it's pretty fun, although a bit repetitive. The game has a nice balance of difficulty, never feels too hard but it always keeps you on your toes because of how you control in combination with the enemies and hazards.
As opposed to DK and DK jr, this is the first Mario arcade game where I really feel like i can just keep going and going for awhile until I die.
Honestly it's just chill and simple, but nothing to write home about nowadays. There have been better ports since, but the original has a unique visual charm

addendum: played multiplayer with a friend and while it's pretty fun, I don't think it's a substantial jump from the single player experience.