good because honestly I felt 3D Land/World were pretty boring and unimaginative.
Galaxy was cool, obviously, because everyone loves space and the stars and there were interesting elements as far as gravity and other things.
for me the 64 Mario with the Castle, or Sunshine with exploring an island- they're way more immersive and fun games because it feels like you're actually involved in a WORLD with some level of reality and rules. The last few mainline Mario games have just felt like "oh there's some magical stuff and there's an extremely linear way to go through these levels in a path". blah.
Mario with some exploration is fun and in my eyes what makes 3D Mario so great compared to the more classic 2D. I remember as a kid exploring the Castle in Mario 64 and it was a bit mysterious and great. Obviously you still have the level warp path to some degree but still
