Extraordinary, enough said.
This game went to a new level with the graphics & of course the 3d action whilst everything is paper shaped. Most people will say this is within the 3 top games for the N64.
The story is great as well although it seems similar to a normal Mario where you save peach from bowser, but this one has something different which makes it special. You play through a total of 8 chapters whilst collecting 7 star spirits, the last level is where you defeat Bowser.
The game play is much different too especially the turn based fights when you get into a battle that to me is the greatest feature. You an use different items, the star spirits powers or your regular hammer & jump abilities. You even gain badge points as you level up so you can enhance your power in battle with different moves.
You gain new members to your crew as you play through the game, it is an extremely gripping game with an immense story line as I once mentioned. But if 1 things for sure you'll get your moneys worth in this machine of a game.
This tops the Mario games for sure & most of them are top notch games i'd say second best is paper Mario TTYD. The paper Mario series is also probably the best game series ever.
For me the best game of all time, what else can I say.