 Remember the game Mylon's Secret Castle for the NES? It was cryptic as hell, hard as balls, and just not very good. So it wasn't like a whole lot of people were clamoring for a sequel, however nearly 10 years later after its release it did in fact get a sequel, Doremi Fantasy Milano Doki Doki Daiboken. This time the game stayed in Japan and that's a shame because this is a surprisingly very good piece of work. In Mylon's Secret Castle, you quite literally were just playing as Mylon and finding secrets in a castle. But in Doremi Fantasy you play as Mylon in a straight-ahead 2D side-scrolling platformer and man, between being a sequel to a bad game and not being released outside of Japan, this game is easily one of the most surprisingly great games I've ever played. It is seriously good, and I couldn't be happier to have found it. Yeah, on the surface it looks like the same old same old side-scrolling platformer stuff that you've seen in a million other games, but it always has something extra to put it over the top. Whether it be the items that can help you, the weird level design, the aesthetics and art design, the odd soundtrack, the gameplay variety, or the boss battles, this game just has so much to offer. Alright, on the surface it looks timid at best. Your attack is that you blow bubbles, just like the game's predecessor. You trap enemies and send them away. You can also jump on enemies to stun them for a bit. Your life bar functions as the color of your clothes, green being maximum health, but if you take a hit while you're wearing red, you're dead. There's all sorts of items to pick up as well, like the winged shoes that allow you to float in the air, the bubblegum that serves as a get out of jail free card if you fall down a pit, bubble upgrades that enhance your attack, and lots more. There's seven worlds here that include seven or eight shorter levels, all organized on this world map here. After the first world is completed, you have to find five musical stars that are marked on the map as such, and you have to find them to move on with the game, otherwise it'll send you back, even if you complete the level. The stars form instruments that give your character special abilities, and that's cool because thanks to the world map you can go back to levels you already completed way back when and find all sorts of other stuff. It's pretty addicting. As you can see from the gameplay here, this is pretty standard platforming stuff. The enemies don't pose much of a threat, other than bosses of course, but jumping is the name of the game in Doremi Fantasy. Thankfully, this is what the game excels in, and the level design here is great. There's lots of wide open areas, multiple paths, hidden areas, and weird locales. Yeah, there's the usual ice level and fire level, but you also have a world inside a cake, and another world encased in Legos or are those Duplo? But yeah, the jumping here is very easy to master. That's a credit to the game's design. And yeah, I'll say it, Doremi Fantasy is really easy. You could complete this game without dying once without a problem, but that's kind of besides the point in my opinion, Doremi Fantasy earns major points for me just for being so accessible. This is one of those games that anyone can pick up and play and have a good time. And not only that, the way the game plays and how it's structured lends itself very well to be approached in lots of different ways. For example, this is a great speedrun game, or you can go for 100% and try and collect everything you can, or you can get through the game without killing any enemies. The nuts and bolts of Doremi Fantasy make it flexible to play it however you want to approach the game, and that gives it a ton of replay value. I have to mention the graphics and art style here. There's no way around how to describe this game. Only one word comes to mind, cute. This game is very cute. And hey, if you have little kids like ages four or five that you want to get into old Super Nintendo stuff, this is a good game to start with. Also, I have to talk about the music. This is one of the most unusual soundtracks to any game I've played, and yet it really fits the game well. Nothing sounds at all like you'd expect here, and it makes for an alluring contrast with the art style. The music almost has like a 1940s Disney feature film quality to it, if that makes sense. It can be upbeat, odd, creepy, energetic, or just plain strange, but it always hits just the right note. Anyway, yeah, Doremi Fantasy is surprising, unexpected, and really good. Yeah, it's a very easy game, but in this particular case, I don't see that as a negative because what makes Doremi Fantasy so good is its immediate accessibility and how flexible the gameplay is for speedruns, 100% runs, maybe a boss run after you completed the game, whatever you want to do. I believe this game is available on the original Wii Virtual Console, but they never bothered to translate it, which is odd. And still, that's really not necessary. This is a great game that I give a major recommendation. Track it down if you can.