A massive accomplishment of a game. An incredibly strict and deeply well thought-out approach to level design helps guide the player through a veritable symphony of the majesty of space and the absolute peak of what Mario has accomplished across his storied legacy. This isn't even mentioning a story so touching that it rivals the best Paper Mario games in its execution.

It's not perfect, though. It's not hard to see the breadth of blatantly re-used content scattered throughout the experience, which is itself somewhat lacking in actual platforming activity.

It's certainly got a lot of 2D platforming, and a decent amount of 3D exploration, but rarely do the two meet. The reason sort of becomes obvious upon closer examination, because the moments where intense platforming goes fully 3D, it tends to fall apart under the weight of the floaty and somewhat imprecise controls.

Even then, no game is perfect, and if imperfect is what we have to settle for, then I struggle to imagine anything more perfect.