Good
- it's nice to see peach being a playable character. Her umbrella techniques are pretty cool.
- it's fun to flip in different places to see what secrets May lie in the 3D world.
- I'm glad I'm able to stay on Carrie pixl and still am able to interact with things, so that I can maintain my speed. In the old paper Mario games all the fast partners couldn't interact or jump high enough for me to maintain them throughout the level usually.
- squirps and the chameleons stories were really really funny. The pixl in squirps story using the elder's ancient clue to wipe his ass after 1000 years, so squirp can use the bathroom. And chameleon's play on the stereotype anime loving geek trying to mac on peach.
- the ending was very bittersweet. I cared a lot about the story between Bleck and Tippi. Seeing how they sacrificed themselves to save the worlds was noble and touching. Something I've never felt in a Mario game.
Bad
- I think this is a good game for a Mario platformer, but I don't like how it's considered part of the paper Mario series. Besides the 2D characters being in the 3D world when you use the flip ability, there are no paper jokes like the past two paper Mario had.
- not being able to use badges, special attacks, and star Spirit attacks takes a lot away from the diversity of the gameplay known to the paper Mario series. The only thing that remains are the items. And the partner abilities, which are moderately fun to use.
- the pixels don't have a backstory, which means I can't relate to them or bond with their character. Every time I find a new one, their dialogue is just a bunch of nonsense. Each time I find a new one, I just want them to shut up, come with me, so that I can use their power. They're simply not memorable at all compared to Mario's partners in the old paper Mario games. Heck, even Yoshi is more memorable than these pixels in the normal Mario games despite not having a voice.
- some puzzles are extremely boring and stupid like the one where I had to hit blocks in a long sequence. The game actually told me to write down the sequence and hit the blocks in that order, which was not fun.
- the 2D shooting in the squirp levels were pretty boring. I don't play Mario for side scrolling shooting gameplay.
- The hub world is too big and too similar looking to navigate. Sometimes it's hard to remember where everything is, especially looking for some hard pillars. I forget exactly obstacle which was in the way, but now I can pass with a new ability, because the areas just look so similar especially between flipside and flopside
- in world 8-3, there was a completely non-intuitive puzzle design where I had to hit a block to open a door that was completely not obvious. Pointing with Tippi didn't even help. In 8-3, what is the points of following dementio into all the old worlds again, when there's absolutely nothing new, and I'm just walking down the same paths for the sake of it. It just feels like unnecessary filler.
- The combat is too damn easy. The fights required almost no thought. A huge step down from its two predecessors. Very rarely did I feel a threat in a boss fight. And peach had the most OP move, her umbrella made her virtually invincible.