Destination Point: World 4. Mid-castle. Wendy O. Koopa.

Number of Players this Session: 3 (World 3), then 2 (World 4)

It’s sort of freaky that I still remember the full names of some of those Koopa Kids. That shows you how much I miss them I guess.

Anyway, one of my brothers opted out of our recent session. So we were 3 in total all the way through the final half of World 2 and the first half of World 3. Then we went back to 2 players up to the first half of World 4.

The game is getting progressively harder when it comes to finding those Star Coins. I missed out on some in 2 levels in World 2 and the Ghost House in World 3 (yeah, Ghost Houses are back, btw). Some of the locations make you go, “WTF?” at times. But to be honest having another player really makes getting them easier, especially if they’re simple out-of-reach ones. It’s the hidden ones that frustrate me. Most of the time I simply stumble upon them. Now I’m constantly sliding on walls just in case there’s one I missed.

I found the Penguin Suit to be silly at first, but upon trying it out in World 3 it’s starting to grow on me. I like its multi-functional design; ice shots, sliding on ice platforms, and swimming freely on water. Makes the perfect replacement for the Frog Suit, don’t you think?

Located our very first “Block Switch” in World 3, referencing Super Mario World’s “Block Switch Palaces”. From the looks of things its effects seem to be exclusive only to World 3. Creative usage, though.

I finally found my first secret exit to a warp cannon in World 4. I could not discover the ones in the previous Worlds. To be honest, it’s sometimes too chaotic with 2 and 3 players. I think I’ll backtrack solo when I can.

So World 4 seems to have some nice Mario references as well. There’s this creative “Cheep-Cheeps jumping out of the water” one which is straight off Super Mario Bros. NES. I also encountered that annoying giant Cheep-Cheep that jump ups and gobbles you…Super Mario Bros. 3 one there. The game continues to impress me with it’s mixture of nostalgia and innovative level design.

That’s it with today’s session. As usual, more updates are on the way so keep it locked to this blog.