Definitely not Mario's best game, but still is worth some fun
GAMEPLAY
Mario 64 with a water jet thingy. You can also ride yoshi's, but I'll get to that later. Everyone has played Mario 64, so I won't elaborate on the basic gameplay too much. You jump ridiculously high and run around. But, to make it different they added the water jet thingy. F.L.U.D.D is whats its called, but its not worthy. It has 3 modes, none of which are as fun as just hopping around in the old game. You can use it to jump really high, to supplement a jump to get farther, or shoot stuff with it. You will usually use it for the second two. Now, not to say this game is really bad, because it isn't, I found the camera very annoying in the amusement park stage, it kept getting caught on stuff, and made my life miserable. It made mistakes in other levels, but none so bad.
So FLUDD has a catch also. You need to keep it filled with water. Okay, its not really a catch, but it can be annoying once in a great while, but really you can hold so much water its not an issue.
Now, you can also ride yoshi's in 3D. Sounds like the most badass thing ever. What if I said you could also throw up on enemies. EVEN BETTER, what if, you had to eat enemies or else they will eventually starve and leave, not so good. WHAT IF you couldn't go in the fricking water with yoshi's, and they make an annoying puzzle of it. Horrible. And you can only get Yoshi's toward the mid point of the game, and what they are used for are crappy puzzles.
Its not all bad, the mini games are exceptionally more fun, unfortunately, all of the bosses are ridiculously retarded to fight. You fight a Boo in a casino? WTF.
No matter how much I complain about the games downfalls, it still is good overall in the gameplay department.
GRAPHICS
I didn't like the graphics that much. The in game cinema's were rendered in what looked to be in game graphics, which isn't a problem with me, they looked fine up close and there isn't many graphical errors. The paint looks stupid as hell though, and the game is too dim in the beginning, and too bright at the end, or too dim if you get the sun glasses. Its kind of stupid. After playing stylistically (and technically) achieving games like Wind Waker on the gamecube, and technical achievements like Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 on a less powerful console, its hard to like the graphics that much.
Once again, no matter how much I complain the graphics are still pretty good, just not great. (The people on the island look very stupid though, believe me when I say that)
SOUND
Okay, this is one part of the game I do hate, and is not good. Mario isn't really annoying when he is hopping around and stuff. But... people begging for the game to be voice acted got their wish (thank god us Zelda fans didn't after playing this game), the cinematics are fully voice acted... TERRIBLY. In some of my other reviews, I will complain about voice acting. Let me say something, compared to this game, those games had TERRIFIC voice acting. No offense to the voice actors, I know your just trying to get a pay check, but you all sucked. Bowser's voice actor stuck out as the worst voice acted character of all time. He sounds like some fat old guy with a deep voice. Not a feroicous Koopa with spikes on his back. When you hear him talk, he sounds like he is harmless guy pulled of the street. Wait until I get to the tilt section and tell you my thoughts on that...
Oh yeah, their is music, but its mostly crappy, and the few good tunes can't really counter all the bad sounds and annoying music.
VALUE
Considering how annoying some of the missions are, especially red coin missions, I can't give the game too high of a value. If you like collecting every item, you will get 50 or more hours without using a guide. But, that includes doing a lot of annoying blue coin hunts that are stupid. The game is as long as Mario 64... which I did get 120 and 150 (I think it was 150, whatever the maximum was on the DS version) stars on. Its disappointing that the levels are less imaginative than the N64 game, and many of the designs are worse making value pitiful compared to our old friend.
TILT
Tilt for me usually comprises of how the games story put me into the world of the game. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Did the same people write the story for Wind Waker and Mario Sunshine, if so, I'm afraid for what could happen in future games. Nintendo is hit and miss in the story sections of games. I know a lot of crappy stories, and a lot of good ones. But this game takes the cake for crappiest story ever in a video game. The story did more to pull be away from the game than put me in it. Thats all I'll say, spoiler warning... screw it the story sucks so it doesn't matter, the final boss is in a f****** bathtub. You break the bathtub to win it. Yeah, that just about sums up the story about you being framed, cleaning up a crappy island, and uh... some other stuff. It just sucked that bad.
OVERALL
If you can ignore all the crappy stuff in the game... which I found it possible to do for short periods of time, you can have a good time, never as good a time as Mario 64, but in a few bright spots it gets damn close. Those areas are usually mini games, and thats sad. Just know what you are getting into before you pay for this game.