Camera & cheesy story are my only complaints. I even liked the swimming. :/

My only complaint is that you can't control the camera all the time. The swimming kind of sucked too but I hated water courses on all Mario games so it was the same with Galaxy.

Yeah, the only thing I get annoyed by is the swimming.

I'm not quite done (at 109 stars) with the first go 'round, and I've enjoyed the game immensely. But I certainly do have some complaints.

1. The linear levels. I'm one of those with the "wanderlust" you cite. I like to explore, and the game gives precious few levels to do so (those that do are among my favorites in the game). Having all those tiny planetoids makes it easy to find any "hidden" nooks and crannies in no time at all.

2. Pacing. This ties in with point #1. The game is relentless in it's drive to get you done quickly. With so few levels designed for exploration, and many structured to prevent you from back tracking, even those who like to lollygag find themselves pressed onward at a rapid pace.

3. Camera. I'm likely in the minority here. Cameras, of course, have been the bane of every 3D platformer, and in that light I think they've done a wonderful job here. However, I ALSO miss the freedom of camera movement I had in Mario Sunshine. Of course, without a second joystick, I don't know how that could have been implemented. But it's a tine gripe.

4. An even smaller gripe - I don't need to read the same text 20 times. When I ask that Lumo to move tha comets, I don't need to go through the same exchange time and again. Which brings me to...

5. The comets. Love the concept, love most of the levels, but what's the deal with requiring the player to move them manually? Is it a lame excuse to pad the game's time? Don't see the point to it. If you average 10 minutes per star (which I think is on the short side), that's 10 hours to finish the game with minimal work, 20 hours to get all 120 stars, and 40 hours to complete the second run through.

6. The Starbits. Were these really needed? They don't do much beyond add an extra life, and putting a shooting element in a Mario game just feels wrong.

7. Speaking of extra lives, they come too quick and easy in this game. Every time I start up, Peach has FedEx'd me a package of 5 mushrooms, and there's another 6 in relatively easy reach on the Observatory. Toss in 1-3 in almost every level, plus the starbit and coin pickups, and the chances of ever running out of lives is minute. So what's the point?

Of course this is just me. I can see a few things that others would take issue with that I don't:

1. Disorientation due to the gravity fields and small planetoids, makes it hard to keep track of Mario.

2. Many levels are too easy.

3. Some levels are too hard.

4. The princess' story is pointless and a bit depressing.

5. Bowser isn't a brilliant boss. 

Again, these are all relatively small complaints. The game is a blast, and most fun I've had on a console since Psychonauts.

the swimming ain't great but its definitely not so bad that it hurts the game cuz you really don't have to swim very much at all. overall it'd be nice to get a little bit more control over the camera, and despite that its really hard to know where mario is gonna land when i long jump him off one side of a small planet i do love watching him float all the way around the planet from that angle. with how difficult it is to make pre made camera angles in a game like this i think they did a great job, but certainly there should be more areas where the player controls the camera.

i'm i think 67 stars into the game, just got to the engine room, and so far the difficulty is pretty good. overall its a little too easy, but there have been several levels and bosses where i really applaud the difficulty. and i just fought the second bowser and was very pleased that he was pretty hard. although still the difficulty could have been ramped up a bit more. the bowser jr. airship boss battle was good but would have been amazing if it hadn't taken just one hit to kill him when it got really hard, shoulda taken 3 hits. the rock monster boss was pretty good and the mole boss was very good. the first bowser wasn't too hard, but so far thats like at least 4 solid boss fights.

also i'm fine that most of the levels are very linear but i do think that the levels where there is actually a big world rather than little asteroids should have been more open ended and bigger instead of keeping them pretty linear too. but unless they gave those levels secondary objectives besides the stars (or maybe gave a few different paths with different kinds of obstacles to the star) there wouldn't be much point in making them open ended cuz then you'd just be running around not doing anything for no reason.

also i like that there are so many galaxies cuz it gives the game huge variety. reminds me of smb3.

a little more than half way through the game i gotta say those few small criticisms don't mean much to the game as a whole. its absolutely amazing. yeah the camera could be a little better, and although nintendo did make it more difficult than most of their games which is great it still shoulda been a bit harder, difficutly is my biggest gripe with nintendo games, (the few times the game does get really hard with stuff flying everywhere and lots of jumping and enemies on the ground at the same time is pure gaming bliss), and i do wish they had a few galaxies that had full sized planet levels the size of the bigger levels in sm64. but all that means is its just a few points shy of a perfect game. for me this game started off okay for the first couple of hours, but it just gets better and better with every galaxy i explore. and it is at the very least the best platform game ever made and is probably one of nintendo's top 3 games ever which automatically means its one of the best games ever.

for some reason i dont like 3d mario (might be the open world feel) but i like almost all other platformers. i think ill have to pick it up with all these linear "complaints" when i get a wii.

I dont understand some of you guys...
Mario galaxy is simply one of the best games i ever played.
Yes,its not perfect n got little default...but in comparison to all the genius behind the game....this game is almost perfect...and where the water feeling is not the same than 64,the platformers challenge is better than 64,and a lot.
I play Umbrella chronicles and Medal of honor online with the wii zapper and ,WOW,i liked and love it.Link crossbow is also a good surprise by the fact we only pay 5$-6$-7$ for it bundle with the zapper....witch seems to sell very well....sorry for ma bad english,im bad,but at least i try,try to write a paragraph in french and after that we talk.

I just don't like the guided feeling of the game. Where you go into a galaxy and pick a star that comes next. Then you can't get other stars. Which imo sucks compared to 64. And for the swimming issue I don't find it bad in galaxy, I likely will now thanks to you guys.

Some people may have missed that I don't think anyone in this thread actively disliked the game in any way.

Just some portions were much more enjoyable than others, and I'm always curious what bother people about a game this high.