I do not know how to feel about this game. At all. I fully completed it and I still have no idea how to feel about it. It's an absolutely bloated mess that frequently has collectibles scattered about in seemingly random fashion. The list of things to pick up is absolutely never-ending, by the time any of its contemporaries would have finished you'll probably only be 1/3 of the way done with this game. There are challenges scattered about that will make you absolutely tear your hair out (Rabbit race, anyone? Also anything that makes you use Diddy's jetpack under a time limit. That thing controls like trying to swim through mayonnaise) and sometimes the game just makes you walk back and forth switching Kongs to get through one gate. You'll run into hallways that lead you down them with Tiny only to make you swap to DK to hit a switch.

However, despite all that, I find myself.... absolutely loving my time with the game? I love the sheer amount of things to pick up. The game is positively bursting at the seams with personality, watching the animations of any Kong is an absolute joy. The music and visuals are also some of the best on the system, this game truly pushes the N64 as far as it can and it remains one of my favorite looking games on the system. The abilities each Kong has are super fun, stuff like Lanky running on his hands or Chunky growing absolutely massive are so cool and I find them really enjoyable. The boss fights are also awesome, even if a couple bosses are reused it's fun to fight them with different Kongs/abilities. The scale of the game is honestly great, it feels like a truly massive adventure and having K. Rool's ship constantly looming in the hub world really gives things a sense of urgency. Overall I feel like the game's strengths outweigh its weaknesses but it's still an absolute mess at points and definitely hasn't aged as well as Rare's other offerings from the time period. I'd still recommend it if you like Collectathons but just be fully prepared to deal with the game's quirks.

Also, this isn't really related to my final score, but you can absolutely destroy this game with glitches if you want. You won't encounter said glitches unintentionally which is nice, but you can entirely ruin the intended order of things if you really want to which I think is neat.

overall game sucks dick. i love it with my whole heart

Extremely charming game. The visual style still holds up and the game makes amazing use of the fact that the world is made of paper. The story is pretty great for a Mario game, obviously isn't nothing groundbreaking but it's pretty enjoyable and also really funny at times. Characters are so fun to interact with that even just running back and forth delivering letters for a badge that isn't even that good is one of my personal favorite parts of the game. Action Commands make combat so much more fun than it otherwise would be, the dopamine hit from getting a big Power Bounce chain or mashing fast enough to get big damage out of Tidal Wave is incredible. The sheer amount of options you have to customize combat is probably my absolute favorite part of the game, though. The badge system is what makes this game so amazing, you can completely change Mario's build on the fly to tackle any situation. This combined with the variety in partners makes it so you can really play the game however you'd like, whether you just want to focus on giant numbers by charging up and using Power Jump/Smash or status effects with Sleepy Stomp or Shrink Stomp or skillful timing of action commands with moves like Power Bounce. My personal favorite strategy was charging with Mario and Watt turn 1 then betting on myself to get a lot of hits with Power Bounce + All or Nothing. I have no idea how other people feel about them but I absolutely adore the Peach interludes, they're a great change of pace and Peach being able to do her part and actually help the main quest is great.

There are very few real flaws in this game honestly. It runs pretty poorly on my Wii at points, though my Wii is pretty beaten up so that may just be a me problem. Chapter 6 is pretty mediocre, forcing you to walk back and forth on narrow paths with plenty of enemies - which would be fine if the level didn't lack a heal point entirely. You either have to rely on items or leave the level just to run 10 feet to the nearby Toad House to heal, which makes the enemies respawn which means you have to go through the whole process over and over again. At least there's a consistent Amazy Dayzee so you can easily level up (which does fully heal you) but its still not great. Other than that I really liked all the chapters, my favorite is definitely Chapter 7. The mirror puzzles are so cool and I love the whole aesthetic of the places you go there.

Overall it's an excellent game, definitely recommended. Watt best partner