I, as well, thought this game was pretty bad. The most disappointing game I've played in a long time, since I love SMB1 and SMB2. The controls were just so bad in nearly all of the game. Mini-games, main game, etc. There's a ton of mini-games, which helps, but I didn't find a single one of them enjoyable in the way that the original Monkey Target, Monkey Fight, and so on, are.
The controls were the main travesty here, though. Tried the single player for HOURS, and still... I got MORE used to them then when I had first started, yeah, but I was still all over the damn place. It makes me sad inside that there's no option for the analog stick. That would take this bad game into the pretty good game region.