I think 3D Land as a standalone handheld Mario game excels in its purpose, and is a joy to play, a great game, and a must-own if you have a 3DS. I think what happened when 3D World came out was, people were mad that it was a sequel to a handheld game using similar mechanics, and not really doing anything "new" in spite of being the next big console Mario. This made people become ambivalent towards these games, even the first one. People also forget that we finally got multiplayer back, in a 3D Mario. People write it off as a chaotic after thought, but I've had a lot of fun with 3D World's multiplayer. I am still of the opinion that both games are great, and deserve to be next to any other 3D Mario, but I digress.
I started playing Mario 64 again on VC, and it actually still feels pretty decent, even 21 years later. I'll admit, the camera can be trash at times (if you don't always like the prescribed angles, that is), and they surely didn't know about culling out parts that would block the camera/ camera movement then, but hey for a first go, it was and still is pretty good. I got about 75 stars in one sitting if that says anything. Replaying some of the levels multiple times with little variation in missions (mainly the last two worlds) shows a bit more here, but thankfully, I actually like the levels so it's not that big of a deal to me. 100 coin stars suck though, especially in the last two worlds, where one minor mishap can set you back upwards of 20 minutes.
As for the Galaxy games.. I have been wanting to replay Galaxy 2, since I just got my copy back form my friend, but I just haven't got around to it yet. I remember enjoying Galaxy 2 more than 1, but one thing I never liked about the games was Mario's speed. He feels really slow, and sluggish in the Galaxy games to me. His jump also feels slow, and not very high. I also found the camera to be annoying in a small few instances where you are switching angles/ directions/ gravity, and even more so if jumping is involved with any of those things. My honest, biggest gripe with the Galaxy games is the lack of advanced camera controls. I know you can move it a little with the d-pad in some areas, but come on, even Mario 64 had more camera movement options. This is a problem that is non-existent in the more sterile, and formulaic 3D games. I prefer Luigi, as he moves faster, and plus it's Luigi. With that said, I still adore these games, and hold them in a very high place.
edit: I also think Sunshine had pretty good, and intuitive camera controls for the time. Plus it introduced the (sort of) industry standard of showing the character's outline/ shadow behind stuff. It even culled stuff out, like in the Petey Piranha battle, and in parts of the hotel level. I think that the Wii controller kind of hurt Galaxy/2 in a minor way by not allowing as advanced of a camera as a game with such advanced movement could have benefited from.
And I'm coming in on about 600 Moons in Odyssey. Minor spoilers ahead, but it's a Mario game, so is having an endgame, and collectibles really a spoiler? In my other save, I'm going to try to get all the moons in a world before activating the post game thingy that gives you more moons to find. I doubt I'll get them all, honestly. I'm good with buying all the costumes, and getting most of the moons. Mainly, I just don't want to grind for coins to buy 119 Moons. That's 11,900 coins!
