as someone who's never played the original, I had a fun time playing this although it only took me 10 hours to beat. the world is very diverse and intresting and the modern soundtrack sounds fantastic. plus, the option to switch between classic and modern OSTs makes it even better (shout out to forest maze). the story is pretty simple but it nails it's comedic bits perfectly. gameplay is very easy but never really got stale thanks to the timing mechanic and triple moves. being able to swap out party members at any given time is another factor as well. my only issue with this game is the timing mechanic. it seems to be very strict with some weapons but pretty lenient with others. for example, peach's slap attack is pretty easy to time to get the aoe effect on but mario's punch attack was nearly impossible to time just perfectly where I'd get the aoe damage.

tl;dr this game is great and fun (although arguably not worth a full $60)