This is 2D Mario at its best. Not only does it have the creativity of Odyssey but also it open-endedness. The levels are short and sweet never really overstaying their welcome, and Wonder effects really spice things ups(some do repeat though). Florian, the Poplins and Bowser all have dialogue and works so well. If I had to list some flaws, it would have to be the bosses, Florian popping up after beating every level, and the fact that there's only one save file per user so unless you don't care about 100% the game, you're better off making another user profile.

For the bosses, there good and bad news. Good news is the Koopalings are gone, bad news? Bowser jr.'s become pretty much that in this game. The only difference? his fights in reverse, now you wait a few seconds for him to come out of his shell and then jump on him. each hit causes him to do a Wonder effect(that doesn't really do much). I will say this somewhat improves on the formula as when he's hit, he has more invincibility time to actually do his attack along with the fact that he takes 5 hits instead of 3 which makes it a bit longer. You fight him 4 times throughout game(Half are mediocre, the other half, pretty good). There's also this battleship fights, but its more or less the bowser fight from SMB 1 but even easier. The final boss however is a different story.

Let me just say this game is the parallel version of the Mario movie(and you can't tell me otherwise) as Bowser is not only a flying castle, when you get to him, his world is basically a rock concert with his fight being Tiki Tong from Country Returns...on steroids. this fight makes the others before it look like prototypes.
Overall this is 2D Mario at its creative best.