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Review Information

Game Reviewed	Communist Mario: Mario Visits His Great Uncle in the USSR 2, by Vitiman
Review Author	SRGPaladin
Created	Jan 19 2018, 8:22 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview

This game is a wonderful experience. I fear if I get too much into specifics, I would spoil it, which would be an unforgivable crime. Hence, I will be a bit vaguer than usual in the scoring details.

The game is less of a Mario platformer than it is an environmental experience. Overall, I'd say the it reminded me of a number of surreal RPG Maker games, most notably Yume Nikki and The Sandman. Except less dream world and more communist Russia.

Pros	+gameplay that stretches the boundaries of an "authentic Mario experience" +magnificent variety in visual presentation +high production meme of a story
Cons	-this isn't an entire genre (yet) -a bit short -except the cutscenes; can't skip if we've already seen -literally tried to memorize all the level passwords because I thought it was going to tie into the gameplay later

Impressions

Gameplay 8 / 10	A fair amount of the game revolves around trippy and hilariously melodramatic cutscenes about Mario's struggle as he tries to live up to his Great Uncle's expectations after he gets sucked up into a surreal USSR in 1983. These cutscenes are not super long, although you can't speed them up. This is fine, as this would ruin the wonderful timing of the cutscenes, but I would have appreciated a way to skip cutscenes we've already seen. As for the gameplay, much of it was surprisingly punishing, possibly leaving whether you live or die, in part, up to RNG (or maybe I just suck). However, this hardly tarnishes the variety in experience presented throughout the stages, both by variance of mechanics and how the layout was complemented extraordinarily well by the unique visuals associated with each level. Note that the last level fell back on some old tricks, and the boss fights were not particularly inventive. Not bad by most measures, but disappointing considering the build-up.
Graphics 9 / 10	Neatly edited tilesets that contribute to atmosphere. Graphic styles nonetheless occasionally clash, but you shouldn't care, since when they do it fits in the theme of the level. Special effects in the levels are gimmicky beyond belief, but they make up part of such a cohesive whole it is not only acceptable, but desirable. And those cutscenes, holy moly. Especially the earlier ones were Yume Nikki-tier trippy. The later ones were more focused on dialog (that was good, see above), so the visual presentation was not so spectacular then.
Sound 9 / 10	The sound effects were straighforward and sufficient;. In a game focused so much on ambience, this is as much as one could ask for. The music was subtle and varied, if not original, but usually classy, if not literally classical/romantic. Most importantly, the music always fit the environment of the level; it contributes to the pleasing overall game experience.
Replay 3 / 10	Eh. Unless I royally missed something, not anything new to see the next time around. Certainly will look at it in a few years and go "ah, it's THAT game; was fun, let's replay it", but you see everything there is to be seen on one playthrough.

Final Words

40% cutscene + 45% tripping + 15% s***post = 99% WONDERFUL (+ a few trivial complaints)

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