I initially thought the game was fun. Then gradually found it dull, awkward, and clumsy. The camera was an outright nightmare that constantly fought with me and after around 80 Shines had been collected, the difficulty ramped up to such an extreme level that I felt that the game hadn't been play tested or balanced at all. The tropical theme was lame, and the NPC's were ugly.
Did I hate the FLUDD? Not really. But I found that I wanted to play the game without it and I couldn't. It was like Mario permanantly had the cape or raccoon tail. His power-ups aren't meant for permanant use.
I felt that the game was wildly inferior to the Super Mario 64, and the sense of wonder and exploration was essentially muted. The boss battle with Bowser was also the lamest ever. Oftentimes, running around trying to clean up every spot of gunk was like a sloppy, uninspired fetch-quest.
