Technically this is Wario Land 3!
This game feels like both a step up and a step down from the first game. It gets rid of most of the Mario mechanics in favor of new ones which im a fan of. The transformations shake up the gameplay in a way that definitely sets itself apart from Mario. Where this game feels like a step down however is that those transformations are mostly all thats new to the game. No interesting ideas to flesh out in the levels unlike Mario or heck, even the first 2 Wario land games.
Because of this I think that's why this game has more of a focus on puzzle platforming which in my opinion, has been done better in installments after this one. It can make levels feel longer than they should and what's worse is the entire game contains 50 levels. So the game ends up feeling like its stretching itself VERY thin. The general flow is that you'll have a couple levels that all feel insubstantial and exit your mind the moment you reach that goal. With only 1 or 2 good actually levels here and there.

Speaking of goals, depending on which goal you entire in some levels, you'll end up on a completely different path in the story and get a completely different outcome. Big fan of this branching story paths idea, I can only think of a couple other games that do this and i feel there's potential in a concept such as that.

Im a guy who likes to 100% platformers purely for pleasure, the level you unlock after getting every collectible is a decent challenge stage with a disappointing boss.
But I don't care all that much, I'm more of a fan of the journey rather than the destination, and the way this game handles getting treasures was simply annoying. Inside every level you'll have to find a secret room and play the same minigame every single time to unlock a treasure, I appreciate being able to set the difficulty but I would have handled something like this a little better, a rebalance on selecting the difficulty options to maybe entice the player to do higher difficulties is what im trying to get at here. But ultimately I'd just get rid of it. I think the act of finding the treasure room should be a challenge in of itself instead of both that AND an annoying minigame. There's also a goal game collectible. It also gets repetitive but the worse thing about this is if you fuck up you have to reach the goal again to retry it.

This game was one I kept constantly thinking about how it could be improved in a remake or something with how clumsy all of its issues are. Its NOT a bad game, its more of a game that's at least solid in small doses. But after playing it for an hour or so, the issues it has will sink in and the game will start feeling like a slog. No shame in skipping this if you're playing these games for the first time (I personally think the real WL3 is 10 times better) Which, after a certain Indie platformer that came out this year, wouldn't be surprised seeing an increase of people playing these titles for the first time.