@cliffhanger yeah you should know what your talking about i do like 2d platformers, Sonic the Hedgehog is my favorited series, not everyone is going to like what you like, get over it.

Well first of all, I'm arguing from a content standpoint, not gameplay. Since the city will not change (for the most part), the content you are playing for longer is still the same. And just because you can get through a level faster doesn't mean the content is less. Now if the content doesn't appeal to you, that is one thing, but the content you don't like is still objectively numerous (yes, I admit that to games I don't like).

Second of all, that is nice to know IV has a replay option.

^^^ i agree to a certant extent, however there is more than one borough, and those get unlocked after a certain number of missions is done. So its not like you can just go through the entire city from the jump, unless you skip 4 entirely and play the Episodes from liberty city, plus there is an online mode. and as long as the servers are up and people are playing thats pratically infinite replay right there. if thats your thing

I haven't played 4, but even unlocking more areas still doesn't mean new content every mission. And online play still isn't the same as more content anyway, unless there are online exclusive levels.

But why would anyone want to skip those fantastic cutscenes?

I agree that GTA has a lot of gameplay, but it is just as repetitive as Mario.  Some people like jacking cars and shooting people over and over.  Others like jumping on goombas heads over and over, and don't care that the game doesn't have a $100 million budget.  I guess what I'm getting at is that both are worth the money to someone that likes them; and while GTA might not be worth $50 to me and I believe that Mario is, the same can be said by you but vice versa.  The difference is that I don't go around claiming that GTA is a ripoff just because it isn't my cup of tea and use a secondary excuse like you do  with production values for NSMB Wii and DKC Country Returns.

Honestly production values don't matter to me in the slightest when I purchase a game.  If it did, I would have never bought something like Okami.    

Production values are easy. Good design is hard. This is one thing this console generation has shown me. This is why I insist supporting the more powerful systems is trying to throw money on the game in place of actually doing greater creative effort.

The people who made Brain Age did far more creative effort (they had to make the game in three months, with barely any budget) than a team that works on another generic FPS, for one thing.