(this is far from the first time i've 100%'d the game, but it's been a little bit and i had Thoughts this time)
i found that, for a lot of the playthrough, i wasn't really... having fun. like, a lot of the stars felt like chores. i knew what i had to do, and i was doing them cuz i had to, but i wasn't having fun while doing it. and i found that interesting.
don't get me wrong, some of the game is fun, i mean i literally 100%ed it, but yeah
and in general the game reeally shows its age. the camera is awful, and the movement is janky as fuck. comparing how mario's movement feels here to a game like super mario odyssey (which tbf i also haven't played in a while, but i think i have a pretty good memory of it) shows just how far things have progressed. given when this game was released, it's extremely impressive how well it holds up. i don't think that means it holds up extremely well though
a lot of stuff feels like it's designed to frustrate the player. like, they didn't fully understand how to make things difficult, so they just made them annoying and punishing
in hindsight i probably should've played the pc port / remaster, cuz i think that fixes the camera and has other quality of life improvements, but by the time i thought of that i was already over halfway through the game lol
despite all this negativity, i do still think it's a good game, and i'd still recommend it to people. but you need to keep your expectations in check. if you go into it expecting a masterpiece then you're gonna be extremely disappointed. but i do still think it's good and worthwhile