It was definitely a step up from 64, and this is where the 3D mario nostalgia hit my veins with full force. It has a neat aesthetic with some great little details such as E. Gadd and the sky box featuring additional parts of delfino and overall it has a lot more personality that was refined from 64. It does have some odd choices, like even beginning the 3D mario per-game gimmick. FLUDD and the general controls are better than what's in 64 but it does have its share of difficulty in maneuvering. It also has some wildly shifting difficulty and while easier to figure out than 64, it can be overly vague on what one should do. In general it still feels great to control with some additional locomotion tricks beyond 64, but it can be a bit of a pain. Also it's dearly important to confirm bowser fucked at some point

The more I think about this game the more I fucking hate it. I really wanted to like this game but I just kept getting more and more pissed off as it went on. First off: the control is horrible. How the fuck did they screw up on this when 64 felt amazing. Overly responsive and jittery, Mario has no sense of weight or momentum, just 0 to 1000 in a split second. Collision does not exist. At several points I just fell through the fucking level or got softlocked at random points. Mario will slip if there is so much a slight angle in the geometry.

Level design ie also terrible. Every level blends together because of the beach setting. I hate every one of these levels, far too spacious with very few interesting set pieces to make them stand put besides the general level themes. Platforming in these levels makes want to tear my dick off. Just complete and utter garbage. And Corona Mountain makes me want to jump into an actual volcano.

Blue coins, 100 coin shrines and secret shines are terrible. Needless, bullshit padding to get a fucking postcard.

I hate the enemy designs, they feel so lifeless amd generic and can't remember any of them except the Stus and that fucking wind enemy that makes the game even less fun.

Music is decent but very samey so I have nothing really to say about it.

The last thing I want to mention is the game's structure, its terrible too. Despite this being considered an "open" 3d Mario game this is not one at all. You cannot get any shines you want, you have to do all the shrines before you chase Shadow Mario. That means that the watermelon, sandbird, baby chomp cleaning and the horrible "hidden" shrines.

This game is a pathetic joke and I am baffled at how any one likes this, it is a shitstain on an otherwise consistent franchise.