Decided to replay Galaxy since I have 3D All stars and I didn't like Galaxy very much as a kid.
I think part of why I held a personal grudge against it is i've always been really fascinated by Space as a kid til even now, and a game that involves exploring space sounded like the best thing ever and I just got my expectations up a lot, only to not really enjoy it. My opinion has changed a fair amount, i'd say it's at least a decent game but I still don't really see it anything more than that. Galaxy is a game that I would deeply consider wasted potentinal.
My main problem with the game is the reuse of boss fights, they hold the game back so much, there's 3 bosses that were unique, and even then not by a lot. It's just so boring having to fight the same bosses at least 3 times, or fight the same model in a different scenery in the same way more than once. Galaxy has so much potential with space to have amazing space themed bosses and yet it doesn't do anything like that. Even bowser is his regular self until the end. Semi-Related but I don't like how this game reuses missions a fair amount too. Some of them are fun, I will admit, but it would be nice if there was more unique missions.
This is more of a me issue, but I don't like the linearity of Galaxy compared to the other 3D games. Again, in a game about space, you would think that exploration would be key, but it's not. All the levels don't really give you much to explore at all. It's really a shame. There is 0 sense of adventure in Galaxy.
think Mario Sunshines exploration was amazing, every single world and area (Including the hub area) has SO much to do, there's hidden shines everywhere, there's so many cool secrets, and interactive objects and NPCS all over the game. And if Galaxy had that, I think it would easily be the best one. Especially since Galaxy had a more time in development than Sunshine. I do think the Hub world observatory in Galaxy looks pretty at least, but it's just really not very interesting. I just want to mention that I don't think linearity in a platformer is a bad thing. But I don't think it works well in Galaxy's favour.
I also don't like that there are so many water planets when the water controls horribly on the switch, but, at least they look nice visually.
I don't think starbits are difficult to collect, so it's not a huge problem, but all of the worlds you unlock with them by feeding the Luma's are...really short? They feel like there should be more to them, I enjoyed the concept of a lot of them but they were just kinda, there.
The difficulty of Galaxy fluctuates between cakewalk and occasional missions that are annoying, but it's a Mario game so I don't care that much about difficulty.
The good things about Mario Galaxy were enough for me to finish the game at least! My favourite thing about Galaxy is how well and fluid the gravity is. I think they did a great job of taking full advantage of gravity shifting and the perspective of the camera is really nice too. It is really cool, especially for it's time. I would've liked if more levels had gravity changing but it's not a huge deal. The fourth bowser stage with the shifting platforms and dark matter being able to obliterate you was a really nice touch too!
There are some galaxies and stages that really stand out and were really creative which I can appreciate.
The visuals on some stages where you're traversing through the Launch Stars are very nice, it's neat you can interact and grab starbits while doing that too.
I really enjoy Bee and Ice Mario, I think they are great powerups. But the Bee is especially my favourite and I really enjoy the stages where you use it, I wish there was more of them. I like how the Bee Mario can interact differently with objects in the world like the rain clouds and flowers, and the flying meter is nice, so that it doesn't make the game much easier.
And I also really like the comets that give you challenges like speedrunning a level, or having to complete something with just 1 life. I think they're very fun and I want to go back and do all of those because I had fun trying to beat them, I wish more games had things like that tbh.