Considering this game was under weird restrictions and was developed completely in a year, this was probably the best case scenario.
It's still not that great of a game. They were so desperate for characters to take from Paper Mario (but not the old games, heaven forbid) that a creased Paper Goomba was a recurring character.
At the same time the main game rep was top tier: Nabbit, King Bob'omb, Luigi?????? Pretty cool.