I honestly thinks its vastly worse than almost all of the other mainline 3D Mario titles. Its failure (IMO) is from its sort of strange perspective in a lot of levels (2D switching with 3D?) as well as the fact that it does not have a strongly put together atmosphere or plot.
I mean Mario is pretty much as basic as it gets with plots but other 3D Mario games like Galaxy and Sunshine have such strong vibes and worlds. They stand on their own.
Mario 3DWorld just feels like they didn't have a concrete idea of what they wanted to do and mix mashed some things. I think its a poor overall example of a Mario game. it has the gameplay but it does not have its own identity
also its not a system seller. Nintendo would have been way better off and sold wayyyy more Wii U's if they had simply made a sequel to the first two Mario Galaxy games (which were extremely popular with casuals as everyone likes space)
