It's much better than its predecessor. The level design is much better, more challenging, and more creative. The level interface is streamlined. There are less of the silly star missions (Hi, :luigi:). The Green Stars are indisputably better than the Luigi Stars. The final level is much more...
I got all of them (except the Co-Op Gamepad challenges) a while ago. As far as I know, there's no prize for securing all gold medals, but the reward is in the challenges themselves. Highlight of the game.
Crackin, you're ignoring the fact that DKCR is the hardest Nintendo game in years and was still hugely successful. The ideal situation that would please everyone would be as follows:
-Make a Mario game about as difficult as SMB3
-Include some form of the Super Guide for amateur players
-Add...
I was actually one of the people saying that SS didn't really sound that bad, although after watching playthroughs, it's got many serious problems on a technical level. The big problem is that Miyamoto is single handedly responsible for these missteps, which is inexcusable.
And if criticism is...
Oh, Miyamoto. So you let the R&D B-team develop the atrocious NSMB2 without much oversight or supervision, but proceed to meddle with Intelligent Systems and bring the project in a terrible new direction? Concerning a game in a genre (RPGs) you have no real experience with?
What a senile moron...
Several categories of challenges (IIRC, 5), including time trials, coin collecting, and "special" challenges such as the one previously mentioned about not running. If you even tap the dash button, the game kills you automatically.