Mals' Gaming Reviews

📄︱April 2026 Recap

College, College, College!

This month was primarily focused on my college work just like I've been saying for the past few blogs of mine, but this time, I really mean it for this month alone. As we are coming to a close in terms of my semester, I have to ensure that all of my grades are intact since I gotten myself on a financial aid probation period where I must excel with my classes before I lose them. Its all due to a issue that I've had after my last semester after my last one (since the last one I didn't have due to me missing the time to appeal), and I must not get my hands into working in the working space. After talking about it with my Counselor, it appears that should I have to pay for classes, one program course that would usually be covered by financial aid would be around $700 dollars!!! This would be impossible for me since I can't really cover much of that on our end, so if I don't manage my grades and performance, I could end up having to work under a very low paying job...

I'm not too focused on that however—not the job portion. I want to put aside my reviews and games (minus the one Archipelago sessions I've signed up for) to work a good percentage on my schoolwork considering that I don't have much time left, with the second week of May being the last days of this semester before moving onto the next one, hoping that my financial aid stays intact. I wouldn't want to go on another probation period like this one since I don't have much flexibility in terms of anything else. That reminds me, I have to start filling out my FAFSA for this and next year...

There's a bit more stuff unrelated to college though, and cause I have time to make a blog covering the state of my college, I can talk about some of the other things that've happened this month.

Thoughts on the Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Warning! This section of the blog contains spoilers for the following: Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Please ensure that you must've looked at the material in full before processing.
Before I talk about my thoughts about the Galaxy Movie, I want to briefly talk about my thoughts about the one that came before it: The Super Mario Bros Movie of 2023. I've found the movie to be quite an enjoyable experience spotting all the Nintendo references the movie had as well as the familiar action that's been perfectly translated from the 3D and 2D Mario enemies, but my biggest drawback was the insanely small runtime of less than an hour and thirty minutes. Now I'm not one that doesn't really watch movies often, but for someone that watches video game playthroughs and documentaries about gaming and tech history and anything adjacent, it feels as if I'm watching a gameplay of a new Mario game that came out on specialized Switches that were tailored to be made for Movie hardware rather than actually watching a movie that's been made to fit the standards of Mario.

With the Super Mario Galaxy Movie.. I think it's alright.

Before our family saw it on the 12th, there were some elements of the movie that've been spoiled by either Nintendo themselves or people. From the former, it was Star Fox's inclusion in the movie, as after seeing something like that, it would've been a lot better for him to be revealed when you see the movie and not something before you see it. I never played the Star Fox games to also know about his personality and portrayal compared to his games, but I'm hearing two sides of the coin: They think he's extremely hot and awesome, and the other is that he was a pointless addition to the movie, taking up most of the screentime than characters such as Rosalina herself. It's a bit insane to think about that considering her importance in the games (more specifically, the first Super Mario Galaxy), but since Yoshiaki Koizumi, the one whose in charge of the storytelling from that game had no involvement in the movie (and Shigeru Miyamoto's thing for Mario games to not really have an established story), I can somewhat see why she would be reduced to nothing but a "damsel in distress." Even if this movie was "for the fans." im pretty certain those fans would've loved more Rosalina representation in the movie, but who knows, with the subtle reveal of Daisy in the movie, maybe we have one more chance.... Hopefully.....

...and that was it! Nothing noteworthy that I feel like talking about had happened this month, and we shall see on what happens next.

Opinions Regarding Social Media

At the start of this year, I had taken a brief hiatus from touching Bluesky and Twitter. Since then, while I haven't been caught up with the news around me (since those places where how I've gotten news besides mutual conversations with family and friends), my mind has been feeling a lot clearer and better, with less moments of me feeling stressed out. When the time Arle's Inclusion in Crossworlds came by, I reopened it, and I noticed I started touching Bluesky and Twitter more and more again except this time, it wasn't as much as how it used to be prior to the hiatus. In fact, it's been a lot more slower to the point that I actually appreciate how slow it is this time.

And, considering that my little me's weird purpose to make friends had significantly slowed down, it's started to make me think: I don't really think I'd be suitable to use major Social Media platforms anymore.

When I didn't have Bluesky and Twitter, I had two primary places people could've contacted me on: Discord and GBATemp. I also have the Terraria Community Forums but I don't use that as often as these two...

I haven't made any new friends since the hiatus of Twitter and Bluesky, but I didn't want that to matter when I've left. The people I've had on these sites is all I want: no more, no less. Even in the midst of some users leaving my friends list and disappearing off the Internet for an unexplained reason, the ones that I've connected and still engage with to this day feel like that's all I can really handle instead of actively reaching out to more people.

I remember this one time where I've met someone with 9998 people on their Discord friends list. It was an unedited screenshot. Imagine having that many people to be friends with?

I don't get why I was into the idea that having so many people to speak to would be a beneficial thing for me to recover from my past of getting bullied left and right, especially since I've had numerous issues on the Internet prior to this realization. I guess I just learn way slower than people, considering some people have been telling me this and I haven't been listening since I would think otherwise only for them to be right once a major situation happens. I guess this also stems from the times I've decided to make my website and Blog too considering I too wasn't in a happy spot to find other people to engage with.

I feel content. I feel content that I have people that look up to me even if its people I don't really know as well as those that do know, and that's all I want. And for those that unfriend, I consider it to be one that wasn't meant for me,.which is completely fine. We all have our differences with the people that want to engage and whatnot. I think that's all I have to say on this matter, it's just something I've noticed as of writing this blog.

NEW/Revisited Games I've played and/or reviewed this month:

Note: I've started playing these games in date order.

New

Revisited