I saw this last night, I thought it was quite a big drop off from the first film (although I still enjoyed it). The first film had a much stronger identity; it knew it was a film about Mario so it really focused on his characterisation and that of other Mario mainstays like Bowser, Peach, Luigi and Toad. Most of the references were references to Mario games and their cultural legacy.

This sequel feels a lot more like a Nintendo film that just happens to have Mario in it/feature the setting of a Mario video game. There are references to Mario video games, particularly Galaxy, but there are also many references to other Nintendo characters and worlds, to the extent that in some cases I wasn’t sure whether the thing I was seeing was from Mario, another IP or just invented for the film. It felt quite overwhelming at times, I guess like when I was a kid walking into a giant toy store and I didn’t know where to look first.

It’s a bit of a shame because the minimal narrative that exists in this film actually had some potential. Peach’s backstory could have been interesting, as could the father/son relationship between Bowser and Bowser Jr. But I guess maybe even if they’d focused on those things more, instead of rushing them to make way for more Nintendo visual references, it still might have struggled to feel like a Mario film. He is basically a side character here, and the romantic sub-plot involving Peach that is teased throughout the film goes absolutely nowhere and seems forgotten about by the end.

This film also seems unusually similar to Star Wars in places, which makes me wonder whether the writers used it as a reference when developing the story. Personally I found it quite distracting, particularly Fox who really contributes nothing and takes up a surprising amount of screen time. Another new character who really overstays their welcome is Yoshi, who doesn’t seem to have the innocent, lovable personality from the video games and is instead very annoying and constantly being used for cheap laughs alongside Luigi.

I suppose there will be more of these films, and they’ll probably be okay too, but with the amount of stuff packed into this one it feels like Nintendo will be forced into rehashing references at some point soon. They are blowing through the most recognisable ones very quickly.