Very much feels like a product of the overly sanitized era Mario found himself in during the early to mid 2010s. This game doesn't have even a speck of its own identity, building itself exclusively on Mario 3 references rather than contributing anything to call its own. Level themes are almost always typical Mario fare (aside from the clock tower levels and some other exceptions which are cool) with no cohesion within worlds, and the bosses don't even register. You want to be challenged? Pffft... who's ever heard of difficulty? And the game's big claim to fame, molding 2D and 3D platforming experiences into one, was already done by Crash Bandicoot and a gazillion other platformers before this one. This game is bland, it's soulless, and it has very few innovations to speak of. If you've played any other Mario game before, this one won't offer any surprises.

Even still... dammit, this game is a great showcase for how Nintendo just knows what makes games fun. 3D Land just has that Secret Sauce™. The controls are perfect. This game's iteration of the Tanooki suit is one of the most fun power-ups to use in the series. I love how many of the levels have shortcuts; you can skip chunks of levels with a long jump or with the Tanooki flutter and it feels very intentional. Some levels have really interesting open field sections, calling back to the style of the older 3D Mario games. The game also has the most worlds of any level-based Mario game, at 16, so even though the 8 special worlds are mostly just remixes of the game's earlier levels, there's tons of content to sink your teeth into and get addicted. My only real complaint about the gameplay itself, aside from the lack of difficulty outside of the special worlds, is the poor depth perception throughout. I played the entire game with the 3D slider on and it does not help with the depth perception at all.

You are not missing out on anything if you've skipped on it, but this is a really good, fundamentally solid game. Almost certainly the weakest 3D Mario, but if this is the weakest, then that sure is a damn fine track record.

Honestly? A smidge overrated.

Super Star Ultra is a solid remake of a good game. My favourite thing about Ultra is that it feels very "DS-core", despite not even originating as a DS game. The anthology approach just works so much more naturally on a handheld than on a home console, and the bottom screen adds some quality of life enhancements that improve the experience. The game also looks a bit better too, and I enjoyed the CG cutscenes. The sound is worse, but that's minor. I'd still stick with the original if I wanted to play multiplayer, but if I ever want to play Super Star in single-player in the future I'll definitely play this version. It's just a straight upgrade.

However, Ultra still keeps the flaws of the original game and in some ways worsens them. My biggest issue is the helpers. Helpers are a cool idea, but they absolutely trivialize the entire game's difficulty, in addition to just being annoying due to spawning in every time you try to discard an ability. Since Kirby games usually give you many different ways to play the game, I find it baffling that they didn't add an option to turn off the helpers. I think that single feature would've made the game SIGNIFICANTLY better.

I am also annoyed by this game's reliance on recycled content. I already disliked this in Super Star, as Milky Way Wishes and the Arena were already mostly recycled content from the game's other modes, but every single one of Ultra's new modes just exacerbates this. Revenge of the King is the only new mode that has any new level design, but is essentially just a harder Spring Breeze with most of the same bosses. Helper to Hero and the True Arena are just more Arenas. And... Meta Knightmare Ultra... what a horrible mode. I think the concept of Meta Knightmare Ultra's gameplay loop is interesting, but playing through every previous mode in the game as Meta Knight is not it. It's just lazy padding using nothing more than recycled content. It's even more annoying since that means we're playing through Great Cave Offensive, Revenge of Meta Knight, and Milky Way Wishes all over again but this time without the gimmicks that made them unique. Just a thoroughly boring mode through and through. I really don't think Ultra is as much of an improvement over Super Star as most people seem to think, because the new modes just aren't that good or interesting.

Gotta say though, Masked Dedede and Galacta Knight are fantastic. Gotta give Ultra credit for that.

Edit: Turns out, you actually CAN discard your ability without spawning a helper by using the select button, which you couldn't do in the original! Thank you @GalacticSpear for letting me know. This is a huge quality of life feature and I'm so happy it was included. I can now agree with everyone that Ultra is a bigger improvement over Super Star than I originally thought. My rating and overall sentiment stays the same though; just ignore the second paragraph.