The story is trope-y as all hell, but it definitely aims at hitting the “all ages” market, and doesn’t shy away from stepping into some heavier territory, though it’s handled in a way that kids get the “this is bad” message. Very much relies on “the power of friendship beats anything” framework.
The gameplay is fairly fun, but definitely play the updated versions. The original controls feel clunky compared to modern games.
Getting the entire story to this point involves sitting through a few “movies”(cutscenes stitched together, but officially done), as some of the games haven’t been remastered and are still locked to old hardware, or in the case of one game, was being taken offline.