Able to stand toe to toe with the other big collectathon on the N64.
Does many things right for the genre, such as not kicking you out after a level when getting a Jiggy. There's also just generally so much TO collect. Even the main collectable (Jiggy's) are different to the door gates (notes), then on top of that you have new special moves, extra health pieces, a "find 5 of these things in every level" (think red coins but more personality). Admittedly the special moves one can make your beginning set feel a bit limited.
But it does what I want most from these games, the worlds are super fun to explore. Not too big or confusing, but packed with things to find, secrets, and subareas with their own little storylines and/or characters. The game has so many different minigames and challenges for collectables.
The hub world is up there as one of the best. While Peach's Castle is iconic, and beautiful, it does feel very much like just a quick stop between the levels, with a few secret things to discover. But Gruntilda's lair is like an entire extra level in this game that keeps expanding. It is kind of easy to get lost though.
I do have a few nit-picks. The camera is the biggest, it is not forgiving at all.
Another is the fact that collecting all 100 notes has to be done in a single go. If you leave the level or even die, it resets them all (this also applies to anything you can collect in a level, such as the 5 Jinjo's).
Egg shooting can be a very fiddly thing.
Luckily the technical issues don't get in the way of the huge charm, personality and fun that radiates from the writing, characters and music, all in some very well designed levels.
Does many things right for the genre, such as not kicking you out after a level when getting a Jiggy. There's also just generally so much TO collect. Even the main collectable (Jiggy's) are different to the door gates (notes), then on top of that you have new special moves, extra health pieces, a "find 5 of these things in every level" (think red coins but more personality). Admittedly the special moves one can make your beginning set feel a bit limited.
But it does what I want most from these games, the worlds are super fun to explore. Not too big or confusing, but packed with things to find, secrets, and subareas with their own little storylines and/or characters. The game has so many different minigames and challenges for collectables.
The hub world is up there as one of the best. While Peach's Castle is iconic, and beautiful, it does feel very much like just a quick stop between the levels, with a few secret things to discover. But Gruntilda's lair is like an entire extra level in this game that keeps expanding. It is kind of easy to get lost though.
I do have a few nit-picks. The camera is the biggest, it is not forgiving at all.
Another is the fact that collecting all 100 notes has to be done in a single go. If you leave the level or even die, it resets them all (this also applies to anything you can collect in a level, such as the 5 Jinjo's).
Egg shooting can be a very fiddly thing.
Luckily the technical issues don't get in the way of the huge charm, personality and fun that radiates from the writing, characters and music, all in some very well designed levels.