Brilliant!
5/5
The long-awaited and brilliant conclusion to an epic. Definitely worth the wait. And I'm very picky about giving out my 5's. :)
The thing I love most about your whole series is the use of music. Your musical choices are absolutely perfect and help create the mood you're going for. Even when the songs are from different films, you manage to blend them together seamlessly. I have to give you credit for your audio skills. The same goes for the sound effects - you know exactly when they're needed and when they're not.
The graphics are a step up from the previous installments. I could see the extra effort with the lighting and effects. It's amazing that you didn't resort to making custom sprites - but somehow the simple nature of the characters and their animation still works. I'm a little disappointed that you didn't use the Toad sprite from SMB1 (the SMB2 sprite looks a little out of place), and the lack of animation on the Princess is noticeable. Maybe a few custom sprites would have helped here. It's not a big deal - I'm much more interested in good stories and characters than fancy sprites.
The plot unfolded the way I expected it to... for the most part. I won't give away the ending here, but it was definitely very unexpected. (I will say, I was waiting for one of the Toads to walk up and say "Our princess is in another castle!" I think that kind of twist ending would have really worked.) But you stayed the course, and I applaud that. Excellent, excellent work.
Now the big question is, what will you do next?