This is really its own type of Mario game. It plays like how I thought Super Paper Mario was going to be. It works very, very well as a handheld game.

Still loving it!

Edit - Man, getting the comet piece in World 1-5 put a smile on my face.

The Yoshi Sphinx level is pretty badass. This game is growing on me. I kind of like the 'no tutorial, free for all on your own' vibe on the game.

Going through 2-1, and I've now worked out the timing to get 3 coins on the spinner most of the time.

This should make things a bit easier, heh.

I discovered some great things about the game. I did not read much into the mechanics and the game barely tells you things (such as how to get more hp) you have to organically discover those things.

In a day and age where nintendo games, and heck, ALL GAMES, point you around the world, it is refreshing that nintendo gave is branching paths (literally) and did not tell us where to go, they left us to fend for ourselves on this one. Is it hard? Yes it is. This is not an rpg, this is an adventure game, and amazing adventure game at that.

This game has definitely grown on me since I started it. I'm currently nearing the end (I think?) of the third world, and I've put almost a dozen hours into it. It's addicting as heck, and it's refreshing to see a game come out that's so bold and confident in terms of its own unusual mechanics. For the most part, it works really well. And yeah, I also appreciate the game's surprising challenge and lack of hand-holding. Makes figuring out the puzzles actually satisfying.

If this was a modern Zelda game, Kersti would be chatting all the time. "Hey, see that switch? I wonder what'd happen if you hit it with your hammer..." Thank goodness IS gives its players a little credit.

I'm a bit disturbed that Miyamoto apparently told the team not to have any original characters, though. The writing has a lot of personality, but 90% of the NPCs are identical Toads! What the hey, Shiggy? Between that and the dopey "blowing" mechanic in DKCR, maybe he should stick to his own games...

It kind of sounds like this is a game that is getting knocked a bit in reviews yet you guys are loving it? Hmm, that is sort of what happened with NSMB 2 as well. I can't wait for my copy to show up.

@TriforceBun Oh Miyamoto. You're so brilliant and lovable, and yet sometimes so very wrong.

Anyone notice the music after collecting the first star sticker? Sounds quite a lot like the music when the wands in Super Mario Bros. 3 fall from the sky.

DrFinkelstein said:

Anyone notice the music after collecting the first star sticker? Sounds quite a lot like the music when the wands in Super Mario Bros. 3 fall from the sky.

Yeah, it's sort of a jazzed-up version of that. PM1 also had a Mario 3 song that hadn't been heard for awhile (the world clear theme). It's nice hearing these remixes of rarely-covered songs in addition to the usual standards (underground theme, etc).

Yes, the music is pretty awesome.

World 3 is pretty tricky. Getting the Door Sticker didn't yield very many results. I went back and did ALL of the doors in previous levels, and got a boatload of 'things' to turn into stickers. Some of them were very useful in defeating the Giant Cheep Cheep.

@TheOldManFromZelda same, i like the difficulty in the game, but if you are hoarding those awesome stickers you can pretty much steam roll through bosses in a couple hits. based on this, i assume the main focus of the game are the environmental puzzles, which are FANTASTIC. I am 8 hours in to the game and i am nearly done with all of world 3. My progress in world 2 was stalled because of me not having the right item for the fifth level and I made it to the point where i can do world 4,5, and 6 but the enemies are too hard for me to hand right now, i need more hp.

I'm having a lot of trouble with World 3. I've decided to move onto World 4.

@TheOldManFromZelda that is the beauty of this game, if you are stuck in world 3, just go mess with world 4 for a bit and you might find a helpful sticker that allows you to get past older puzzles. I like how the world puzzles are not self contained and the game does not hold your hand. This is definitely a thinking mans game.

Played for about 40 minutes, and I like it a lot so far. There's a lot of emphasis on exploration and the music is amazing. Looking forward to making some good progress this weekend.

So like, the green toad in the first area, he just kind of... gets... crushed under the town and no one cares?

That's a pretty terrible fate.

Zero said:

So like, the green toad in the first area, he just kind of... gets... crushed under the town and no one cares?

That's a pretty terrible fate.

I love how amidst the dozens of "YAY!" "HOORAY!" word bubbles when the town un-burritoes, there's a single "Help..." Really subtle but hilarious gag.

You might be able to help him out though

@TriforceBun Yeah I kind of suspected that, the way it is going.

Hmm. Anyway, I'm a few stages in, it seems pretty neat so far. Kind of a hybrid between PM/PM:TTYD and SPM, which is exactly what I have been saying that they should do. Although I miss the 2D/3D mechanics of SPM.

I'm not sure how I am going to feel about not leveling up and such. I like the sticker battle system, some will probably really dislike it, but it solves something that few RPG battle systems solve for me: it forces you to use everything at your disposal instead of just spamming the same 2-3 attacks all the time.

@Zero

Yeah, it certainly is fun. A lot of battles are totally avoidable anyways. I do hate that sometimes all I have left are shiny stickers when an enemy has like, 2 HP left. What a waste.

I started it and played for about an hour today and I'm already completely stuck. Either I'm missing something really obvious or this game is going to be really tough.

@DeputyVanHalen Did you get stuck finding the toads? Or at the bridge? I got stuck at both of those parts, lol.

@Zero
It was the bridge. I played again right after I posted that and found it right away. So I was missing something obvious.