While I do like this game quite a lot, it's a bit crazy to me that this can be someone's favourite Mario with such limited movement and gameplay options. Something I love about Mario is the freedom of movement that you get, different options for jumping and leaping and diving and kicking you can traverse the same area in so many different ways. Galaxy takes away a lot of your freedom to give a more streamlined experience, which can be both good and bad. The levels and music and atmosphere and base gameplay are all still good, but it's missing that X factor to really lift it up for me. In a platformer movement is key, and this game doesn't do it as well as it should at this point in Mario's life.

Is it controversial to say this game is underrated? I honestly like this game more than Crash 3. It's brutally difficulty (mostly to 100%), a little slippery to control, but extremely charming and fun despite that. Getting every single gem in this game was one of the harder things I've done in a video game but it was so satisfying to complete. I think people often forget that this is just a really good platformer and a great start to a pretty (usually) amazing franchise. 2 and 3 just overshadow it due to sheer popularity after they took off but this game will always have a special place in my heart.