I'm pretty torn about this one. At first, I was offput by Galaxy's controls and movement feel, it's definitely not as tight as 64 or Sunshine, but I also think the spin introduces some interesting platforming options. I was willing to give this a fair try, as I'm not opposed to a more simplified Mario 3D platformer, and I thought "I'm probably going to end up giving this a 4 or something".

My biggest gripe with Galaxy is the level structure. The whole thing feels like this awkward middle point between Sunshine and 3D Land, and it can't manage to do what it's doing better than what those games do. Worlds involve usually starting at the same place and branching off into entirely different areas, which at first sounds like it would lead to a lot of diverse and unique stars, but instead it all just blends together and nothing really stands out as memorable. You land on one planet, do whatever it is to get to the next planet, and each star just kind of keeps going and going on until it doesn't. There are some really stand out moments and set pieces, and lots of moments of fun, but Galaxy's level and hub structure do it no favors. Galaxy's hub isn't terrible, but it feeling so much less lively than Sunshine and less involved than 64 leads to it feeling like it probably shouldn't even be there (kudos to Galaxy 2 for realizing this). There's not much point to these galaxies being in different rooms, it just leads to that feeling of being slower that the control already gives.

Also, I just really don't like the comets, and I don't like how much of 100% completion is doing these comets. I like the cosmic race ones, but all the other ones do very little for me, it's not enough of a difference to not feel like "oh, I'm back at this star for the 3rd time". The fact that nearly all the post-game stars are comets just felt like a slap in the face.

It was really in the last two rooms of the Observatory that I was just totally over everything. The levels weren't impressing me anymore because they just felt like more of the same, and the objectives just all started morphing together into what felt like just doing the same kinds of challenges over and over again.

Of course it's not all bad, it's mostly good in fact. There are genuinely really fun moments of platforming and level design, I just wish there were more of those moments and it was organized better! Also, as if I need to say it, this game is absolutely gorgeous and honestly breathtaking at times, especially at the resolution I played it at through, certain means. The great visuals and a lot of the music just make me wish I had more fun than I ended up having.

Lastly, I don't mind the story stuff at all, both the library and the ending cutscenes. I think it's very fun and interesting for a Mario game to try stuff like that, and it's disappointing that so many people were adverse to it, especially since it was never really forced upon the player. I was genuinely touched by parts of the ending, and I liked the library story too. I appreciated all the swings Galaxy went for, even if it ended up in some misses. I probably won't be playing through this game as Luigi any time soon, seeing as I didn't even want to 100% it, but hopefully Galaxy 2 is a lot better when I eventually get to that.