when this game came out, I had been underwhelmed by GCN's power and thought the whole water hose thing was just a lame gimmick. Having beaten Odyssey twice, I decided to play the last remaining Mario main game I had not owned. This game is surprisingly good. The plot is creative, and the jetpack actually really adds a unique dimension. The game is more linear than 64 but less so than Odyssey. Also, to newcomers who've played Odyssey, this game is much harder. Downsides are controls; modern right-sticks make it hard to adjust to the x-axis of the stick. Also, game could've used the long jump as well as more levels; the lack of more is probably a byproduct of Nintendo's predicament in the early 2000s, after winning the quality war against Sony in the late '90s but losing the money-making one to them and dealing with the then-new XBox.
This game is excellent; play it! Let's home Nintendo remakes it for Switch!