Sunshine was the best platformer of 2002, IMO. It wasn't the huge leap Mario 64 was, but then again, the GameCube isn't a time machine...
IMO, it was only a tad better than Ratchet and Clank/Sly Cooper, which is enough said all its own (both games are excellent on PS2). Thing is, nothing compared to Mario games back in the day, so methinks there's some work to be had within Nintendo if they want to keep that "classic" image with their greatest franchises...
-Official Ninja of [coming soon]...