Yeah, I didn't figure that out until late. I would just always use long jumps. But even they can benefit by a spin in order to get some extra length or just a split second to realign yourself, which helped immensely in the Luigi's Purple Coins stage.

Another word of advice, especially if you're looking to complete everything, is to collect star bits like mad! You will need large amounts of them. And by large amounts I mean thousands.

And maybe it's just that I can't draw a straight line in my head, but when using those damned sling pods, I always had to pull it back slightly more to the left than what looked to me like the right trajectory. Maybe it's just me...