In an objective sense I think Mario Galaxy is probably the "best" of the 3D Mario games. It's incredibly ambitious and grand, its gravity mechanics are very impressive and unique for its time and it's constantly spicing things up with new ideas.

With that in mind though, I think Mario Galaxy suffers from "idea creep" more than 64 and Sunshine and only slightly less than Odyssey. Some people love how 3D Mario games are never content to sit in one place for too long and always wanna show you new ideas, and I really respect the approach but I do also feel like it's the biggest thing marring the game for me. It feels really jarring to so constantly be jumping between so many different kinds of levels, so often you just wanna play a normal(ish) Mario platforming level and you're hit with stuff like Bubble Breeze or Rolling Green Galaxy. Fine levels, but ones that feel gimmicky, lack depth and are hardly even gonna come back as concepts later on anyway. And when you're constantly throwing so much shit at the wall, eventually something's gonna slowly slide down it, smearing it with a wide skidmark as it goes. Completely unrelatedly, there's a little level in this game called Sling Pod Galaxy.

This is also a very "slow" Mario game, because of the space setting and the low gravity that permeates a lot of the levels, a lot of the slick movement and cool traversal that's present in other Mario games is undercut here. And while I definitely prefer the movement of the other 3D Mario games, I at least respect Galaxy going for a different approach, and something like a slower, more deliberate platformer isn't inherently bad.

Ultimately, Galaxy gets brownie points for me just for how earned everything is. So many games clearly want to be "cinematic" or "grand" but fall flat on account of being trite in their gameplay or not having the presentational gusto to back themselves up but Galaxy just hits it out of the park. The booming orchestral soundtrack elevates so much of the game, the galaxies and planetoids are gorgeous and colourful - and while they may not always be fun, every idea this game presents to you is at least interesting. And when they are fun, they're immense, this game's big platforming gauntlets like Dusty Dune or Buoy Base Galaxy feel bigger and more exciting than the best of any other 3D Mario.

All this is to say, everything just works in Mario Galaxy. Not just in the fact that it's incredibly polished and seems to be nearly bug-free, but in that the space setting allows the game to have so many ideas that make sense, and that its presentational elements like visuals and soundtrack come together to make a package that feels something really epic, and that's a word that I really really struggle to say unironically nowadays. Less immediately fun than most other Mario, but a lot more awe-inspiring. It's kinda something you have to see for yourself.