A solid entry for the 2d mario series. I commend this piece for bringing back the 2d mario series, however that's where my genuine praise for the game ends. Controls are clunky, graphics are subpar, lets not even talk about the dinky DS speaker audio that heavily neutered any chance of having a decent soundtrack for this game. With all this said, at the end of the day it is still a 2d Mario, and thus it will still retain the same positive player experience as any other. Solid 5/10, It has the makings of a great game but refuses to build upon that frame and rather takes away from it through a lack of polish and limitations caused by the DS.

A Masterpiece of a game. To this day, my favorite game in the series for time trialing. The creativity and level of optimization that can be derived purely from your own playing experience and theories is unparalleled. My only pitfalls with this game are the obvious character imbalances and the graphic style has defnitiely NOT aged kindly. It's sort of similar to the grungy dimmed aesthetic of brawl, a disasterpiece for the wii. Overall 9/10 playing experience, and I constantly revisit this game just for the time trials.