When Super Mario Wonder came out, I heard from many people online that it was a fantastic game. The hype seemed immense. A hype that seemed to me to be too good to be true. If it were a 3D Mario title then sure, I could believe it - but a 2D title? Seriously? I ended up personally dismissing the praise and went about my life - assuming I'd probably get around to the game at some point but that I really was in no rush (especially in no rush due to the price). However I ended up getting the opportunity to play it much earlier than I anticipated getting around to it due to a friend of mine who owned it bringing it to university. Suddenly I had a way to play it without having to pay the costly entry fee - and since my friend wasn't the biggest platforming fan to begin with it was an experience I mostly was able to enjoy at my own pace.

My takeaway from playing it? I completely understand the hype - and as a by-product have been radicalised against the New Super Mario Bros titles. I genuinely think that I've been conditioned by the NSMB games to forget what an interesting and captivating 2D platforming experience can be like. Now partially this is because of the fact that my exposure to the genre is mainly filtered through Mario (I am aware great 2D platforming titles were releasing at the time NSMB was released) but they definitely conditioned me to really not come into Super Mario Wonder expecting very much. I'm kinda glad about that though, because it really allowed me to fully appreciate what the game was offering. My advice for any people on the fence about the game is to take the risk - your mind is almost certainly shackled by leftover NSMB trauma and none of that blandness or lack of creativity is to be found here.

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It's kind of crazy to me just how many different concepts for levels are in these games. Each level feels very unique to itself - which cannot be said of NSMB - and even the smaller mini-levels scattered throughout the world maps are usually quite fun mini excursions - if a little easy most of the time. Mario Maker must have inspired the team at Nintendo to make more creative levels right? It feels right at least that a game as creatively rich as Super Mario Wonder followed up the Mario Maker titles. Anything else would have seemed banal in the face of the Maker games - which I can imagine drove the team to work harder than they have in the past to one-up themselves. It's hard to say if there really are dull moments with the game. Even when it comes to the levels you don't vibe with, they never last long enough to annoy you (plus, you can always skip them if you aren't going for 100% wonder seeds - though I was). It definitely on the whole is quite an easy game - but it does have room to up the difficulty with the badge system. I personally never used the 'expert' badges - the ones that make gameplay harder in some way - because I was looking for a chill way to destress during exam season but I am honestly surprised they catered to more dedicated fans. I will say though that one thing I have to criticise about the badge system is that I never really felt much of an incentive to use any of the non parachute cap badges. I get that they have practice courses for them to try them out, and you're suggested to use them more after but the parachute hat was always such a useful part of my move-set and more importantly my muscle memory is built around the parachute cap so using anything else required an unlearning curve that never felt worth it to me. Also just gotta say, I do not think the Jet badge works in the way that it ought to.

[Minor Spoilers End]

While I'm here I need to mention - the art style this game has is lush. Honestly I wasn't the biggest fan initially when I saw trailers but it's really grown on me. It fits the game's vibe so well and it's made the NSMB games look ugly and plastic-like to me now (it's defo contributing to climate change). The stupid flower too has a 10/10 for me - love it when it asked how I tasted (freaky ass flower 💀). Overall you just gotta play this one it's so goated frfr.

Me and a friend have made it our mission to watch a bunch of old weird and cool anime OVAs every so often. Partially it's for the actual historical value of the works - having inspired a lot of things that came after it (seeing the DNA of those aspects helps to better contextualise the cultural conversation other works are engaged with). And on the other end this era of Japanese animation was arguably quite boundary pushing as the medium of Anime really came into it's own. Expect this specific section to appear in multiple posts!

Perhaps a bit of a weird inclusion - something non-fiction for a change. I debated somewhat about whether it should really count of this series. After all, I do a lot of reading for the philosophy half of my degree but that usually does not seem reasonable to put in one of these posts. However, this book wasn't strictly for any course I am currently taking - it really was just a piece of extra philosophy reading to enjoy outside the confines of my degree (I wish I could tell my younger, stem-brained self about this haha). And anyway, it's a book I have things to say about it, so why not include it here? You cannot stop me 😈.

Enough pre-amble though, how was the book? Very good! From the very start, it frames itself in opposition to other introductory texts in the field - holding a degree of scepticism about the stories they tell about feminism as a movement and history. In many of the chapters, the general structure is presenting the 'popular' narrative before moving into poking holes in said narrative or presenting alternative perspectives that challenge the dominance of the popular narrative. While I usually find myself thinking she always makes a good case for these criticisms - I don't believe that convincing you over to her side is strictly what she's going for with this book. Rather, I think it's to instil both a degree of critical thought into the reader, for any future texts on or within feminism they may read, and also to broaden the scope of what feminism is. In this way, I think it does much better than most other introductory texts could do - and I'm thoroughly impressed by Finlayson here.

In terms of actual content - it's also very informative. I'm currently working on a thesis which is very intertwined with feminist theory and ive found this book has equipped me really well with a lot of starting knowledge to hold my own when discussing more focused feminist ideas. It's very thorough despite it's relatively short length (around 250 pages) and while it doesn't cover the full breadth of topics of interest to feminist philosophers - it does well enough to ensure you can hold your own when diving into any one in particular. In closing, you really ought to read this book if you're even slightly interested in getting into feminist theory or ideas at any point. It's stunningly great at what it sets out to do.