Even more interesting movement mechanics than its predecessor, with mostly great levels to boot (if significantly fewer of them, unfortunately), but which seriously kicks itself in the foot by forcing the player to complete each stage's missions in a linear order, which severely undermines the point of why the levels in Mario 64 were designed to be open sandboxes in the first place. While the moment-to-moment gameplay is arguably more nuanced than 64, its structural problems and serious downsizing in scope relative to it kneecap it in comparison severely.