Princess Daisy Forever: Revival

Mario had to go through a lot of trouble in order to rescue Princess Daisy, by putting his life in jeopardy and fighting a variety of silly, but dangerous creatures. Hence, it would be a pleasure to watch the princess fend off for herself for a change and see whether she can survive the perils of Mushroom Kingdom without Mario to watch her back.

Princess Daisy Forever: Revival is an attempt to reimagine the Super Mario Bros. universe by putting the helpless princess in the center of the action. Hence, you have to adapt to her lack of special abilities and try to navigate tricky environments throughout Mushroom Kingdom by running away from danger and generally just stomping whatever comes too close to you.

Most of the levels are very similar to what you may have seen in the original game and so are the enemies that try to hinder your progress. The Goombas are here to greet you and so are the other classic Mario critters, albeit a little more buggy and glitchy. On the other hand, the princess cannot gain powers by eating mushrooms, so she is somewhat more exposed to the danger.

Since this is the alpha version of the game, bugs and inconsistencies are to be expected, so a lot of things do not work as they should. As an example, there doesn’t seem to be a game over screen, because nothing happens after you run out of lives. Instead, you just respawn like nothing happened and you can just keep doing so for as long as you want.

The controls are a tad too jumpy and unrefined as well, because the princess does not really respond accordingly to your input. Not only that, but she is also pushed back a certain distance after making contact with an enemy, which can sometimes make it extremely difficult to get past tricky sections. Some level design mistakes are present too, although they can probably be removed from any future versions.

Princess Daisy Forever: Revival is not exactly perfect and it has plenty of rough edges to annoy you with, but it can also be a good way to experience a bit of nostalgia. Hence, if you can turn a blind eye to the design mistakes, the game certainly worthy of a try.