Barely a hint of actual design anywhere in this thing. Basically a tech demo. Awkward, disjointed, artistically and conceptually non-existant. It's just there.

The developers of this game have dined out for a long time on the story that this was originally a rejected Yoshi game pitched to Nintendo, and the strong suggestion is that Nintendo then turned around and appropriated the idea, making SUPER MARIO 64 without them. After playing this, you're not gonna hear me weeping too loudly for Argonaut. Mario 64 is a generation-defining masterpiece because it's a game made by designers. This is a game made by programmers.