This point doesn't really work as the star coins are taken from 2d Mario. They're from the NSMB games. I also disagree that Nintendo has any intention of trying to get people to play 3d instead of 2d. For a start 2d Mario is much cheaper and quicker to make. They'd rather 2d sell more than 3d.

I love Super Mario 3D World. It's my favorite Wii U game.

I'm not sure why, but I feel it's more like a Super Mario Bros. 3 in 3D.

I always felt that the point of the 3D World/Land series was to directly transfer the feel of the 2D games to a 3D space. The jump from SMW to SM64 was kind of huge. It took what was largely a Point A to Point B platformer and made it into more of a sandbox-y adventure game. You would be forgiven for assuming they were two different series, if they didn't both have "Mario" in the title. On the other hand, the 3D series felt like a more direct Point A to Point B platformer and this went beyond just level design. I also felt like the controls were a lot tighter (I think they were 8-Directional instead of Omni-Directional which allowed less freedom and therefore made it easier to control, but I could be wrong about that) which allowed it to focus more on platforming challenges instead of the broader focus of other three dimensional Mario games.

The core of 3D Land/World is more similar to the 2D Mario games. It’s a linear stage based game with limited movement like the 2D games, while the 3D games of Mario 64, Sunshine and Odyssey are hub world/course, freeroaming based. Galaxy is more linear than the other non 3D Land/World games, which are almost open world, but it’s underlying freeroaming hub world/course structure is the same.

I wouldn’t call 3D World the same series as 2D Mario though, it’s a third series.

Well 3D Land for 3DS would be the obvious one.

Other than that - the game seems to draw from the Galaxy games in some fashion while fusing that with the co-op elements from NSMB games.

You have a time counter, so Galaxy/64/Odyssey are no option. You have 3D, orchestral music and multiplayer, so 2D Mario games are no option. In this case it's 3D Land or other.

Yeah, I am not sure what it was about Odyssey, but it did come off a little flat. I was actually surprised at how much more fun I had playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 afterward. To me, Super Mario Odyssey to Super Mario Galaxy is like how Kirby's Dreamland 3 is to Kirby Superstar.

Also, the way the games are grouped in this poll is weird.

Why is sunshine lumped in with Super Mario 64 and Odyssey? It's the most oddball of the 3D Mario games. If you separate out the Galaxy games, you certainly have to separate out Super Mario Sunshine - given it has simplified platforming controls and gives Mario a squirt gun to clear paint. Also, the scope and diversity of the worlds is much smaller than the other 3D games.

I am also not sure how Odyssey is closer to Super Mario 64 than the Galaxy games are. While the level design of the Galaxy games does have the 3D movement, many of the mechanics like side-view and such are more similar to Galaxy 2 than they are to anything in Mario 64.

I placed Super Mario Odyssey pretty far back on my greatest games of all time list for similar reasons. While I don't think it was as big a step down from Galaxy 1, and 2 as Kirby Superstar was from Dreamland 3, it just wasn't quite as good as Galaxy 1, and 2. I would rate Galaxy 1, and 2 as a 98 and 100. Odyssey is still a solid 97, in my mind, but it just not quite as good as Galaxy 1 or 2. 

They were grouped that way, because Angrylittlealchemist , and I were having an argument over whether 3D World had more in common with the Galaxy games, the games dubbed as Garden Exploration by Nintendo (Odyssey, 64, Sunshine), or 2D Mario. I wanted to see how the majority of people on this site groups these games together. 

I don't see how it can be grouped with any of the other Mario games. It isn't 2D, so that is out. And structurally it is obviously different than Galaxy/64/Odyssey. 3D World is just amazing and different. I'd like to see another one for the Switch. The couch coop in particular was astounding.