Welcome back to Punished Notes, a collection of random video game takes from the mind of someone who has still never completed Half-Life. In this edition, I’ll cover the latest Mario adventure, a horror game that utilizes next-generation tech, my new apartment’s perks, and more.
Bowser’s Fury Combines All The Best Mario Features
This may seem hyperbolic to say, but Bowser’s Fury, the latest addition to the Switch port of the (criminally underrated) Super Mario 3D World, might be the best core Super Mario experience in over a decade. It has several creative design ideas (ever-altering open world challenges, a Bowser Jr. partnership, bankable power-ups, Kaiju Mario battles) that help set it apart from other mainline 3D Mario games. But what really helps it shine is how it incorporates some of the better features from many other franchise adventures to build what is effectively a vertical slice of the entire series.
Fury meshes multiple design philosophies together to create an experience that fires on all cylinders. It maintains the basic controls, assets, and aesthetic of 3D World, with each stage feeling like it would have existed in the main game. Instead of selecting a stage on a world map, however, Bowser’s Fury connects all levels to a broader open-world environment, similar to how each Kingdom works in Super Mario Odyssey. The player can simply walk in and out of levels at their leisure, and can enter a stage from whatever point they please; they don’t have to always start at the beginning.
Unlike 3D World, the purpose of each level is not merely to reach the end, but to grab a cat shine, and each level has five of those linked to different challenges (e.g., collect five tokens, get all the blue coins, beat the mini-boss, etc.), similar to how worlds are designed in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. And like in Odyssey, grabbing a cat shine does not force the player out of the level.
The game even takes inspiration from some 2D Mario titles. Being able to see each level as part of a larger region reminded me of Super Mario World, where all the stages are part of one big, interconnected map, with various visual cues indicating both how they were all linked and how they differed from one another. Also, much of the level design is derived from 3D World, meaning that it has taken a lot from the philosophies guiding Mario’s 2D adventures, with each stage built around a small set of mechanics and plenty of secrets only accessible to the most curious of players.
(In fact, some Fury levels even involve Mario finding a big key and carrying it to a separate location, a clear nod to Super Mario World. Also, I can’t forget the inclusion of the lovely Tanooki suit.)
Playing through Bowser’s Fury gave me everything I’ve wanted from this franchise. Every inch feels meticulously crafted to give me that gooey Nintendo goodness, and while the game introduces some excellent new features and mechanics, the way it somehow feels like every other Mario game put in one (without being a shameless nostalgia machine) absolutely floored me. Sure, it’s a short add-on to a Wii U port, but Bowser’s Fury is about as good as it gets for fans of the beloved portly plumber.
The Medium Would Be Better If It Weren’t Horror
Recent horror adventure The Medium leverages the new technical possibilities of the Xbox Series X in ways that have me incredibly excited for what this new generation can offer. That said, I wish it were something it’s not.
In the latest offering from Bloober Team (the company behind Blair Witch and Observer), the player is tasked with exploring an abandoned resort in Poland with the ability to control the protagonist in two separate realities simultaneously: the material world and the spirit world. A puzzle-heavy game, The Medium will force the player to think about how to traverse each world, with certain objects only existing in one or the other, certain puzzles requiring an understanding of each world separately, and cutscenes involving the main character speaking to someone who exists in the spirit world but not the material world.
All of this makes for a fascinating endeavor, and marks the first time since acquiring a Series X that I’ve really felt like I’m playing a next-gen game, outside of various visual and performance upgrades. The Medium doesn’t feel like it could have properly existed before, at least not on gaming machines widely available to the public. In a sense, it reminds me of playing Halo: Combat Evolved for the first time, knowing that I was seeing the future of game design right before my eyes.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure I actually enjoy playing The Medium all that much. I’m intrigued by it, sure, and interested enough to keep playing. But I can’t help but wonder if this dual-world mechanic would be more enjoyable were it not tied to psychological horror, a genre I’ve never particularly liked. But my feelings are not just a matter of taste: The game is clearly using the clever mechanic to convey a connection to trauma, which can very easily be done poorly in games. The Medium (at least what I’ve played so far) handles these issues moderately well, but I hope that something as cool as playing two versions of the same characters moving simultaneously in two different planes of existence isn’t just used to make the player sad, scared, and horrified.
I know some people love when games approach the subjects in a way horror tends to do, and some probably seek novel experiences from the genre. It’s also not especially fair of me to judge a game by what it isn’t rather than what it is. I just want a game that works the way The Medium does without it being a bummer and slog. Hopefully, someone else will take inspiration from The Medium and make something incredible out of it, but until then I can at the very least admire Bloober Team’s attempt at showing us a glimpse of the future.
LIGHTNING ROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-There’s only so much I have to say about it, but recent Yacht Club indie Cyber Shadow, a pixelated Ninja Gaiden-like set in a cyberpunk world, is an excellent action game, and one of the best new experiences of 2021. The game can be tough as nails, but its level design, soundtrack, and boss battles make it an extremely worthwhile endeavor.
-I don’t want to spoil anything, but the mid-game twist in Dragon Quest XI largely justifies how long the whole experience is. Some of the best moments in DQXI occur in the 10 or so hours following that twist (the only kind of twist in the game that actually surprised me).
-I tried replaying The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages recently, and I hate to admit it: This game just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve never been able to make it very far in OoA, and I’m not sure I ever will. My indifference is likely due to the clunky Game Boy controls (which force the player to occasionally unequip the sword, shield, and even the ability to pick up stones), but the whole thing often feels like it’s trying to be both A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening at the same time, yet containing few of those games’ best qualities.
-Devolver-published Olija is a cool puzzle-platformer with some incredible sound design, a clever art style, and some fun fights. Unfortunately, it suffers from too many slow sequences, and its reliance on tribal stereotypes made me a little more than uncomfortable.
-I played a bit of Dirt 5 on Xbox Game Pass recently, and while it’s a perfectly cromulent racing sim, it often just feels like a worse version of the Forza titles. Also, what’s the point of getting Nolan North and Troy Baker to do voicework for this game if it’s just as background noise between races?
–NBA 2K21 is also a fairly cromulent basketball sim, but it also broke me. I’ve been an on-and-off fan of the NBA 2K games ever since the wonderful 2K11, but the way Take-Two has prioritized microtransactions, esports, and character grinding has made the overall experience less enticing. I love basketball, and there’s no better place to play the game virtually, but the whole thing just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
-Recently, my partner and I moved into a brand new apartment with a number of cool new features, but I now have an in-unit washer/dryer, which is life-changing. I didn’t grow up with one (which is fairly typical for New York City apartments, particularly in pre-war buildings), but now that I have one, I’m not sure I can ever go back. Now I have the privilege of wearing just four shirts and two pairs of pants each week without feeling like a schlub. NO ONE CAN STOP ME.
