Current Events > Why did the NSMB series fail to impress?

(+) Yeah! (+)

At least in comparison to other 2D revivals (Sonic Mania, DKC, Rayman Legends), it seems like no one has any real fondness for the NSMB games. What did they do wrong?

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It didn't really innovate, and unlike some of those other titles, Mario wasn't starving for good content.

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It's not a visually appealing series.
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Because it's just the same old shit with each installment.
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If you played one of them you played them all.
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It's a sort of cynical series, I feel.

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felt very uninspired and lazy.

the art style itself was very boring to look at. every single aspect of these games just screamed average and run of the mill for a mario game.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I1wbczhBIA

I mean, I really liked the Wii one. But yeah, the main Mario series is great(NSMB Wii is unquestionably inferior to both Galaxy games) and NSMB ultimately doesnt offer a lot that feels new.
I mean, Sonic Mania is more ambitious than any of the NSMB games Ive played.

I genuinely liked the DS one in spite of the ridiculous save system because of its simplicity. 99% of the game was done with the fire flower as your only powerup. The bosses were creative and the secrets & warps were very reminiscent of SMW / SMB3.

The other games just got way too gimmicky.

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The DS one was amazing great reboot

The nsmbwii was kinda boring solo but the multiplayer was great fun

I don't care about any of the rest.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

I genuinely liked the DS one

This.

After that, it was rehashed and uninspiring. I always felt like Nintendo assigned their C-team to what are essentially budget titles, even though those games sold like crazy. Nintendo invested more time and money into things like Mario Galaxy and Mario Odyssey even though they sell less in comparison (although maybe Odyssey has outsold it, IDK)

Personally, I loved the DS game, since at that time it was a long time since we saw any kind of 2D mario platformer (last one before that was Super Mario World, not counting Yoshi games). It did bring things that none of the old games had like wall-jumping, the mega shroom and tiny shroom, and even did what yoshi's Island did and had super version of regular enemies. It did some other stuff I think

I did also really like the Wii game. the Wii version was what brought back the Koopalings (last time they were seen was Superstar Saga), the graphical jump from DS to Wii was bigger than later graphical jumps, and the Wii version was the first to introduce 4-person multiplayer.

The Wii U game was when the NSMB was starting to get really stale for me (I skipped the 3DS version). used the Koopalings again, didn't really add as much fresh ideas as the DS or even Wii game. It mostly reused the Wii version's soundtrack outside a couple tracks I think. I was also starting to get tired of them still using the same world themes in the game (grass, desert, water, ice, etc.)