Another of my earliest games. It was a wild feeling as a kid to finally beat a boss and see the cutscene of the “coin” taking its place in the castle. But it also was a very long time before I saw the last part of this game, I hadn't built up the skill for it.

There are a bunch of weird elements here that wouldn't return to Mario games for a long time, like the hippo statue that blows bubbles. I've developed an affection for how offbeat the handheld titles are.

This is hard to revisit - the zoomed-in camera really inhibits the playability, in a way I didn't notice as a kid.