I played through this on stream. I didn't try to 100% it but it still was hard not to resist doing most the events and getting 14 Vitality Max :-p You can watch the YT playlist of it here (still have a couple to upload)

Look: 10/10 Vivid colors, thematic scenery, and backgrounds--yep, still proved true. Such a Feel to this I can't even put it in words. I would've taken so many screenshots, namely of the coastal/near-sea areas (the music + the look of the screen where you get a boat across to the Mansion... so incredible), but this was the only one I actually took time to screenshot ha

Sound: 10/10 The music is an absolute highlight. Fun, playful, beautiful, whimsical and sweet when appropriate. Before I had given this a 9... hm. Even tho, sure, I don't get sentimental and start tearing up to any tracks, the beginning music that I heard in the demo is something I'll never forget. And overall, the music is excellent. Plus, no annoying sound effects. I may be overrating the Sound, but we will keep this at a 10 for now.

Play: 9/10 Interesting I called this perfect controls before. Now, it is great and you get used to its quirks. But perfect controls is a bit dramatic ha. I think I was just so used to the first Pants and the demo part that I knew that so darn well. But as you get better pants and more intricate situations, it gets more complicated :-p Anyway, it is the epitome of my type of game. Only reason this doesn't get a Perfect Score overall and Perfect Play is because of the tedious nature of the ending part. As another review mentioned, having to go back to find the 7 Friends was a bit tacky. That should've been an optional event, not essential to finish the game. Now, if you were exploring all the previous areas for treasures, you'd likely come upon the very hard to find Friend in one of the rooms of the Haunted Mansion. But uh... I definitely switched to a guide for that part. Cba. Other parts of the game felt a bit tedious and even some of the enemy mechanics frustrated me beyond just, uh, "acceptable" frustration haha. tedious backtracking) I'm all for trial and error gameplay (well, preferably with Abe's Odyssey style checkpoint/infinite lives systems :-p ) but I think a better "look ahead"/"look up/down" feature (which vaguely exists with the shoulder buttons, but very ineffective) would help. They love the jumps where you cant see what's ahead and worse yet, falling is instant full death. Imo, either improve the look ahead feature so its on the player for not looking ahead, or only have heavy damage when fall in those instances, not insta death. Except maybe for some big secrets, but this was for early-game necessity! (Getting to the Phoenix the first time, is what brought this to mind). (Continuing this theme:) The Grapple was too limited (tho I did fall in love with the Grapplejack of course) -- it should be able to shoot out diagonally too. And instant death falls should never be coupled with out of sight platforms except maybe for extreme secrets! For main game stuff at least let the next platform be visible! But I guess it fits right in the lineage of Super Mario 3 etc. It just surely detracts from the seeming goal of Metroidvania wandering and exploration and slow learning of the world, when there's so few 1ups/lives and instant death jumps abound (I did wind up feeling 1ups were plentiful with the later higher-level chests, but uh, what about before endgame? After all, all those Million Year Old Chests with 1ups were only doable at the end and all you had after that was a final boss I did on my first try, as opposed to figuring out the Lightning Pig boss or, ironically, just the normal gameplay cuz I lost more lives there than in the bosses lol). Undeniably excellent, but I see what others have mentioned about the tedium of late game. Now, mind you, I don't mind the backtracking and Metroidvania aspects and the grinds for the Jewels, in fact I loved those. And with Baron, the backtracking ain't so bad anyway.

Feel: 10/10 No denying the Feel here. My nostalgia from childhood, coupled with the undeniable charm of the game with its Look and Sound. I love that you see later areas in advance–peeks into later parts of the game–teasing the darker, harder parts which reminds me of the way you could get a peek at the final world of Super Mario World; I love the event system and that there’s sort of “experience” in it; I love the Metroidvania-style return-to-areas with new abilities and unlockables (without This game truly rewards venturing around and, something I've always loved to do especially in the ps1 and ps2 eaely 3d era, testing where you can jump, what objects are able to be interacted with, etc. I love the items in this–so cute collecting things that will allow you to do things later like the Miner’s Hat–I don’t know how to explain it but something so endearing and timeless about getting the Banan to give to Charles (Link’s Awakening comes to mind there) or the Healing Herbs to give to Baron. This does it so well and, uh, cutely.

Attachment: 10/10 Also can't deny this. I've played this all the way through twice as an adult, and the demo so many times as a kid and an adult there's no way I could estimate it. 100%ing it was always a dream, but the demo disc gave the right amount of tease--seeing the other areas from the Go-Kart area, being able to start the Leaf Butterfly event but not able to finish it, etc. I did 100% this the last time I played it, but for stream I did not. No denying a Perfect Attachment for this one! Anyway, here were my stats for the stream playthrough, and if I didn't have the pressure to move on to the 4-more-games-we-already-have-lined-up-for-stream, I definitely would have gone for 100% again

Completion: Most recent playthrough - AP 2,047,000 with 107 Events Cleared. Prior playthrough was all 140 Events Cleared/100% Playtime: 5h 44m

MY OLD REVIEW, BASED ON A SOMEWHAT RECENT 100% PLAYTHROUGH, but was from before updating my review system

Look: 10/10 Love the backgrounds, the thematic scenery, the vivid colors.

Sound: 9/10 I love the music, but not many particularly striking or emotion-forcing tracks.

Play: 10/10 Perfect controls, phenomenal and sought-after-for-me mix of platform and RPG elements (not just item collecting, new abilities, and unlocking formerly impassable areas, but even leveling to an extent!). Challenging but forgiving. Perhaps the checkpoint system could have been more forgiving, but I've always enjoyed it.

Joy: 10/10 I want to replay this to confirm this one. I have always played through what I could everytime I've started playing it (first I only had the demo, which makes me love this game even more, and I loved how long the demo was with the ability to start sidequests you could both finish and not finish to tease you for the full game), even now that I have access to the full game. It has everything I like about a game: platofmring, leveling, sidequests, ability to go back for missed things, cute dialogue, epic plotline, addicting long-term puzzles, I could go on and on.

Attachment: 10/10 The demo disc with this... I played through.. probably like 100 times as a kid.