Despite the often-times slippery controls, this game is a must for any Mario fan or fan of platformers in general.
In the graphics department, the game gets a complete makeover. With lush, beautiful backgrounds, the game vastly improves over it's old-school counterpart. The character sprites are of various sizes. Some are small, such as the Sparky enemy, while others are just plain huge, in this case, the giant shyguys. Without a single doubt, this game pushes the GBA's graphical limits, despite being an early launch title.
Soundwise, it is completely improved. There are a bunch of memorable tunes regarding the sound, sometimes a bit catchy. Surprisingly enough, the game has voice-overs, with Charles Marinette reprise his role as the voice of Mario himself. Even the bosses are given the power to speak. This definatly clears up the confusion of what gender the Birdo is (it is a she, for those who are wondering).
As far as the controls are, they are good, but could be a little bit reworked. Althought the controls do what they should, such as using the L button to scroll the screen up and down to get a better view of your surroundings, one key complaint is the grip of the controls. Every so often, the character you're controlling falls off the vine when you didn't want to and landing jumps can be a little bit of hit-or-miss. Again, the controls do what they're supposed to do, just a tad bit slippery.
Gameplaywise, it is a fun little diversion. While the actual game takes less than 10 hours at the most to complete, you'll still be having fun with it, thanks to the now-standard tradition of collecting a certain number of red coins, and the game keeping track of what percentage of the red coins you have picked up. There's also an unlockable feature known as the "Yoshi Challenge", in which you are suppose to use the magic potions needed to get into the reverse side of the stage in hopes of finding two Yoshi eggs. Of course, the biggest feature beside the main game is the inclusion of a remade version of the original Mario Bros. arcade game. And best of all, you can have up to fours players going for all the marbles.
Overall, this is definatly a must-buy for GBA owners. While you might get frustrated with the controls every now and then, you'll have fun playing this game.