I actually like most of it. The fact that these worlds were huge and sprawling made me wish there was more than just tropical stuff going on, but that really wasn't what I hated about it the most. What I didn't like was the lack of automatic camera movement (like in SM64) and the removal of the "three zoom/pan" style camera (also like in SM64). FLUDD was cool, but half the game's potential was wasted on using the [darn] thing to clean up gunk, which is probably why everyone loves those inhumanely hard secret sub-courses. Yoshi was underused and underpowered. Some things were just unforgiving, like the blue coins and dying for not completing a challenge such as the Blooper races. Another problem with the "clean up all the gunk" aspect was that the game's story suffered because of it. The introduction of Bowser Jr. and the "I'm your mama?" plot point didn't help. Oh, and Mount Corona should've been a full-fledged world with actual burning lava.
Had all those flaws been fixed, I'd probably like Sunshine better than Galaxy at this point.
You're half right. Yoshi was underused, but he wasn't underpowered. He could jump 2x higher than Mario, flutter, turn enemies into platforms, eat enemies from afar and 360 degrees. The only bad part was that he couldn't swim, which makes no sense other than to make one mission in Delfino Plaza way harder than it already is. I actual love Sunshine's camera system. It was very flexible and pretty much worked for almost any occasion. Galaxy's camera was okay too. I remember hearing awhile back that it had completely automatic camera control. I was worried, but almost everyone said it was flawless. However, I'm guessing put in the extra camera movement because some areas were bad. Overall, Sunshine's beats Galaxy's but neither of them really gave me any problems. Good, but honestly, the times when I needed it the most were when it was disabled...
Going back to it after I played Galaxy, I realized that the camera blows and most of the later missions are physically impossible. Still, I think it's a better game than a lot of people give it credit for.
Very true, it is a better game than most people say it is. Overall, I beat Galaxy twice and tried beating Sunshine again. Sunshine is easy to begin with, but it sometimes feels like a chore with the harder levels appearing later. And yes, on my first run-through for Sunshine, I did get all of the Blue Coins. And boy was I glad when they replaced them with Purple Coins in Galaxy. (I guess they fused Red coins because they are hidden in one level, and Blue Coins because there are a lot of them and got Purple Coins). Finally, Sunshine tries to build on 64, but Galaxy steals SMB series and kicks Sunshine in the shin.