I like that this looks so whacky and weird after the very safe and predictable approach of the NSMB games.
Reminds me of that glorious element of strangeness in games like Mario 64 and Odyssey.

Also is it me, or does the new art style have a slight Kirby vibe to it?

This is Nintendo Switches prime year

Can we all agree that Nintendo has completely hit it out of the park this gen? This will be a stretch for Nintendo that will be talked about 20 years later, regardless of what happens next.

This was an obvious and glaring omission from the Switch catalogue which definitely made it not much of a surprise to see, regardless of the leak. Great to see Nintendo wrapping the Switch up with a little Mario bow. This certainly could be the Swan Song (at least for major titles) for the Switch. Should put a nice exclamation point on the Switch statement.

This.

Switch has become my favorite Nintendo home console system since the SNES.

For me as well.

I'm not sure any system will ever truly dethrone the ol' Super Nintendo as it's lineup of stone cold classics is insane, but between its phenomenal first party catalog and suprisingly strong collection of third party contributions, the Switch has risen through the ranks to become my #2 top system of all time, beating not only any Nintendo device sans SNES, but every Xbox and Playstation I've owned as well.

The SNES was before my time. I didn't get into gaming until the N64. XD

And outside of the PS4, PS5, and borrowing my friend's PS2 and 360 from time to time, I've been almost exclusively a Nintendo gamer, so I only have mostly Nintendo consoles and handhelds to compare.

For the longest time I was back and forth between the Wii and GameCube as my favorite system.
Now they're back and forth as my 2ND favorite system.

SMB has always been gimmick-based. A wide range of power-ups combined with plenty of things that are unique to only a select few levels, that's how it has always been.

Regarding target demographics, I wonder if you've ever seen kids play 2D and 3D Mario games. They die a lot less in 3D Mario, because they are inherently easier games due to being 3D.

I was a kid when SM64 came out and confirm, died a lot less

One of the reasons why I like 3D Marios, but never bothered with 2D Mario again after World, till a couple of years ago when I played NSMB U Deluxe

Which I hated, and resold it after two weeks because I still keep dying

3D Marios were designed so you die less (all the way back to Mario 64, which introduced a life bar and auto-completes jumps) but that doesn't mean 3D games are inherently easier. In fact, I think that makes a case for the opposite because the developers knew players would fail a lot. The recent Yoshi and Kirby games, the franchises aimed at really young audiences with very easy games, were all 2D bar the Forgotten Land.

Since gimmicks tend to mean shallow gameplay mechanics that aren't repeated again in the game, they usually indicate easy. I just hope Mario hasn't been too Kirby- or Yoshi-fied. But who knows, maybe this will be a real challenge despite all the changing mechanics, like a DKCR game.

Switch it is my favorite console ever