It's really run until Bowser keeps ruining it. I get that's the point of the game, but it stops being a fun platformer whenever he pops up as a giant to keep attacking you when you just want to get on with what was a fun game.

To make it worse, as you near the number of shines required he starts appearing more and eventually never goes away. The difficulty of challenges had already been ramping up and now you're stuck with this guy hovering over you all the time killing you. It eases off a bit when you "finish" the game by defeating you, and you go back to get the other half of shines for "fun" but it starts ramping up again. I can't do the difficult moving platform stuff and deal with this guy. Nah, fun over.

It's a shame as without Bowser I was having an absolute blast.