Has a great amount of fun moments and the water-based-mechanics are cool, but lacks somewhat in variety and polish.
Gameplay -------------- ( 8 )
Graphics --------------- ( 9 )
Sound ------------------- ( 8 )
Value -------------------- ( 7 )
-------------------------------------
THE GOOD:
> Fun and innovative gameplay, with the moves of Super Mario 64 and some cool water-based-mechanics;
> Great level designs, that make you think how to find the stars and/or make you use all Mario's moves to reach the stars;
> Wonderful graphics, specially the light effects and the water - it has the most realistic water I've ever seen in a game!
> The music and sound effects fit the theme of the game well;
> A big number of stars to collect;
> Some fun, classic and challenging Mario mini-levels.
THE BAD:
> The camera could be frustrating to control to some gamers, although I had no problem with it;
> Level design lacks variety and polish, making it much less re-playable than Super Mario 64 was in 1996;
> Some new gameplay mechanics don't work very well;
> The musics aren't very memorable;
> Finding blue coins to obtain stars isn't allot of fun;
> The easy difficulty makes the game feel smaller;
> The story is poor, mostly because the new characters are a bit annoying and Bowser is not the same evil villain it should be.
FINAL WORDS:
Those who are fans of Mario and loved Super Mario 64, will like this game for sure. But other gamers should rent it first, or at least not buying it at launch and wait until it's cheaper - like now, because this review was written as if the game launched this week, given that I bought it at launch. This is game is a must-play, but only for those who like Mario platformers and have a Gamecube, otherwise you won't lose much if you don't play it.