Having gone back and played through most of Galaxy and 64, there's simply no comparison. Even a cynic would have to admit that each of its predecessors are solid games (even Sunshine, though that one is the odd man out for certain), but each one of them comes up lacking in the control department.

Super Mario 64 was a mindblowing thing in its day, and remains one of the best launch titles ever to this day. However, its reliance on the three-horned mutant N64 controller's peculiarities leave it a little finicky to play these days unless you have one in ship shape condition. Don't believe me? Boot this game up with a worn out analog stick (or in either Virtual Console version), visit Tall Tall Mountain, and attempt to make fine maneuvers on the small red mushroom section. It is frustrating beyond reason to turn a simple 180 in place; half the time, it seems like Mario needs to be walked in a little horseshoe shape to face the opposite direction, while other times he doubles back with no issue. Now visit any section wherein it is possible to scoot alongside a wall, all MGS like. Except Mario occasionally decides that he should attempt to do this for no real reason, and convincing him to come off a wall and just walk like a normal plumber is a hangup. Add to this what is now an achingly archaic camera system, and the game certainly shows its age in the overall control department.

Sunshine...well, shit, the game's sort of a mess. I feel like the controls are occasionally flat out unresponsive at times. Making simple platforming jumps on the more abstract bonus star levels has me occasionally plummeting to my death through a one foot gap because Mario simply did not jump. This makes me anticipate my button inputs, which then throws off platforming elsewhere. The jetpack-based platforming allows for some slop by design, stripping away some of the precision that defined the series in its two dimensional outings. The worst offender, however, is the nightmare of a camera that this game decided to use. Who the hell thought a Mario game that occasionally hides Mario behind a wall and requires an on-the-fly X-ray vision mechanic to see the fucking platform puzzles was a good idea? Why does the damn thing linger 500 yards away from the action, or stick behind a corner, or faff about miserably while I try to get through this already mucky experience? I understand that the camera angles used in a platformer can be used to add to the inherent challenge of the game by obscuring certain details necessary to solve a puzzle, but the way it winds up working out in Sunshine do not feel deliberately designed a lot of the time. They just feel shitty, and honestly top the list of reasons why I still have not beaten Sunshine.

The Galaxy games, while incredible not only for their return to form from Sunshine but also on their own individual strenghts, are still not quite up to snuff on the controls. Here the main culprit is the "waggle" input. The mechanic is slick, allowing a sort of reroll of a jump to get your alignment correct or extend the distance of said jump. However, while this tool is used in several creative and deliberate ways (the Cloud costume in Galaxy 2 being a great example), I think it feels a bit floaty and sloppy at times. I certainly come to use it a crutch; why strive to nail a jump anyway when I know I can shake this Wii Remote and probably wind up fine in the end? On the other hand, both games pointed the way forward for camera controls by essentially stripping them out entirely. The game defaults to camera angles which damn near perfectly show you what you need to see to solve puzzles, every single time. You can fiddle with angles a bit, and there's a handy first person fixed view to hunt for hidden tricks and goodies, but taking the camera controls out of the player's hands allows them to focus on actually playing the game instead of Lakitu Simulator 2007.

Where's all of this headed? Oh, right. Super Mario 3D World, while having an unfortunate name, is the best playing of these games by a country mile.

Seriously, pick up any of the possible controller configurations allowed by this game (Classic Controller? Check. WiiMote? Check. Plus Nunchuk? Check? Pro Controller? Check.) and just move around on Super Bell Hill. Mario (and the other characters) are immediately responsive, snappy, jump like a dream, the works. There's zero slop here, slop which has been in the series since at least Sunshine. The camera angles take the best of Galaxy and combine them with the brilliant work done on Super Mario 3D Land, utilizing fixed angles to reveal tight three dimensional levels that rely on platforming skills culled from both the 2D and 3D outings in Mario's past. Want some of that floatiness back? Grab Peach and hover to your heart's content! Luigi's also got his higher jumping abilities if that's more to your liking. Or unlock Rosalina and straight up double jump your way through levels as you would in the Galaxy games! Spend some time with 3D World, then go back and revisit previous 3D Mario games and you will notice a difference immediately. Sure, you are no longer collecting stars in an open(ish) world environment, but you are playing a straight up better game.

tl;dr; Dan is a madman, 3D World trumps its predecessors. Wii U apologist blah blah blah.

Dan's insistence that it's some kind of offshoot of the core Mario series is crazy. It's definitely a far smoother experience than the Galaxy games, but I think the 3DS game had far tighter levels, probably due to how wide they are for four players on the Wii U.

Only thing about 3D world is it feels a bit slower and more restricted. It takes you a moment to reach top speed while running, and the long jump distance is shorter. This isn't a bad thing, but it's a different approach that makes it hard for me to say "This is better than that." Galaxy's reliance on motion controls on some stages is a detriment for certain. Galaxy 2, specifically, made me want to throw the Wiimote at the TV.

3D world feels too constrained to me. All the levels feel like they take place in a little diarama or something. It's feels claustrophobic. As far as the platforming itself goes, I actually think it is some of the worst in the series. You have so little control over the camera and the level are so tight that on some levels I have no idea where Mario is going to land. 3D world also has maybe my least favorite Mario stage ever. And the cat suit is lame.

My complaint about 3D land where it just felt like a shallow star collect-a-thon stands here. Doubly so because it's the first real Mario since 3D land. It's easily the safest and most uninspired main line Mario game and that bums me out.