A very good game with some pretty significant flaws and a few minor annoyances. There's plenty of great stuff in this game but that just makes the stupid stuff stick out even more so i'm going to talk about that.
-The low health alert and the fire/ice flower music are both extremely annoying and grating
-the amount of cutscenes and menus in between levels doesn't ruin the games pacing, but it really doesn't help. this game came out a decade after 64 and yet it actually takes LONGER to start the next level. do we really need to see mario float back down to the observatory, see exactly how many star bits and coins we got, go back into the galaxy menu, select the level, and then watch the opening cutscene again? every single time?
-for how crucial the spin attack is in a lot of sections, it kind of sucks ass. It's weirdly unresponsive and the range is just pathetic. not to mention the unnecessarily long delay between attacks.
-they were definitely aiming for a more restrained mario in this game to force the player to interact with the level more, which i can get behind, but mario just doesn't feel as good to control in this game as he does in any other 3d mario. 64, sunshine, and odyssey nailed that fluidity and expressiveness that makes them so damn fun, and i think 3d world, which i would say is the same style of movement as galaxy, is much smoother to control. galaxy has a lot of weird shit with momentum, specifically how you'll often lose all of your momentum after jumps, among other things.
--compounding the movement issue is the camera. most of the time it's pretty unobtrusive but it can get really wonky in certain sections. donut- and saucer-shaped planets are especially problematic; going around the edge is consistently disorienting and difficult to control. it also really fucks with your movement when the camera switches positions; you're still trying to control mario in relation to the last camera position, which usually ends up sending you in weird directions. sometimes this happens midair, causing you to veer off unexpectedly and potentially lose a life.
-the rewards for exploration are pretty measly. in 64 or odyssey, going off the beaten path and completing one of those little mini challenges will be all but guaranteed to reward you with a star/moon. in galaxy, you mostly just get fucking coins and star bits. maybe a 1-up. man i don't give a rat's fucking ass about star bits i have a million of those give me a fucking star. but in the rare occasion that you do find a hidden star you get booted out of the level, which means you not only have to watch all the cutscenes and go through all the menus again but you have to start the level all over. annoying.
-the (60 stars) ending cutscene does not make ANY sense hahaha what the FUCK HAPPENED???? WHERE DID PEACH GO???? DID THOSE LUMAS FUCKING DIE??????
what i like about this game is that it's good
-The low health alert and the fire/ice flower music are both extremely annoying and grating
-the amount of cutscenes and menus in between levels doesn't ruin the games pacing, but it really doesn't help. this game came out a decade after 64 and yet it actually takes LONGER to start the next level. do we really need to see mario float back down to the observatory, see exactly how many star bits and coins we got, go back into the galaxy menu, select the level, and then watch the opening cutscene again? every single time?
-for how crucial the spin attack is in a lot of sections, it kind of sucks ass. It's weirdly unresponsive and the range is just pathetic. not to mention the unnecessarily long delay between attacks.
-they were definitely aiming for a more restrained mario in this game to force the player to interact with the level more, which i can get behind, but mario just doesn't feel as good to control in this game as he does in any other 3d mario. 64, sunshine, and odyssey nailed that fluidity and expressiveness that makes them so damn fun, and i think 3d world, which i would say is the same style of movement as galaxy, is much smoother to control. galaxy has a lot of weird shit with momentum, specifically how you'll often lose all of your momentum after jumps, among other things.
--compounding the movement issue is the camera. most of the time it's pretty unobtrusive but it can get really wonky in certain sections. donut- and saucer-shaped planets are especially problematic; going around the edge is consistently disorienting and difficult to control. it also really fucks with your movement when the camera switches positions; you're still trying to control mario in relation to the last camera position, which usually ends up sending you in weird directions. sometimes this happens midair, causing you to veer off unexpectedly and potentially lose a life.
-the rewards for exploration are pretty measly. in 64 or odyssey, going off the beaten path and completing one of those little mini challenges will be all but guaranteed to reward you with a star/moon. in galaxy, you mostly just get fucking coins and star bits. maybe a 1-up. man i don't give a rat's fucking ass about star bits i have a million of those give me a fucking star. but in the rare occasion that you do find a hidden star you get booted out of the level, which means you not only have to watch all the cutscenes and go through all the menus again but you have to start the level all over. annoying.
-the (60 stars) ending cutscene does not make ANY sense hahaha what the FUCK HAPPENED???? WHERE DID PEACH GO???? DID THOSE LUMAS FUCKING DIE??????
what i like about this game is that it's good