One of the Best Mario games ever made!
I always thought that this game was great because of the size of the level. I know there were just a bunch of little levels, but they were all joined together by one big map that you progressed through. You start off in kind of grassy levels, then you move to the aquatic levels, then the mine, then the rocky levels, then the forest, until you eventually get to Bowser's Fortress. The diversity in the levels was a great thing about this game, and I especially liked some of the haunted levels.
There is something that never gets old about this game. Even though the graphics are nothing compared to nowadays, the game still proves to be entertaining for most people. I think that the whole idea of Mario and him jumping on things to kill them is what makes this game fun, along with all those powerups that he gets. I think the score bar helps too, because it makes you want to play through the game and see how high of a score you can get.
I also liked the puzzles in this game. I know there weren't many, but most of them could be seen in the haunted levels and the mine levels, where a lot of key collecting was necessary to advance to further levels. I liked the puzzles with the ghosts, because sometimes there would be so many ghosts in one area of a level that you'd have to time everything right and figure out the right ways to go. I thought it would have been fun to take Yoshi into the haunted places to eat the ghosts, but I remember that you always had to leave him outside.
The final battle is really cool at the end of this game. It is not really that hard, but it is definetly fun with all the difficulty stages that Bowser's blimp goes through. I thought it was challenging enough to be fun, and most people liked the final battle. Even the credits of this game were amazing, because it was fun to see all the characters you had seen throughout the game. All in all, this was a great Mario game, and I think it is one that should be enjoyed by all Nintendo fans.