Mario Galaxy Playthrough (Part 2 - End)

It took a hot minute but I finally finished gathering up 60 Stars, and defeated Bowser. The game has another 60 stars to earn and a "Final final fight" kinda situation, but honestly the credits have rolled and I feel like I've seen enough.

I liked the game for what it was, but still much prefer Mario 64 to it. I always loved how you can enter a Mario 64 level and just kinda go for basically any star in the level (with some exceptions). It was a pretty early "open world" (almost) kinda game, with a ton of freedom. Galaxy unfortunately felt much more linear by comparison - upon entering a galaxy you'd choose a star to go for, and that was (more or less) the only star available to you. There are green stars which add some minor depth to that formula, and different shooting stars which travel between galaxies and make special stars available, but really it's still "pick the star you want to get and get it".

The controls were ok, the whole upside-down thing was pretty disorienting at times, and caused a handful of unnecessary deaths. As I said before, happily the visuals didn't give me motion sickness this time around - thanks, tiny CRT!

The game was alright but honestly not one I think I'll aim to "complete". Maybe the sequel will fair better.