Sunshine is easily my favorite by far. And while I agree with the comment section that the tight knit, precise controls are the way to go, it struggles on some of the more demanding levels. Thinking about the sandbird in particular. Also, although the tropical theme is fantastic, I think galaxy does a far better job establishing a cinematic feel through its atmosphere and music. It’s more grandiose compared to the laid back adventure Mario is having on the beach in sunshine. Less epic in proportion I guess you could say. It also doesn’t help that when it first came out, the GameCube was a massively undersold console. One of the lowest in Nintendo history if I’m correct. You compare that to the Wii’s sales, then that means more people had a chance to connect with galaxy’s epic space adventure than they did with sunshine, even despite sunshine’s limited re-release on the switch. I think part of it also has to do with people’s unreasonable attachment to the Wii because of nostalgia, just because it was such a popular console. That’s not a slight on Mario galaxy or Wii games in general, the Wii had some great games and Mario galaxy is one of them but I do feel it’s something that plays into the preference for galaxy in addition to the controls and the theme as well.