Soleron on 13 February 2013
I agree, but we need to separate story and worldbuilding.
More story in Mario games = bad. That means cutscenes, dialogue, companions for Mario etc.
But, it needs to feel like you're exploring a world! In SMB1 that was the Mushroom Kingdom. In SMB3, SMW, SM64, SMS all new worlds. SMG had the wonder of space but it felt more and more like it was just things dragged together like in a level editor. SMG wasn't a plausible "world" for Mario.
And the later games are recycling the world. The NSMB setting has been done to death. Yes they can think of new puzzles, but the same art assets make it feel very repetitive regardless.
