Because recently, it seems like Nintendo has slowly worked out that 2D Mario sold better than 3D Mario and started throwing in classic Mario elements in the recent games en mass.
Think of it is this way, until the Gamecube era, there seemed to have been a slow but gradual attempt to move away from classic Mario in terms of continuity and earlier elements, you had Super Mario World replace many of the enemies and take place in a completely new looking region (Dinosaur Land). It sold well, it was a good game. You then had Super Mario 64, which went back to Mushroom Kingdom (arguably, it's never stated whether the portraits link to areas in the kingdom or are self contained worlds). It was also a good game, but (not a bad thing), you could see a lot of new stuff in the game, and even fewer classic references than Mario World had. Then came Mario Sunshine...
It wasn't quite as good (although underrated), and had fairly few classic elements compared to many other Mario games. It also redesigned about half the enemies and characters, and changed a lot for the hell of it.
Presumably, Nintendo noted its failure. Problem is, they took the wrong message from it. Instead of realising that problems with the gameplay were the main factor, and that they had to redesign the puzzle elements to be more platform orientated, they only read two of the smaller issues, the lack of recurring elements and the 'accessibility'.
You know the latter. But the former is an interesting (but beneficial( twist, each new game gives us more awesome returning stuff from the 'classic' eras! Let's see:
For 3D Mario, the path is obvious. Super Mario Galaxy brought back airships, music remixes, Rocky Wrenches, Mecha Koopas, Luigi as playable, the Fire Flower as an item and a few others.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 had most of that plus a whole world of stuff brought in from Super Mario 64 and Sunshine (and the original game), Grinders, Blarggs, ridable Yoshi with Yoshi abilities, Whomp's Fortress, Hammer Bros, Bowser statues and Fuzzies.
Finally, Super Mario 3D is bringing back Boom Boom, power ups, Small Mario, the Tanooki Suit and more.
Not that the 3D games were the only ones to do this... New Super Mario Bros 1 was a bit generic, but the Wii game brought back the Koopalings, Clown Car, Kamek and nigh on every enemy from the last 20 years in some form.
Is this an accurate observation about the series?
Think of it is this way, until the Gamecube era, there seemed to have been a slow but gradual attempt to move away from classic Mario in terms of continuity and earlier elements, you had Super Mario World replace many of the enemies and take place in a completely new looking region (Dinosaur Land). It sold well, it was a good game. You then had Super Mario 64, which went back to Mushroom Kingdom (arguably, it's never stated whether the portraits link to areas in the kingdom or are self contained worlds). It was also a good game, but (not a bad thing), you could see a lot of new stuff in the game, and even fewer classic references than Mario World had. Then came Mario Sunshine...
It wasn't quite as good (although underrated), and had fairly few classic elements compared to many other Mario games. It also redesigned about half the enemies and characters, and changed a lot for the hell of it.
Presumably, Nintendo noted its failure. Problem is, they took the wrong message from it. Instead of realising that problems with the gameplay were the main factor, and that they had to redesign the puzzle elements to be more platform orientated, they only read two of the smaller issues, the lack of recurring elements and the 'accessibility'.
You know the latter. But the former is an interesting (but beneficial( twist, each new game gives us more awesome returning stuff from the 'classic' eras! Let's see:
For 3D Mario, the path is obvious. Super Mario Galaxy brought back airships, music remixes, Rocky Wrenches, Mecha Koopas, Luigi as playable, the Fire Flower as an item and a few others.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 had most of that plus a whole world of stuff brought in from Super Mario 64 and Sunshine (and the original game), Grinders, Blarggs, ridable Yoshi with Yoshi abilities, Whomp's Fortress, Hammer Bros, Bowser statues and Fuzzies.
Finally, Super Mario 3D is bringing back Boom Boom, power ups, Small Mario, the Tanooki Suit and more.
Not that the 3D games were the only ones to do this... New Super Mario Bros 1 was a bit generic, but the Wii game brought back the Koopalings, Clown Car, Kamek and nigh on every enemy from the last 20 years in some form.
Is this an accurate observation about the series?
