Mario playing it faithfully to a tee in 3D. Levels are short, narrow and platformy very akin to the 2D formula. Awesome variety in level themes per world, very refreshing when one world doesn't span one entire level thematic.

Mario overall feels good to control, though his air momentum can be weirdly over-sensitive at higher velocity and jittery to align with platforms due to the akward depth perception at times, meanwhile the movement acceleration is a bit slow and can make for some unintentional short distance leaps without a support of good sprinting distance.

However, whenever you have the tanooki suit you have the best air mobility in the game which completely breaks the game in half.

This game starts out as a leasurely stroll and turns upside down as you get to the later postgame levels. Many of these are almost par to par rehashes of their original stages with some altered or added obstacles, while others are completely different levels. Fuck the chasing cosmic marios clipping through everything, they were just cheating bulldozers and a bit overutilised. Other than that it's a great and oddly underappreciated mario title, not as high budget and spiced as 3D World, but it's still a high standard 3D platformer, amazing to play on the go.