A very good mario game that is impressive in its complexity for a handheld. The look of the bitcrushed high resolution renders grew on me for some reason?
I don't know but I like it. Especially some of the enemies being my favorite designs in any mario game

There are a few downsides though. The "giant mario" gimmick is definitely just a gimmick that barely shows up. Also the movement feels a bit off. As in there's this lag in everything you do from stopping to running to jumping. Everything has just a few too many frames to feel snappy. This would follow the "new" series throughout its run.

Also while I do love the look this is the point where mario gets his "default" look fully created. The artwork is so generic looking it hurts in comparison to something like World or 64.

Again though super solid. My favorite part is that 2 entire levels are locked off unless you figure out and execute a fairly difficult secret involving a mini mushroom. It takes guts to do something like that and I doubt most companies would be willing to hide 1/4th of the levels of their game behind secrets.

8/10