I'm not sure how I feel about that since I consider Super Mario Sunshine to be the worst Mario 3D game. A tad more exploration than the Galaxy games would be OK, but not Sunshine levels. 

I'm on the same boat here. Give me an open-ended Mario game that isn't a platformer anyday, but as far as the core platforming goes, I'd rather have it like the good ol' days, or just like 3D World does.

There will be simple 2D mario games for people like you. Or even better Donkey Kong Country.

Its been to long without a "real" 3d exploration/collectathon style mario game.

Nintendo dont need to "mix" a 2D element into a game ment to be 3D..... keep them sepperate and have 2 differnt types of games instead.

Nintendo more or less invented this "genre" of free 3D enviroments, and exploration/collecting, and then just dropped the ball on it for years and years.

It sucks, its like what they did with paper mario, they used to have serious RPGs with Mario in them... now they dont.

Yeah, it is, by miles imo. The camera was horrible sometimes. Exploration was boring. Level design was not stellar. Etc., etc. I'm not saying that Nintendo isn't capable of making a good "open world" Mario. But I think Mario games are better when they're more restricted.

Not that that's a very hard task.

We possibly can yes just as Galaxy and 3DW showed we can have great games with out it, sometimes trying to add on things like exploration for the sake of it hampers and hurts a design and concept.

That's all good but for many other people things have moved on, Nintendo have been doing open world since Zelda on the NES it's something they only utilize when they feel it adds something to the design. Open world games have moved on significantly since M64, I have fond memories of the game like many others but nostalgia can't mask the fact that in today's world a game like that would be demolished by whats on offer especially as arguably on the N64 Banjo and Conker were the better games.

A ground up exploration based Mario game would not be like M64 it's would probably be closer to the designs of Conker/Banjo than it's N64 predecessor, M64 was a great game but part of the problem is that it was also the tech demo for the whole industry's jump to 3D and that's what elevates its status as it's the most influential 3D title around.

Yep, I'm not sure it would mix those two elements well. I feel that, as a platforming experience, it's better when it's more contained.

You have a point. It's not bad to have different Mario experiences which appeal to the fanbase, so I won't complain about that. As long as they provide a more restrained, "2D" Mario game, which is the games I enjoy the most. But, yeah, we can have both.

You don't? She was spot on regarding the Switch. The only thing she's been wrong about lately is female link.

I trust Nintendo to do a great Mario game. While I haven't played 3D World yet, I have to say I LOVED 3D Land! The only thing I don't want is another Sunshine; and that's mainly because the main mechanic there was the water... thingy.

I took that for granted when it was said that this new game would be more like the old 3D Mario games.