I'm fine with that idea, I think that the story in most Mario as well as FPS games are complete crap and doubt people are playing for them. There are notable exceptions of course, but that's just what I've seen.
On the mechanics thing though, I commented because your post was totally about stories, and I find it hard to believe that the Mario games have more variation in story than the entire FPS genre. As far as mechanics though, I can agree that both vary to similar degrees, and I'd have a tough time picking which one has more variation, though since I believe the3re are more FPS games in general and I assume that we are sticking to Mario's role solely in platforming games than I think the nod would probably go to FPS games simply because there are more of them and more opportunity for variation.
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