Not so great for a Mario game.
There are a very few things I liked about it and that was mainly the character and background construct and the music. Here are many reasons why I didn't like this game that well.
1. The speed of Mario was very crude and slow.
2. His jumping was extrememly high but also delayed.
3. He never evolved into Super Mario...he was only standard.
(Maybe I'm wrong if I didn't get killed all 30 times on the 1st Bowser Level)
4. The whole LIVES rule is worth dick because you never really lose all of them, it just goes into negative numbers.
(It can be an advantage because you die a shit load of times anyway.)
5. The enemies who you can't kill in this game are able to be paralyzed and/or killed in the regular Mario game.
6. The probability of dying in each level is ridiculously high.
(Especially on Bowser's level.)
7. When finishing a level, Mario is supposed to dash through the white bar and instead he just whips right next to it...and very slow too.
8. When Mario dies, the music just loops and so does the level, making it impossible to dodge enemies.
9. Walking to the left edge of the screen kills you?
10. The enemies are way too fast for Mario to even dodge.
I guess the only thing I can say that is decent about this game is the infinite lives because without that, I would be marooned on level 1. The game can be the biggest and well detailed Mario game on NG but just because it looks like Mario, doesn't have the same thrill and interactivity as Nintendo made back then..ever.
X____________The Waffle Society