Fantastic looking and general world building what with everything being in a set place on the island and you being able to see things in relation to each other on the map.
Its a bizarre thing to say for a mario game, but the world building is good
Also I just love the tropical theming of the game. The small details they added in like the haziness in the distance because its a tropical island and mario's general bounce that he has to his animations. Just nice looking.
Mostly everything else feels super unpolished and rough. Honestly feels like the game was roughly 85% done when it got shipped. The way stuff loads in, the movement with mario when he doesn't have fludd in the bottomless void, we just need more platforming so throw these in, levels.
Fighting the bosses were really fun the first time round, the 15th time I chased after shadow mario. Not fun.
They nailed the idea of using stars to gate your progress while also allowing you to freely go from one level to the next so well in super mario 64. Then they threw it out the window for this one, just catch shadow mario in every level.
The thing that killed it for me was the mysterious hotel delfino star. Oh it was very mysterious. Randomly moving from room to room with a massive far away camera in a void with an area definitely made to be very zoomed in. The issues with that area just kept stacking. Yoshi can't open doors, you're supposed to know yoshi can eat the ghosts, the beta feeling way that the specific small locations load in from the void. And then... I get to the end after being very confused for about 20 minutes, the shine is right on the other side of the glass and i'm in the area just outside the pool room. What does the pianta butler say to me "No one allowed in pool without proper swimwear."
Well that just ended it for me... pool's closed. Piantas are cool though.
4/10
Its a bizarre thing to say for a mario game, but the world building is good
Also I just love the tropical theming of the game. The small details they added in like the haziness in the distance because its a tropical island and mario's general bounce that he has to his animations. Just nice looking.
Mostly everything else feels super unpolished and rough. Honestly feels like the game was roughly 85% done when it got shipped. The way stuff loads in, the movement with mario when he doesn't have fludd in the bottomless void, we just need more platforming so throw these in, levels.
Fighting the bosses were really fun the first time round, the 15th time I chased after shadow mario. Not fun.
They nailed the idea of using stars to gate your progress while also allowing you to freely go from one level to the next so well in super mario 64. Then they threw it out the window for this one, just catch shadow mario in every level.
The thing that killed it for me was the mysterious hotel delfino star. Oh it was very mysterious. Randomly moving from room to room with a massive far away camera in a void with an area definitely made to be very zoomed in. The issues with that area just kept stacking. Yoshi can't open doors, you're supposed to know yoshi can eat the ghosts, the beta feeling way that the specific small locations load in from the void. And then... I get to the end after being very confused for about 20 minutes, the shine is right on the other side of the glass and i'm in the area just outside the pool room. What does the pianta butler say to me "No one allowed in pool without proper swimwear."
Well that just ended it for me... pool's closed. Piantas are cool though.
4/10