Just completed the story this weekend. The end sequence was great fun, if a little frustrating with the falling debris. I think they could have created a different way to add difficulty to the level, it was more frustrating than challenging.
Unlike other Mario games, I really took my time just playing intermittently since launch collecting 3-5 moons a night here or there, and this game is really built in a way where you could dive deep and really just gorge yourself on the content until you've consumed everything, or have it be like me where you find a spare 15 minutes and just explore what catches your eye in a world. I appreciate that, given my current time-constrained lifestyle with two toddlers.
This game is a delight in the music, tone, and how self-referential it is, which Nintendo has done well for quite a bit of time now with their Mario games. That said, I'm a bit torn on how it seems to sort of play a bit of middle ground with the game play.
At the heart of it, this game is a collect-a-thon. I have not seen the same kind of platforming experiences I got with something like Mario Galaxy or Mario 3D land/world, unless it's hidden somewhere I have not found yet. Even Mario 64 at the heart of it dealt a lot more with platforming, timed jumps, etc than I recall doing in this game. I also don't know about anyone else here, but I feel Mario's jumps are weighed down a lot more by gravity than I recall there being in 3D world. Assuming that's not something I'm just perceiving wrong, that is something I see as a step-back.
Those are the reasons why I don't understand all the comments in podcasts, in the telethon, or elsewhere on the internet claiming this game is a return to Mario 64 style of game. The only comparison is that they both have what felt like at the time fairly open/expansive worlds. But the goals, structure of the levels, design and focus of the gameplay feel entirely different to me.
These aren't bad things to me, per se, but this game definitely doesn't scratch the same itch that other 3D Mario games have in the past. This game is almost purely about exploration.