This game felt like a huge Moment at the time. It's one of those things that's been so copied and iterated on that even though it was the original, it now kinda feels trite and derivative.
There's a cross-section of this game that would be a really good on its own, but it's really watered down with boring filler. For every good part there's 5 that are dull and feel copy-pasted. If Sunshine weren't so busted I'd say this was hands-down the worst 3D Mario.
When I was a kid I saw promotional art for this game and just sort of assumed that it was gonna be Smash Bros. but with Pokemon and it's not that and that's sad
It's like an okay-to-middling third person shooter with better-than-average art direction and I feel like a crazy person for being the only one who's not in love with it.