Feeling torn about this at the moment. As many people said, controls and camera are very difficult to get into if you are a new player to this. When I played a bit of Odyssey a while ago I was like "man, imagine how fun Mario 64 would be with these controls and camera". Maybe there's a lot of depth to it but it really diminished my enjoyment throughout.
However... I disagree the level design is dated. It is absolutely pure genious. Okay, maybe annoying at times, but you can't tell me it's not damn impressive for a 1996 3D game. Actually there's a lot of things to discuss in how Mario levels have evolved, and this is very connected to advancements made through SMB3 --> SMW --> SMW2: YI --> SM 64. They put like 5-7 different levels in each course. They left the world structure and replaced it with a walkable 3D castle full of secrets. Many more things to discuss but please think on these revolutionary changes.
The camera simply couldn't be better for a 1996 3D game but is most definitely annoying by modern standards. They had to carefully (and manually) adjust every single camera angle in the game which is also an impressive feat. However, telling people to "grow up" for pointing out something they don't find good in a videogame is childish at best.
However... I disagree the level design is dated. It is absolutely pure genious. Okay, maybe annoying at times, but you can't tell me it's not damn impressive for a 1996 3D game. Actually there's a lot of things to discuss in how Mario levels have evolved, and this is very connected to advancements made through SMB3 --> SMW --> SMW2: YI --> SM 64. They put like 5-7 different levels in each course. They left the world structure and replaced it with a walkable 3D castle full of secrets. Many more things to discuss but please think on these revolutionary changes.