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