My friends and I had a blast with it, but yeah, I don't find it very memorable. Like I couldn't tell you what levels are in which worlds.
Really would like to have another 3D Mario like SM64, where there's a strong sense of place.
I think that's part of it. But I feel like, at least for me, another part of it is how I play games these days. Or I guess I should say, how good I am at games these days. Back when Mario 64 came out, I was pretty young, and it took me a long time to finish games because I wasn't very good at them, and they were a little more difficult than games these days for the most part anyway.
Like, Mario is a lot harder to control in 64 than in 3D World, so to me it was harder to do things with him, even though he was technically more agile.
So basically, it took me much longer to complete games back in the day, whereas these days, I can breeze through games like it's nothing. I could beat 3D World in a weekend if I had wanted to.
And I didn't have much money, so I would only have a few games, and play them over and over even if I had already finished them.
I feel like all of these things add together to make most games these days far less memorable than they used to be.
That's why I actively try not to buy too many games each year, and why I actively pace myself out (even though I could complete 3D World in a weekend, I deliberately chose not to).
So I got a pretty memorable experience out of it, but it wasn't natural like it used to be.
That and, yes, older Mario games did have a better sense of place.
