I know that Super Mario Galaxy is a well praised title for the Wii, and yeah, it's not that bad.

But honestly?

I didn't really enjoy it. Or finish it. In fact, I think that it has been rated all to highly by some. Not to speak badly about Ninendo or anything, they do their job well, but I think that Mario Galaxy could have been better, and here's why.

1 the game catered to younger children with characters

I know that people say "Well, it's mario, what did you expect?" Which is a good point, and I don't expect mario to be mature. (Please. . . no Mario movies XD) and the way that they did it in SMB 3, and Super Mario 64 was fine! But the cute acting penguins. . . and Lumas + their sound effects, kinda put me off, now this is not too bad a complaint, and some people probably didn't even notice it. But I found it a bit much, what with feeding hungry lumas, and just how. . . cute everything was. Other games don't feel as animated as this one does- including Super Mario Bros Wii, which was just fine. It had everything sorta happy like, but nothing really acted babyish.

2 Powerups weren't done right.

I was thrilled to see that the fire flower would return in this game. the idea of throwing fireballs in a 3D environment was awesome. But something bothered me about it.

Almost all of the powerups were more of. . . gimmicks to add more challenges than really "powering up" Mario. The fire flower is only used to really melt ice, and it's a limited time item. Not a helpful item that Mario was rewarded with and could keep as long as he didn't get hit. One thing that I loved was who you could use the Fire flower to defeat a boss, rather than defeat it by jumping on it, or hitting the switch behind bowser. The fire flower was a valuable- and fun asset that felt rewarding to keep! In this game, it acts more as a key than a real powerup that helps Mario.

Same for the others.

Does anyone else agree with me, and think that if Nintendo fixed this that the next mario Game would be better?

Or does Super Mario 3D land count as the next game after Super Mario Galaxy in the 3D Mario series?

One more thing worth noting, but more subject to opinion, is how levels were designed.

I would have liked more open map levels like Bob-omb Battlefeild than traveling from small planet to small planet with no back tracking.

So, do you agree? Disagree?

I agree completely to your opinion, but I did enjoy it because of the fun factor, and I looked over the stupid kid-like things that exist in the game to get the full fun experience out of it.

Sword legion : I gotta agree with you there mostly about the 'game catered to younger children with characters.' Completely childish, but I did enjoy the gameplay, fun galaxies etc... I own the sequel and not the first one, but they are similar though. Nintendo could have added characters but a bit mature there such as.... talking goombas!! XD. Anyway I agree with you there the most thing you said, though Mario Galaxy is one of my favorites.

Kind of a bump here, but this is an interesting topic.

      I personally don't think I got as much enjoyment out of it as I could have as well, honestly. But not really for the same reasons, as I'll go into later. I liked the lumas through the game, and they seemed just like the Bomb-ombs of Super Mario 64. Not like they were really anything all that special, but I never thought that it took anything away from the game. Sure, the Lumas are cute and all, but like Piantas and Bomb-omb Buddies before, they did fit the areas they were placed, and didn't feel like they were not matching the feel of a Mario game. 
       I do mostly agree with the powerups, though. It seemed like they were not utilized as much as they could have been. But that has been a pattern in 3d Mario games as well. Unlike the 2d platformers, they have been used more to mix things up instead of making a level or enemy type easier to beat, or giving you an extra hit. I don't really think that's a defense of this game on its own as a 3d platformer more than it is a defense of this game compared to previous 3d Mario games.


      Really, the reason I didn't enjoy this game as much as the second was because I played the second one first (weird, but that's how it went). Everything from the level designs to the controls were done better. The replayability was much better, and it was more challenging as well. But, that's enough with that; I'm getting sidetracked from the point.

   
      Going to one of your last two points about 3d Land and the level of open world-ness of the game, here's my take on it. If every game were just like Super Mario 64, it would get boring. And already, people somehow say that Nintendo just "recycles" the games over and over (far from the truth, but moving on). I do think that it would have been a better way to go, and a few of the galaxies to feature this kind of gameplay. But really, I found myself enjoying the more linear levels more enjoyable. Maybe the more open galaxies just weren't designed as well as in Mario 64, but nevertheless, that's how I felt.
      For Super Mario 3d Land, I kind of see it as a 2d Mario game in a 3d environment. You have your powerups equivalent to the older game's way of dealing with it, a timer, linear levels with only one real objective, and a lot of it felt like taking Mario 3, and putting it into 3d. However, I still put it int the series of 3d Mario games with Galaxy, Sunshine and Mario 64 because it is still in a 3d environment.

Sword legion : It's certainly nowhere near as good as Super Mario 64 or Super Mario World but I enjoyed Galaxy though it's a fun game to me.