Much like @BrilliantEvil, I too shared this game with my brothers. I understand that people didn't like it because it was a corporate business slapped on a video game on their favorite system. Seemed like an early version of advertising to them.
For me and my brothers, this game slapped. It had great puzzles, a simple kid-friendly story, great platforming, amazing music and was very unique.
For anyone looking to try out some good hidden gems, this is one of those diamonds in the rough that I think people nowadays would get really into. I would love to see completionists try to get every single card, every single arches, every single 1up. And I think it would be fun to see some speedruns as well.
Weirdly enough, while writing this, I looked up why people didn't like it and i'm seeing a lot of people who actually liked it and it seemed the issue was really just IP licensing being too hectic to continue the series. I swear I remember people hating on it because it was McDonald's plastered on a game. Anyway, it's so great to see people being as fond of this game as I was and still seeing some relevancy to this day.