I have the opposite reaction. I found the DS game to be the weakest and way too vanilla for my tastes, but I legitimately enjoyed the Wii version, thought the Wii U version was pretty good, and felt the 3DS game was mediocre.

NSMB came at a time for me when I was on a Mario high. I was playing SMB3 on GBA quite a bit and I couldn't wait for a new game. Also, it was my second DS game with Mario Kart DS being my first and I had quite a lot of fun playing it alongside friends and trying to get all of the Star Coins.

That said, I share the sentiment of it being rather vanilla and by the books as far as 2D Mario goes.

The DS game would otherwise be the weakest, but it has stronger content (=original) than the rest of the series. 

The "New" series was great for its time but has grown old. Luckily Nintendo seems to be switching up the formula or at least giving it a break.

New Super Mario Bros.-2006
New Super Mario Bros. Wii-2009
New Super Mario Bros. 2/U-2012
Super Mario Maker-2015

Instead of following the 3 year cycle of NSMB and releasing a new one in 2015, they created Mario Maker which was a fresh take on 2D Mario.

Its a safe bet to say a new 2D Mario will release in 2018, i wonder if they will return to the NSMB formula, make a sequel to SMM or make something entirely new.

Its been rumored that an updated port or SMM will release on NX in its first year, if that happens than i dont suspect we will get a SMM2. Im guessing and hoping the next major 2D Mario strays away from NSMB/SMM and features a new artstyle & some new gameplay innovations.

agree, this Mario series is similar to each other more than ever. hence it received its criticism. while the other Mario platform games are really different from each other or have a decent upgrade from its predecessor (within the 2D platformer).

Wow, hasn't felt like it's been that long...

The 3DS game was really fun, but I wasnt impressed by the Wii U release.

Cool series but Nintendo is really milking it.

I never played this game actually. I've heard a lot of great things about it though. I did play NSMB Wii and Wii U, and those were great games, especially with 4 people. So many deaths we caused accidentally killing each other, but so much fun. x D

it reminds me that in the past ( 2008 and 2009 ) I carried my nintendo ds to school and kept her playing New Super Mario Bros ^-^

Wow, did not expect to see so many haters in this thread. Fantastic game. I played the hell out of it. Maybe I should pull out the ol' DS and give it another go.