I hope Nintendo knew what they were doing with the introduction of the blimp fruit.

obviously not

it is severely underutilized, not featured in nearly enough levels

Never played the game; now I have even less of a reason to.

That's kind of what Nintendo does. They introduce a mechanic, allow the player to learn it, then master it and then... they throw it away. Next level, new things. In a game design way, that's impressive to teach a player so much in such a short time. I think the reason why they don't repeat things is so the mechanic never has the chance to get stale... that my guess anyways.

Sorry! I get into game design. ^^; It's what I'm studying, so I guess it's on the mind.

i found both mario galaxies to be a little forgettable

the powerups are pretty much just pegs for holes. the star's up a wall, you have to use yoshi's dash pepper. the star's up a pair of waterfalls, you have to use the ice flower. sure it was cool, but it was scripted

Yeah, they do go for a more linear experience. It's sort of a psuedo-open world, since you're not strictly going from left to right or something. Never really noticed how they did THAT though, with the power-ups. Does make more since thinking about the flowers being on timers, rather than until you're hit... hmm. :U