I just realized why I was so disappointed by Super Mario Galaxy. I was comparing it to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, both of which were excellent Adventure/Platformer games. My problem with Galaxy is that they just completely removed the Adventure part, which has always been one of my favorite genres. After watching a bunch of Super Mario World videos, it finally occurred to me. It's too linear because it's a pure platformer. (And yes, I know everything considers it, 64, and Sunshine platformers, but I've always called them adventure games.)
The hub world is ridiculously simple, and there is absolutely no exploring to be done. Ignoring the lack of complexity, there is absolutely no thought in getting access to the secret levels, except maybe the green stars, which happened to be my favorite part of the game. However, in Super Mario 64, you had to go into well-hidden places to find the secret stars and in Super Mario Sunshine several were obtained by doing bizarre things that required thorougly exploring Isle Delfino, like being thrown into a tower by a random Pianta on a roof. In Super Mario Galaxy, there are Hungry Lumas everywhere in the Observatory. The only secret stars there that don't obviously stand out are in the small planet you need to get with the green star launcher, which is still rather self-explanitory, even though I do appreciate how well some of the green stars are hidden.
The levels themselves are nothing compared to SM64/SMS'. I will admit I like the design for a lot of them, but there's really not much to do. In an odd few, like the Honeyhive and Freezeflame Galaxies, you can do a little bit of exploring, but there's scarcely anything that you get for doing so. The majority of the levels are a straightforward path to the exit with a few puzzles along the way, and occasionally secret exits if you stray off the beaten path. To be honest, it reminds me a lot of the Ghost Houses in Super Mario World, as they had more puzzles than pure platforming like SMG, and the secret stars are a lot like the secret exits, not exactly well hidden in most cases so much as going a different route.
Staples of 3D Mario games are the power-ups, which Galaxy certainly didn't forget about. However, these were also done in a very simplistic fashion. Where both SM64 and SMS opened up the power ups in all the levels and allowed you to get otherwise inaccessable stars, SMG's seemed like a bit of an afterthought. They were used in the level that introduced them, then mostly forgotten, used again in maybe one or two extra galaxies. The only power up you "unlocked" was the Red Star, which I do very much like, but the only things it did were allow you to clear the challenge to unlock it and then gain maybe 3 1-ups you couldn't before in the Observatory. Excluding the Comets which appeared at random, there was not a single level you could not enter and immediately get all the stars in before doing anything else. While this is fine, and avoids things getting annoying *coughBANJOTOOIEcough*, it really makes the game seem a lot more like a platformer than an adventure game like its predecessors.
Overall, I think the reason I'm disappointed with Galaxy is because I'm holding it to an unfair standard. Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine were vastly different games, with not nearly as many platforming elements and a lot more freedom. As a platformer, a category it fits much better in, I actually do enjoy the game a lot. It's not quite as good as say, Super Mario World, which I consider the best Mario platformer, if not the best platforming game overall, but it is still a good game, just not the same as 64 and Sunshine.
Regardless, it's still way overrated.
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