Banjo Threeie!!!

[Vipershark]

I know it all boils down to preference, but I preferred Mario 64 over Banjo & Kazooie. I'll admit the latter was more expansive but the first one seems to be designed much more tightly.

I never liked hunting for myriads of collectibles (skull tokens, red/gold feathers, puzzle pieces, jinjos, blue eggs, musical notes etc etc) and while they aren't necessary to enjoy the whole game, it just feels tacky and overdone.

Either way it's fine, it's a different take on the 3D platforming genre, but i's not my cup of tea.

I agree.
While BK is by no means a bad game, it's always felt like a watered-down knockoff of Mario 64 (with more stuff in it) to me.
It felt slower overall and the controls felt really vague by comparison, like they tried to get Mario's magical gameplay formula but... just couldn't quite get there.
It's always felt just slightly off to me. Not to the point of making the game bad, but to the point where it's really noticeable, especially when compared to Mario.

I like BK, it's just not as good.