I'm going to u-turn a little and defend NSMBU. Despite what i said, it felt like they put more effort into that game than they did with any of the others since the first on the DS. If the only NSMB game had been NSMBU it would have been great.
I enjoyed the game but it was held back by the NSMB stylings. Completely new graphics, preferably using sprites and all new theming for areas, an abandonment of NSMB theme music, maybe some stream lining of the map, and perhaps a name change to distance it further from the NSMB series and it would have been great.
There were some great all new tunes hidden in that game along with good remixes of some classics, some really great level designs (And a few that perhaps could have been dropped as they offered nothing new) and enough modification to the Mario formula to make it a worthy Mario game from a gameplay perspective.
My biggest issue with that particular NSMB game the relatively superficial aspect that is it shares the graphics and theming with the rest of the tired NSMB series. NSMBU could have been great if they just went a little bit further.







