This review contains spoilers
Everyone and their mother has made the comment about how this is an Odyssey world mixed with 3D World, but as an Odyssey level it feels kinda messy. There's no real theme here (except "cats" I guess), it's just a bunch of islands, each with their own gimmick. It reminds me more of Galaxy in that sense. So I guess it's kinda like Odyssey's style of collection in Galaxy-esque stages, using 3D World's mechanics.
The whole growing giant mechanic is kinda fun...the first time or two. But after that the initial power trip wears off and the slowness of movement in that form wears on.
I wasn't a fan of how many shrines were hidden behind blocks that only fury-Bowser could break. I'd often find them when the world was calm, and then had to rush back to them as soon as the rain started. I get that it was probably the intention, and if there were only a couple it'd be fine, but it felt like a good chunk of my time playing was dropping whatever task I was working on so I could make use of Bowser to break some blocks. Like it stopped being "Hey that's a pretty fun way to make the player remember island layouts" and started being "oh god another set of bricks I need to remember to bring Bowser to".
It was neat to have Bowser Jr. as a partner. I played solo but I still got a little use out of him by using the point-and-click thing. I found him mostly to be useful for taking down the shadow Luigi's, who would stay in one place when he got far away enough.
Having these ? blocks on walls that Jr. could paint on was a good idea in theory, but power ups and so abundant in this mode that I rarely ever felt rewarded for finding them.
And for characters with an upgrade in role we have Plessie, who is not only your main transportation here, but even plays a crucial part in the final boss fight. Hopefully we'll see more of her in the future. Too bad she's too big and generally not human-shaped enough to fit into spinoff games.
Overall it is a fun time. It just doesn't do anything that "wows" me, so I guess that's another Mario game I can compare it to - 3D Land.
But like since it's just a bonus game in a re-released title, it makes sense that it's not exactly trying to break ground. Maybe the next Mario game will take the formula and do something huge (no pun intended) with it.
The whole growing giant mechanic is kinda fun...the first time or two. But after that the initial power trip wears off and the slowness of movement in that form wears on.
I wasn't a fan of how many shrines were hidden behind blocks that only fury-Bowser could break. I'd often find them when the world was calm, and then had to rush back to them as soon as the rain started. I get that it was probably the intention, and if there were only a couple it'd be fine, but it felt like a good chunk of my time playing was dropping whatever task I was working on so I could make use of Bowser to break some blocks. Like it stopped being "Hey that's a pretty fun way to make the player remember island layouts" and started being "oh god another set of bricks I need to remember to bring Bowser to".
It was neat to have Bowser Jr. as a partner. I played solo but I still got a little use out of him by using the point-and-click thing. I found him mostly to be useful for taking down the shadow Luigi's, who would stay in one place when he got far away enough.
Having these ? blocks on walls that Jr. could paint on was a good idea in theory, but power ups and so abundant in this mode that I rarely ever felt rewarded for finding them.
And for characters with an upgrade in role we have Plessie, who is not only your main transportation here, but even plays a crucial part in the final boss fight. Hopefully we'll see more of her in the future. Too bad she's too big and generally not human-shaped enough to fit into spinoff games.
Overall it is a fun time. It just doesn't do anything that "wows" me, so I guess that's another Mario game I can compare it to - 3D Land.
But like since it's just a bonus game in a re-released title, it makes sense that it's not exactly trying to break ground. Maybe the next Mario game will take the formula and do something huge (no pun intended) with it.