Gotta admit, it was rather short. A fun play, and now, a brief review. ^^;
It did a lot of aspects well, but I wouldn't have it stand against the Mother 2 (Earthbound). The graphics were great and the play style was excellent, several improvements over the first version was made and expectations were reached for it. However, the downfalls were kinda that it was pretty short, and the lack of exploration. After venturing so far in the "world" and making it to a suitable end point, there isn't any turning back or possible backtracking. That came as a disappointment to me, as one of the great aspects of Earthbound was being able to revisit all the old towns for different reactions or a part of the story that made it necessary to head back to prior places.
The battle system though was pretty good, it had upgraded graphics and much more animation to all the techniques, so it was pretty visually satisfying. The one major issue I had was with the inventory though, when equipping various weapons and armor they remain in the inventory with an "E" symbol, instead of removed out for a direct equip onto the proper equip slot. It made it more difficult to stack items and the carrying inventory cut down a bit, though I suppose it was more realistic than having kids armed with 20+ rockets/bazookas/bombs.
I enjoyed the ending, but really would have liked to see the original scenes in. They looked awesome and had that great Giygas feel to it, but instead a rather slower and mellow ending was developed. The ending still couldn't compare to the original though, and the conclusion of it made the story seem sorta like a side story rather than a sequel. A fate for Porky was given, but the fates of the four heroes weren't touched upon.
It was fun and it fulfilled a Earthbound satisfaction, but couldn't stand up to the original, so I'd give it an 8/10 or so. I wouldn't quire replay though, since everything is quite linear and getting a 100% overall everything wasn't much of a struggle.