The movement is everything here. Cappy lets you capture enemies and become them, and hat throws, dives, and wall jumps chain together with crazy depth. This is the best Mario has ever controlled.
I spent hours in this game just practicing jump chains to grab purple coins that seemed impossible at first. The kingdom designs are great - Metro Kingdom’s festival hits with nostalgia, Seaside has you bouncing between coral towers, Snow Kingdom hides good stuff under snow. The postgame is where it gets serious - harder challenges and remixed bosses that test if you actually learned the captures.
I beat the main story/quest originally on Switch in 2023, but never got around to playing the postgame. When the Switch 2 was announced I decided to go back to it and finish the last level. It took me quite a while, but it was worth the effort.
Each enemy you can capture feels different. The moons are everywhere, but finding them never feels like busywork.
The soundtrack is catchy, costumes are fun, and photo mode shows off Nintendo’s detail work. Each kingdom has its own look and feel, and the game runs well on Switch but works even better with a locked 60 fps on Switch 2.
Pure fun from start to finish. The movement system alone makes it worth playing. One of the best platformers I’ve played.