what made sunshine trash other than the poopy lolz find the shine sprites? there's a 120 fucking of them, and some are nigh impossible to find!
most of the levels are badly designed. there are half as many as there were in mario 64. and yet, as you mention, there are just as many 'stars' or 'shines.' bad design and extreme repetition are a nasty combination -- ask people what they think of halo's library.
those platforming mini-stages were awesome though
i don't know, maybe i'm hard on it because
a. i quite literally bought a gamecube to play it
b. it was the first indication that ead was no longer in the first flight of game developers