is just crazy. Holy crap.
Re: Fans Reckon Nintendo Has "Killed" Mario Kart World With Its Latest Update
@Mattock1987 Maybe it's not a big deal to you, but to other people it makes a big impact on their enjoyment of the game. Don't be dismissive.
Re: Review: Ruffy And The Riverside (Switch) - An Inventive Platformer That's More Than Copy-Paste
@fenlix Something doesn't need to have major flaws to be an 8/10 instead of a 9/10 or 10/10, it might just not reach the heights of those higher scores. Also why are we forgetting that 8/10 literally means "Great"
Re: Review: Arcade Archives 2: Ridge Racer (Switch 2) - Still A Thrill, More Than 30 Years Later
@Jack_Goetz Happy someone else noticed this. It is refreshing to see the reviews being written in first-person, it's so much more convincing. I never got why they always stuck with saying "we" when it was clearly one person writing. Felt inauthentic. Just as this is a new era for Nintendo this might also be a new era for Nintendo Life reviews
Re: Review In Progress: Mario Kart World (Switch 2) - The Perfect Introduction To A New Console Generation?
Game looks great, super excited, but I just noticed something.
A Nintendo Life review where the reviewer refers to themself as "I" and "me" instead of "we" and "us"?? Didn't think it would ever be done. It probably isn't a huge deal but this one change is honestly a vast improvement and I hope you guys stick with this writing style. It's so much more believable when the writers come across as individuals with an opinion, rather than a collective hivemind.
Re: Round Up: The Final Previews Are In For Mario Kart World
I'm just concerned about the track design. The intermission segments between tracks look so dull and flat. However, the intermissions take up 2/3 of each race, so you only get to drive 1 lap on the actual track for some reason. And while the actual tracks themselves look solid, they also seem relatively simplistic to accommodate for 24 players and the more grounded open world setting, to the extent that most of the tracks probably could've been in the mushroom cup. The open world looks awesome but I'm worried about the implications the new features will have on all the tracks.
Re: Mario-Inspired 2D Platformer Secures A Switch 2 Release On Kickstarter
@EarthboundBenjy @Pillowpants @dew12333 @RupeeClock @Regulus6891 @Bunkerneath @Jade37 @calbeau @Bigbear1up @spottedleaf
Sorry for the mass ping lol, I just came across this thread right after playing the demo and wanted to clear it up.
For the people who were confused about the use of "Mario-inspired", I would say that it is a very apt description, and not just because it's a platformer. The trailer doesn't really display the Mario inspiration much, but after playing the demo, I think so many things about the game made it seem to me like the main intention was to take elements from the 3D Mario games and translate them into a 2D platformer. You got the movement of Odyssey and 64, along with the mission structure of Galaxy. Its design is very specifically "Mario".
Also the game's roll is basically a mix between the spin dash and Mario Odyssey's roll.
Re: Feature: The Long & Rainbow Road To 'Mario Kart World' Part 2 - Second Lap
Let's not forget that Mario Kart Wii introduced tricking off ramps (which World is going even further with) and 12 player races
Re: Feature: The Long & Rainbow Road To 'Mario Kart World', From SNES To Switch 2
@prw_88 How's that nostalgia treating you?
Re: Feature: The Long & Rainbow Road To 'Mario Kart World', From SNES To Switch 2
@Jalex_64 WHAT. 64 had the most obvious rubber banding in the entire series
Re: Feature: The Long & Rainbow Road To 'Mario Kart World', From SNES To Switch 2
Give Super Circuit some more credit. That was the first game to bring back tracks from a previous Mario Kart game! Tell me that's not a huge addition to the series that influenced Mario Kart World.
Also I've never understood the take that Super Circuit is the worst game in the series. It's not great, but it's directly better than Super Mario Kart in every aspect.
Re: Donkey Kong Bananza Might Be Teasing The Return Of An Old Friend
@Tayrailbridge Total nonsense. DK "needs" a complete universe refresh after only like 6 major games in the DKC world (and 2 since 2010), and yet Mario's games can keep using the same characters and imagery in every single game?
Re: Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Switch) - Aping A Retro Classic
@Qwiff Late reply but Returns is actually a good deal harder than Tropical Freeze (in base difficulty, not considering Funky Mode or anything like that). Dixie, who is only in Tropical Freeze, is a lot more useful for recovery than Diddy, and the levels themselves are a bit less tough or demanding of precision in Tropical Freeze. There are also other changes that Tropical Freeze made to make the game less punishing like how minecart and rocket barrel levels don't kill you in one hit anymore.
Re: New Nintendo Music Update Beefs Up A Bunch Of Track Runtimes
Quite relieved to see more comments spelling "Stickerbush" correctly than incorrectly. We'll get to 100% correct eventually...
Re: Yep, It Looks Like You Can Still Dodge Blue Shells In Mario Kart World
Nah, they dodged the blue shell with the Boo, not the mushroom. They're still invisible when the blue shell hits.
Re: Nintendo Music Adds 23 Kirby Switch Songs, With Rest Coming "Later This Year"
When I saw this, I thought they were just gonna add the first 23 songs in the soundtrack, but it seems like they went out of their way to specifically pick all the best and most important songs in the game. So, while I would like to complain about this... I'm also kinda satisfied at the same time?