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JWeinCom said:
IcaroRibeiro said:

What is this explanatory category I've never heard of

And what makes Odyssey any different from Galaxy?

Basically...

Mario 64/Odyssey/Sunshine to a lesser extent- You are given a vague hint or direction, and explore a world to find a star/shine/moon. Often you have to complete some objective to trigger the star (i.e. stomp on the wooden stake attached to chomp's chain, track down five Boos, beat a Koopa in a race, etc.)

Mario 3D Land/World- You go to the end of the level. In most levels, there is no question of where exactly you're supposed to go, and the only challenge is getting there. You do not have to do anything beyond simply getting to the goal and unless you're a completionism, there's no reason to hunt around for anything hidden. 

Mario Galaxy 1/2- Sort of a hybrid between the two. For some stars you follow a set path and your only objective is to make it to the end. For other stars, you have free reign of the level, and have to complete some objective (finding parts of a launch star, purple coins, destroying a giant robot, etc.) to make the star appear. Most levels are a sort of hybrid. You traverse a series of small self contained areas (usually planetoids) in a clear straightforward path. However, typically you have to accomplish some small challenge on each planetoid (beat all the enemies, find a key, find pieces of a launch star, etc.) to get to the next area.

All three styles work great. I prefer Galaxy the best. It finds a way to give you freedom while preventing you from having to wander around poking at things to find what you need. Focusing on smaller levels allows them to throw in tons of new ideas and then move on before they've worn out their welcome. The game's structure lets them change mechanics or setting on the fly to constantly surprise the player. It's really amazing how many different ways they find to make running and jumping feel fresh and exciting.

I voted 64/sunshine/Odyssey, thought for me they kind of are tied with galaxy for the characteristics described by JWeinCom, they have different mechanics and world structures that make them unique to play, all of them breakthrough in gaming, even Sunshine, though that may be the lowest point, but i still marvel at what they did with that water effects and mechanics and i liked the presence of more tall/vertical worlds.

Since games were (and kinda still are) so damn expensive we really apreciated games were we could roam freely wander and wander and keep discovering things (we called them new discoveries and new tricks, thought they were programming bugs), in that respect just a tiny bit the 64/sunshine/odyssey are a bit higher in my oppinion,i give to Galaxy's that they were more linear but managed to have amazing tight controls and better boss battles.

My only complaint to Mario games is that they are kinda irregular with the direction and tone they choose for the characters and settings ever since the NES, i know that they aren't that heavy story games, but they sometimes should compromise a bit more on establishing certain aspects of the Mario universe, that sometimes hampers the experience for me as with Mario Galaxy 2 that instead of build on top of the great Rosalina history/setting they went with "Mario Galaxy 2 it's just a giant deja-vu of the first game".