I think you should give it another chance. There's been lots of games that I've played at first that made me go, "Ugh, this is so stupid/kiddy/boring/easy/etc.! What were the makers thinking?!" But then I play them a bit longer and really love them. Like DK64 seemed super dull, but then after playing it for an hour I got extremely hooked on it (I don't know why everyone hates it so much). But just don't give up. I bet it could turn out to be really good, possibly better than PM1.
"Kids, don''t use formula one race cars to chase hedgehogs."