I'm going to play every single Mario game for the rest of my life. They never disappoint. This game is very important in the Mario collection as it feels so unique from any of the other games. It is imperfect, but what it does right it does better than most Mario games. I also did not play the original version of this game (I'm such a fake fan) so I cannot provide insight on how it is as an adaptation.
Starting with what this game does right. It is so funny. This may be one of the funniest video games I've ever played. It is so lighthearted, playful, and brimming with humor. It also has a lot of fun being playing around in its setting. And it was visually stunning. I loved the graphical direction and the quality completely blew past my expectations.
But like I said earlier, this game doesn't do everything right. The turn-based combat was severely flawed with some serious balancing issues; I found that most of the spells you get, even the high-level late-game ones, were just objectively weaker than your regular attack action. The only spells worth using were AoE, which were absurdly busted in multi-enemy combats. Healing and reviving allies was too easy and cheap. It was also not challenging at all; I think the only time I died was when a boss spammed two AoE attacks back-to-back and one shot my entire squad, which is a frustrating design flaw in and of itself. So yeah, the combat was not very good and felt like a grind towards the end. But also, I don't want to sound too harsh because I totally understand that this is a game for kids; if I were younger I think I would've loved the gameplay.
But not all the gameplay was bad; I was pleasantly surprised to find there were some fun and engaging platforming bits sprinkled in throughout. And the animations and music in the combat were fantastically designed, at least.
Overall, although it has issues, this game is still well worth playing as an avid and longtime Mario enjoyer. Even after almost 30 years of playing with Mario, he still always seems to leave me with a big smile on my face and keep me surprised.
73/100
Starting with what this game does right. It is so funny. This may be one of the funniest video games I've ever played. It is so lighthearted, playful, and brimming with humor. It also has a lot of fun being playing around in its setting. And it was visually stunning. I loved the graphical direction and the quality completely blew past my expectations.
But like I said earlier, this game doesn't do everything right. The turn-based combat was severely flawed with some serious balancing issues; I found that most of the spells you get, even the high-level late-game ones, were just objectively weaker than your regular attack action. The only spells worth using were AoE, which were absurdly busted in multi-enemy combats. Healing and reviving allies was too easy and cheap. It was also not challenging at all; I think the only time I died was when a boss spammed two AoE attacks back-to-back and one shot my entire squad, which is a frustrating design flaw in and of itself. So yeah, the combat was not very good and felt like a grind towards the end. But also, I don't want to sound too harsh because I totally understand that this is a game for kids; if I were younger I think I would've loved the gameplay.
But not all the gameplay was bad; I was pleasantly surprised to find there were some fun and engaging platforming bits sprinkled in throughout. And the animations and music in the combat were fantastically designed, at least.
Overall, although it has issues, this game is still well worth playing as an avid and longtime Mario enjoyer. Even after almost 30 years of playing with Mario, he still always seems to leave me with a big smile on my face and keep me surprised.
73/100