I am floored with how much I enjoyed this came, start to finish (~13 hours 100% completion). The game has a little bit of everything, open sandbox exploration, linear 3d progression, linear 2.5d progression (think 2d Mario platformer), and puzzles. As the summary says, it reminds me of a cross between Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario World 3D.
The dialog is great and punny (For example, there is a joke about a mail golem being bad at comedy because he has terrible delivery). The controls are forgiving which is a bit of a miss on most 3d platformers. For instance, if you're close to an edge dropping down to a landing, it will snap you to that edge, where other 3d platformers leave no margin for error, typically leading to one standing up and yelling at the TV as the character falls into the abyss. This is not to say it makes the game easy, it just makes it fair. Boss battles are an increasing challenge, with the post game levels being particularly challenging (again, similar to those of Super Mario World 3D). The onomatopoeia voicing is great too...(The ghost says "spookaboo") Everything just fits perfectly.
The only negative I can state about the game is it's a bit shorter than I would have liked. It is left open at the end for a continuation, which is part of why I "feel" like it was a short game. The story was left unfinished but hit a reasonable stopping point. Provided they have a NSLT 2 coming down the pipeline (though nothing has been announced at the time of this review), I'm good with this. The other reason I "feel" like it was a short game is my own perception. It's so well polished, my mind can't help but compare it to similar games with a much larger budget like Mario Odyssey. It's an unfair comparison. Given the choice between a larger/longer unpolished game, or this, I would take this game without question. For some reason the save file won't backup online, but I don't mind that either. I'm going to play through it again in the future anyway.
Bottom line, if you enjoyed any of the Mario 3d games (Galaxy, World/Land 3D, Odyssey), or the N64 platformers (Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64) I'm almost 100% sure you'll enjoy this game. Very well done and polished.