People who consider Mario a gameplay-only game are not true Mario fans

[pokoko]

happydolphin said:

pokoko said:
Everyone played the original because everyone had it. That's the true root of Mario popularity. Back then, you played what you had, and if you beat it, you played it again. Non-awful games were kind of a rarity.

But the world itself being particularly special? No, I'm afraid not. I mean, it's not bad or anything, but other games have built more immersive and imaginative worlds, never mind novels. Mario is what it is, which is other elements added to an original game-play idea to flesh it out a bit.

In Mario's time, back in the NES days, give me examples of games that had built more immersive and imaginative worlds, other than Zelda.

So you're only saying that Mario only had an interesting feel in relation to other NES titles?  That doesn't really feel like what you were saying in the OP.  Regardless, Faxanadu comes to mind, where the idea of working your way up a gigantic World Tree honestly captured my imagination.  Final Fantasy, though without a named main character, had a really interesting world and magic structure.  Kid Icarus, though not the best game ever, was very imaginative.  Kirby is definitely a more interesting character, with more interesting powers, and so is Megaman.  StarTropics is one that I look back on that captured my imagination in a way Mario never did, with real depth and human emotion behind it.  Even Castlevania, though based on a pre-existing concept, had a more cohesive world.