Is Mario in a dark age?

I really miss the days when every Mario game had its own unique artstyle and would shake up core mechanics just for the hell of it. I feel like Mario really reached the pinnacle of its creative evolution with Super Mario Galaxy. Imagine adding modern Mario games to this video after Galaxy. It would feel like going downhill and then flatlining.

Basically Mario used to be about "experimentation", hence the everyman nature of Mario himself. Now the series is about maintaining a successful "formula" for the purpose of being a cash cow.
 
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Waluigi said:
I really miss the days when every Mario game had its own unique artstyle and would shake up core mechanics just for the hell of it. I feel like Mario really reached the pinnacle of its creative evolution with Super Mario Galaxy. Imagine adding modern Mario games to this video after Galaxy. It would feel like going downhill and then flatlining.

Basically Mario used to be about "experimentation", hence the everyman nature of Mario himself. Now the series is about maintaining a successful "formula" for the purpose of being a cash cow.
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Absolutely! Super Mario Maker is a great example of that.
The four styles included are Super Mario Bros., from 1985, Super Mario Bros. 3, from 1988, Super Mario World, from 1990, and... New Super Mario Bros. U, from 2012. Why did we make a 22-year skip? Because the other console Marios aren't different enough. I mean, there are more games! New Super Mario Bros., New Super Mario Bros. Wii, New Super Mario Bros. 2... why did they not get included? Because they're pretty much the same as New Super Mario Bros. U.
I really preferred it when games were different. And you can't say "that's because of hardware specs differences" either: look at The Lost Levels. Exactly the same engine, and yet they changed up some graphics, for the fun of it, to make it feel a bit different. And another example: Super Mario All-Stars shows it very well. It's one game, so no technical difficulties, featuring Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3. They're so much different! They could've make them look the same, but of course they wouldn't do that! Every game has its own artstyle for its own charm!
But since New Super Mario Bros. Wii, they don't seem to want to do that anymore. How unfortunate.
 
Glowsquid said:
i don't think the EAD-developed games are in particular need of "saving"
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warelander said:
References to older games aren't a rarity either (there is a reason why the Wario references thread exists) and older characters have come back very frequently in recent years (in active roles and not artwork cameos), such as Boom Boom in 3D Land, Reznor in NSMB2, Sidesteppers have been the crab obstacles in the Mario Kart games since DS and just last year we had Foreman Spike and Donkey Kong Jr (among others) as mystery costumes in Mario Maker, so I don't that Mario is lacking in that area, in fact I think the series is doing a fantastic Job in that regard.
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Yeah, it is the main games that do push more of these characters, both bringing in new ones and bringing back some ideal old ones a lot.

Not counting various enemies and bosses, here they are:

SMG1: Rosalina, Lumas, other non-Toad NPCs
NSMBW: Koopalings (returning)
SMG2: Lubba, a few more non-Toad NPCs
3D Land: Boom Boom (returning), Pom Pom
NSMB2: Reznor (returning)
NSMBU: Nabbit
3D World: Sprixies, Plessie
Captain Toad: Wingo, Draggadon (as the only ones, they count for this)

Not bad so far. Let's hope they continue this with more games to come.
 
I'm not sure what exactly is going on here, but I for one enjoyed the New Super Mario series. I wouldn't say it's in a dark age, it's nowhere near, every Mario game thus far has been fun.
 
Is that so? I thought New Super Mario 2 was magnificent. Kept me busy for weeks, mainly due to finding all the star coins. I never collected more than a million coins however.
 
It's just that NSMB2 didn't manage to do anything new at all, but they made it for a certain staff training-related reason.

All it really succeeded in doing was making NSMBU look like a joke, and that's arguably the more solid game, what with a full-blown world map, Baby Yoshis, the return of NSMBW's multiplayer, and the introduction of Nabbit.
 
Well to be fair it was the first New Super Mario title on a handheld to feature a two player mode on the main game, it also introduced the golden flower, whatever it's actually called. I wouldn't say it didn't bring anything new. Did I mention it was the first in the series to bring DLC? Nothing huge but still.
 
But the deal with NSMB2 was that it was all just coins coins coins. Though to its credit, it did reintroduce Reznor and Raccoon Mario proper.
 
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Vampfox said:
Nintendo should bring back Mario's castle from "Super Mario Land 2".

I'd love it if they used more things from the Mario Land games.
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Yes, they should. Super Mario Land 1, 2 and 3 should be back as an All-Stars pack. I'm sure a lot of retro gamers will love to see those coming back. (And that means Wario Land remake!!)
 
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