It understands the combination of rigid rules and creative, rapid fire additions to those rules that make Mario great, but it doesn't understand the other critical ingrediant in that pie: pacing. There's just one too many junk levels, boring cutscenes, and one-and-done gimmicks for this game to be worth replaying the same the classic Mario games are. Their heart is in the right place here, and the overhauled aesthetic shines a light on how many basic rules of animation NSMB got wrong, but it needed a more aggressive editor to stand with the greats.

It's hard to be too mad at it though. Mario's back, and as games become more and more concerned with chasing cinema this serves as a nice oasis.