A pretty drastic improvement over SML1. The music bops more, the control feels smoother, the spritework is more appealing & the world feels little larger & more imaginative. In no other Mario game do you explore the inside of a whale or ride in a hippo's snot bubble up to the moon. In a way, this speaks to SML’s uniqueness as a series & it’s a bit of a shame Nintendo hasn’t revisited it in so long. A delightfully different handheld classic.