This was a super cute game! I think it's strongest aspect is the animation and style, everything was brimming with a lot of life and made it feel like I was playing a cartoon at times! It really helped bring back the wonder (haha) of playing Mario as a kid.

I liked how the level design was almost a mix of 2D and 3D Mario with how it encourages exploration! Although sometimes missing a seed in certain levels was more annoying to scour through than fun. The wonder flower gimmicks were all pretty fun too!

I think the power ups were a bit lacking. I know the transformations were supposed to be kind of a replacement in most levels but I don't know how well that worked for me. I actively avoided the Elephant power after a while, and drill is too situational to be super excited about. Bubble was cool though! I was kind of hoping the tanuki, frog, or penguin suit would come back, but this time be a full transformation into the animal, like the elephants! I think that could've been fun and given the game another power up to play around with.

Badges were cool, but I mostly avoided them since I wanted a more traditional move set, but it was nice to be able to get extra coins or start with a mushroom without impacting gameplay too hard.

I think I started to get bored by the final world, and the fact that I was away from my switch for a while didn't help, as i took a couple month break before finally beating it as I didn't really want to come back that much lol.

Overall I think it was a fun game! I'd recommend it if you're looking for a cute platformer without too much challenge!

Buckenberry gang for life btw.