I think Tezuka meant something totally new, but I personally would love Mario World with yarn/wolly treatment, just one game not new series.

Nude Super Mario Bros?

Think about Koopas when you knock them out of their shells.

“Doing this now at the 30th anniversary [of Super Mario Bros.] is really putting some more of that creativity into the players,” says Miyamoto. “But at the same time, we as the developers feel that it’s time for us to move in a new direction, and we’re preparing to work on the future of Super Mario from here on.”

Added to OP.

That won't be hard. They're the lowest part of the main franchise. Glad their run of unoriginal mediocrity is finally over.

And as great as Galaxy was, glad that's over too. Both need something new. Same with Isomario. Mario needs to be original again.

I'm in the minority here, I think topping NSMBU will be hard as nails. Amazing 2D platformer and outstanding level design. And now that I'm playing SMM, I notice how hard it is to do that. I've played about two hundred levels in SMM and the level of polish and almost-perfection Nintendo put in some of NSMBU levels remains unbeatable. Yeah, it is too soon and there are some great levels out there, we'll see!

The level design isn't really good in NSMB... DKC: TF is ten times the platformer.

I'm sure he can do it. :P

every nsmb game is below rayman legends and dkctf, imo.
would be nice to see a 2d mario back in this level of quality.

I prefer NSMBU level design. DKC:TF is an amazing platformer too, but in some levels there are "trial and error", which I actually dislike.  It's almost a tie and I'm nitpicking in here, but NSMBU wins in that aspect. You know, both are platforming masterpieces imo and globally I like DKC:TF more, because NSMBU looks bland as hell, but I'm only talking about level design. And DKC:TF has superb bosses, so that's a plus too. Shame that NSMBU looks... bad and the bosses are dispensable. 

Literally the only thing they need to "exceed" NSMB is to give it an identity alone.