Its portable, wireless-capable, nature should have been more reason for it to stick to its core multiplayer roots. You're crazy if you think the original game was better suited for multiplayer. It required friends that could get together on a regular basis at someone's house with a Gamecube to play for hours at a time, a specific type of GBA, and a freaking GBA -> GC controller cable for each player.

Making the game more enjoyable single-player is fine, but the ability to play through the game in its entirety with your friends should not have been sacrificed. Terrible decision, and totally contradictory to everything Kamiyama and Kawazu claimed to be going for; end of story.