I was really hoping for the best May-rio game yet, but all I did was get my hopes up. For those who wanted a Mario 64, that's pretty much what you got with some minor improvements here and there.
To me Mario should be about pure platforming which is why I prefer Galaxy 2 and 3D World. Much like the 8 and 16 bit games, the main point is simply to get to the end of level and move on.
64, Sunshine and Odyssey focuses on doing a plethora medial tasks in sandbox environments in order to unlock the next area where you just do more of the same. You do have the occasional absract level floating in a void, but for the most part you're catching rabbits, ground-pounding glowy spots, and running to a star before time runs out.
This in my opinion this is just a copout. Instead of doing a bunch of creative levels, they make these large simple environments you just run around in completing meaningless tasks.
To me this just isn't as exciting or interesting as completing a multitude of well constructed levels. By having more levels the designers are able to experiment and in the end have more variety.
After explaining this I think you can understand why I find it funny when people bunch Super Mario 64 in with the rest of the original/main line of Super Mario games. It's fundimentally different in design and technology.
Even though some people straight up dismiss 3D World/Land as a part of the "main" line of games, I would argue they have more in common with the originals than 64 and Odessey do. Hell, they even brought back the flagpole for Pete sakes.