This review contains spoilers
I played this on the switch in the 3d All Stars collection.
Let me start off by talking about what I liked about the game. I am a big fan of the concept of using a water pump tool like this and building the levels around it. It is an interesting gimmick and allows for several puzzle and platforming ideas to be created. I also like the setting of the game and how it is set in a summertime island with a lot of different locations, each with its own theme and style. The hub world was also fun to explore, find little secrets in, and do the little tasks for the blue coins.
The story is fun to follow, especially how Mario gets arrested and goes to trial in the very beginning. This game also introduced Bowser Jr as a new staple character in the universe and it was interesting to see how he differed from Bowser. The music was also very good and nice to listen to while playing; it set the mood for each location and situation very well in my opinion. I also was a bit surprised to hear the voice acting for the cutscenes. Bowser's voice was especially jarring, but in a fun and goofy way that made it entertaining.
Now moving onto the parts I didn't like. The biggest issue I had with the game was the controls, by far. The controls in this game made me want to throw my controller at the TV during some parts. First, I feel like you are given as little control of Mario in the air as possible while still giving you some control. The amount of times I missed a jump because I overshot it was ridiculous. I think it should be criminal to restrict air mobility this much in a platformer. Normally, though, this wasn't a big deal since you could just use the hover nozzle to fix you position. But if you couldn't use the hover nozzle, like if you were carrying something, had a different nozzle equipped, or were doing a section without FLUDD, the inability to adjust your momentum was absurd. Additionally, Mario would sometimes do that thing where he walks around in a circle instead of just turning around if you input a direction to walk that isn't straight ahead.
Moving onto the level design, it was good in general and most of the levels were fine. Some were pretty annoying to constantly try to complete since the controls would mess me up on the simplest thing, but I still managed to beat them. Those mainly included the platforming secret levels and other annoyances. Then there are the levels that were so annoying and dumb that I just gave up on. The one in particular that drove me crazy was in the harbor where you need to do some platforming with Yoshi. I failed that level so many times that it was the main reason why I decided to not 100% this game.
Near the end of the game, I noticed that the hub world stopped giving me hints on where to go to advance the story. Every time you enter the hub world, the camera zooms in on what to focus on, but it just kept focusing on the entrance to the same world, even after I got every sprite in that world. I eventually figured out what I had to do to get to the final level, but I was just confused on why it stopped doing that thing with the camera.
I feel like trying to 100% this game without looking some things up is almost impossible. The normal sprites are easy enough to find, but then you need to find all of the secret sprites in the hub world, all of the blue coins in the hub world, and all of the blue coins in every other world, with no indicator on how many exist in total.
Overall, the game isn't bad, but there are plenty of better games to play and this game certainly has a lot of flaws with it. I can appreciate what it did for future games, but I don't see myself playing this game again anytime soon.
Let me start off by talking about what I liked about the game. I am a big fan of the concept of using a water pump tool like this and building the levels around it. It is an interesting gimmick and allows for several puzzle and platforming ideas to be created. I also like the setting of the game and how it is set in a summertime island with a lot of different locations, each with its own theme and style. The hub world was also fun to explore, find little secrets in, and do the little tasks for the blue coins.
The story is fun to follow, especially how Mario gets arrested and goes to trial in the very beginning. This game also introduced Bowser Jr as a new staple character in the universe and it was interesting to see how he differed from Bowser. The music was also very good and nice to listen to while playing; it set the mood for each location and situation very well in my opinion. I also was a bit surprised to hear the voice acting for the cutscenes. Bowser's voice was especially jarring, but in a fun and goofy way that made it entertaining.
Now moving onto the parts I didn't like. The biggest issue I had with the game was the controls, by far. The controls in this game made me want to throw my controller at the TV during some parts. First, I feel like you are given as little control of Mario in the air as possible while still giving you some control. The amount of times I missed a jump because I overshot it was ridiculous. I think it should be criminal to restrict air mobility this much in a platformer. Normally, though, this wasn't a big deal since you could just use the hover nozzle to fix you position. But if you couldn't use the hover nozzle, like if you were carrying something, had a different nozzle equipped, or were doing a section without FLUDD, the inability to adjust your momentum was absurd. Additionally, Mario would sometimes do that thing where he walks around in a circle instead of just turning around if you input a direction to walk that isn't straight ahead.
Moving onto the level design, it was good in general and most of the levels were fine. Some were pretty annoying to constantly try to complete since the controls would mess me up on the simplest thing, but I still managed to beat them. Those mainly included the platforming secret levels and other annoyances. Then there are the levels that were so annoying and dumb that I just gave up on. The one in particular that drove me crazy was in the harbor where you need to do some platforming with Yoshi. I failed that level so many times that it was the main reason why I decided to not 100% this game.
Near the end of the game, I noticed that the hub world stopped giving me hints on where to go to advance the story. Every time you enter the hub world, the camera zooms in on what to focus on, but it just kept focusing on the entrance to the same world, even after I got every sprite in that world. I eventually figured out what I had to do to get to the final level, but I was just confused on why it stopped doing that thing with the camera.
I feel like trying to 100% this game without looking some things up is almost impossible. The normal sprites are easy enough to find, but then you need to find all of the secret sprites in the hub world, all of the blue coins in the hub world, and all of the blue coins in every other world, with no indicator on how many exist in total.
Overall, the game isn't bad, but there are plenty of better games to play and this game certainly has a lot of flaws with it. I can appreciate what it did for future games, but I don't see myself playing this game again anytime soon.