Mr Khan on 27 February 2014
The games are similar in a lot of ways: they built on solid but-flawed predecessors to create a much more polished experience. In my bias, i can say that Mario at his best just beats the shit out of DK at his best, but i've never found the DK games more than just okay (blasphemy, i know, but even us Nintendrones have our differing tastes).
My guess is just that, that critics just have less taste for sidescrollers. NSMB's middling review scores compared to the 3D marios would attest to that.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
