Super Mario 3D World is everything great about Mario games bundled into one

If there's one series that has consistently gotten better and better with each new sequel, it's the main console Mario 3D platformer series. The last one we got was Super Mario Galaxy 2, which did every thing Galaxy 1 did but way better. Galaxy 1 was better than Sunshine, and Sunshine improved upon what made Super Mario 64 great.

Flower (PS3) high playthrough log

Played this while vaping some dank flower... I really liked playing Journey while high, hoping for a similar experience with this.

wow that 3rd level... riding the fast wind through a valley of flower...
4th level... nighttime... flowers can only be seen in light, so now when I get to a set of flowers, a firefly comes, and I make it light up all the other fireflies in the grase, then that makes street lights turn on... oh wait, now the lights are getting dimmer...
gah... it's dark and scary now... this is a lot like that part in Journey where you are dropped into a pit of darkness and despair... now I'm looking for the faintest glimmer of light to head towards...
5th level... gotta sneak around the hard to see electrified metal... getting the flowers lights up the metal and guides you to the next set of flowers...
with more and more towers lit up, it becomes easier to collect the flowers scattered on the hills...
now in another windy cavern/trench, with split path choices... failing to dodge all the metal... wait how can wind get electrified anyway?
6th level... pedal power is so huge now... can't even collect all the flowers, there's too many...
so, I'm like a magical flower virus, going around rampaging through all the mechanical city structures and other non-flower things, and turning it all into flower fields... I even turned a big electrical tower into a giant cherry tree...
7th level is the credits sequence...

This game was so fun... felt awesome covering the whole city in flowers.

Journey (PS3) high playthrough log

In this game, you're a strange 2 legged creature wearing a robe of ribbons... there are other ribbons with that same design floating around, and you call to them with a bell noise to increase your ribbon power, allowing you to temporarily fly... it's like just being in proximity to these special ribbons gives you flight power... It's like a cat designed this game...

When you don't have any ribbon power, all you can do is walk and climb up small ledges... you end up going so slowly that it just makes you give up on trying to go in any direction where there's no ribbon power to collect... The ribbons guide you on the linear path through the game.

Each... checkpoint? is like a mural printed on a wall of sand... when you light up all the monuments near it, the wall of sand opens up a tunnel... the mural is like some metaphoric religious journey or something...

Oh man... the more ribbons you set free, the more "floaty" the game feels... it starts becoming more and more of a flying game rather than a platformer... it's not about controlling the ribbons or leading them... trying to do that only gets you going the wrong way... the whole point is to follow along with the crowd of ribbons... trust that they won't lead you into danger...

But then... inside a dark mountain... you fall into the pit of darkness and despair... no ribbons in sight... but wait, I see a glimmer of light in the distance... that's the way to go! The statues lead the way... eventually I find a map on the wall, and the ribbons catch up to me and start brightening the place up and making the game more "floaty" again... There's so many ribbons here now, this sacred temple looking area is like a free-flying zone. I keep raising the level of the pool of ribbon magic, allowing me to keep flying higher and higher, and got to the next mural checkpoint...