This is one of those games that really is just that good, but I honestly don't have much to say on it, nor do I think it's worthy of a joke review either, so I'll keep this short and simple. (< I'm not editing this out of the review, I think it's hilarious how I planned a quick review and then completely spiralled. This is so me.)

Art-style? Beautiful. Gameplay? Generally fantastic. Controls? Really good, not perfect, not sure how much of it is a Joycon issue rather than an actual in-game issue, but still really good. Music? Excellent, albeit repetitive, I do wish I got to hear more unique songs. Locations? Remarkable. Worldbuilding? Some of the best in the franchise. Story? Well, it's Mario, 2D Mario to be specific, but honestly, by those standards, it's actually really good - probably bolstered by how utterly creative and trend-breaking this game is as a whole. Difficulty? Honestly, pretty damn good most of the time.

My main criticisms are, first of all, I felt like certain things weren't as rewarding to accomplish as they used to be. It's kind-of irritating that there is literally no post-game here, whatsoever, other than the bonus coin levels which I assume just unlock after 100% completion, given that I didn't get a single game over and that's supposedly what unlocks them otherwise. I kinda just wish there was more meat to this game, and there's a specific reason as to why I feel that way...

My biggest disappointment by far was with the imbalanced worlds. I finished World 1 and was absolutely overjoyed for what I expected to be five more worlds of fantastic levels with a few challenges, interesting secrets, and lots of variety. Unfortunately, I did not get that wish. World 2 is significantly smaller than World 1 - or at least it feels that way, and to me, it felt like it didn't bring nearly as much to the table. The first airship was a nice surprise, and the music was absolutely riveting, but then the boss was just a glorified recreation of the SMB1-style bridge boss, with obstacles that serve basically no purpose. Whatever, right? Still a fun world, with a proper boss and mini-'boss', granted the former was just Bowser JR. again and basically ruined the whole point of the main game's wonderful (haha) obsession with variety.

Then, we get to World 3, which has a Master Popplin because yes. I honestly had high hopes for this world, it looked like one of the most visually-intriguing places in the entire series. Unfortunately, the map didn't reflect this. It was incredibly cramped and brought even less to the table, and didn't have any sort of boss whatsoever, you're quite literally just handed the Royal Seed. By this point, I was also getting irritated with the beginning of the worlds just handing you Wonder Seeds, but hey, it's just one, it's forgivable. This, however? No, what was the reason? What justification could there possibly be for such an anti-climactic conclusion, after the sheer amount of love put into World 1 and decent amount in World 2? Ridiculous.

World 4, thankfully, restored my hope, as it was an absolute marvel not only to explore but to play through. Lots of substantial levels, reasonable amounts of challenges, a proper "climax", even a little story of its own. Loved it. World 5, unfortunately, threw me right back into my concerns, with it being pretty much just as cramped as World 3, and once again, with no proper climax. Credit where credit is due, I did enjoy rescuing the Popplins, it was nice that they actually mattered, it made the world feel lived in and like I was actually a part of a proper story, rather than running through... a place that... probably exists. Mind you, I was doing a 100% run, and because I didn't know that in both W3 and W5 you were supposed to revisit the respective final levels for a different scenario, I had myself convinced that there was going to be some crazy twist in the late game where we'd have to backtrack and both worlds would have whole new segments opened up. Even in hindsight, I don't think this was an unreasonable assumption to make, what with how non-linear the worlds are as is.

Then there's World 6. It's certainly... 6, alright. It barely even felt like a World. Not a single spot to explore, and most of the levels were special challenges, rather than actual proper levels. Oh, and please, God, tell me why there are suddenly four separate free Wonder Seed spots?

Petal Isles was refreshing thematically, structurally and even visually. I have nothing to say against this locale, it's a completely inoffensive central world and I enjoyed pretty much every moment of it. It's just hilarious how the world you'd think would be packed with challenge levels had more meat to it than half of the numbered worlds.

Lastly, the Special World. I mean, it's okay, I guess. It's kinda cool, I enjoyed the challenge, but it's far from a substitute for a proper post-game, and didn't even come close to feeling like a satisfying conclusion to my game experience (ignoring how much I had to grind Flower Coins to get all the Standees afterwards).

All-in-all, I'm just upset at how inconsistent the game was, and how misleading it felt. I'm sure a lot of this is a matter of expectations versus reality, and I'm probably looking at this through quite a pessimistic lens, but I genuinely don't understand the creative decisions behind making [over] half of the worlds so utterly subpar...

Oh, and I'm also removing a point for it only having one save file per User. I'm not making a second profile for this. In 2023? One save file per account (or account-equivalent) is insulting. No good excuse for that, whatsoever, I couldn't care less about the experience being more casual after the first time. There are no games out there that should discourage replays, especially not a damn Mario game.

I know this review is pretty brutal, but I think I've shown fairly consistently on my profile that I'm much better at describing the negatives than the positives, and I mean it when I say that beyond the above criticisms, I really did love everything about this game. Collecting Wonder Seeds was a joy, finding secrets was a joy, most of the badges were actually pretty fun, even spending the coins on Standees was enjoyable, despite the fact that it's probably gonna be several months before I even think of playing this game online. The fact that this game didn't obsess over one singular gimmick the entire time like most of the 3D games, and instead was simply a good 2D platformer with new ideas at every turn, like the original tetralogy, is a dream come true for me. Despite how disappointing most of the bosses were, and the fact that Kamek doesn't even do anything in gameplay a single time, AND the fact that Kamek is also technically completely useless with the Wonder powers in effect if you think about it, the final boss was pretty damn good. Slightly infuriating that the final main level was, again, an autoscroller, which is something Nintendo can't seem to get past. Look, I get it, it's the end, you want that strong pacing and intense build-up, but man, I'd rather a long, meaty level than a fairly short one that's artificially tripled in length.

I am pretty disappointed that there's no difference between the playable characters, that's something I've wanted in a 2D Mario game for ages, but I get it, I suppose. It's something I'll continue to wait for for a while. They certainly can't get away with copying these exact characters twice, nor the badge system, unless they want this to be NSMB all over again, which... well, I doubt it, and I sincerely hope not. Also not happy that the ONLY unique playable character is an easy mode for absolutely no reason, but whatever, at least they put effort into making Yoshi functionally different.

Anyway, back to positives, the UI is very charming on all fronts, the game's equivalent of fast travel is extremely efficient whilst not feeling streamlined to the point of being dull, and honestly, every time I look at the full kingdom map, I get a little serotonin boost. This game may not trump NSMB in absolutely every single way (primarily content-wise and the lack of a triple jump which is mildly irritating), but man, every single moment of this game oozes charm and passion, and nothing reassures me more that we are finally out of [hopefully as close as we'll ever get to] Mario's dark age entirely, than looking at the gorgeous, interwoven Kingdom Map, with no stupid gimmicks or generic visuals, just pure, unfiltered creativity.

I love this game, despite how much some elements piss me off and make me feel like I'm gonna have to wait another three-to-six years for another shot at getting the perfect 2D Mario game, and I had a great time playing it overall. I wish I didn't let my expectations get the better of me, that never ends well, but I won't just excuse every criticism because of that. This game is not perfect, it still has a long way to go to being as good as it could conceivably be, but this game's existence is still a shining trophy in Nintendo's cabinet, and every good thing that it achieves - which is a lot - is a feat worthy of applauding, so thank you, Nintendo, for making one of the best Mario games yet.

And you know what? I cannot fucking WAIT for Super Mario Maker 3.