A never-ending playground of exciting, fluid ideas. The deft, coherent game design that always thrived in the Mario series bursts to life in an all-new world and colour palette, tucking wonderous (hah.) secrets around every corner of every (and I mean every) level. In a sense, this is the perfect translation of the Odyssey format to 2D platforming - I also think this does better at avoiding some of Odyssey's pitfalls, such as the overabundance of useless content. Sometimes a little too easy - how is the final bowser level meant to be a 5-star difficulty?? - but never dull. And occasionally, it gives you a challenge like the final-final special level to demonstrate the brain-tickling tactility with which every single mechanic ticks together in harmony. Marvellous.

By the way: I get the complaints about the flowers getting grating and a little too 'tutorial-y', but I found them to be quite charming, and even funny sometimes. They especially helped the fact that I couldn't play this online, since I am not paying for NSO.