It wasn’t surprising to see that the Koopalings were reprising their roles in New Super Mario Bros. U, as each of the seven Koopalings guarded the castles of every world in the last two games. What if New Super Mario Bros. U featured bosses from other games instead of the used and abused Koopalings?
Needs to expand the mushroom kingdom universe much more than they've done since mariobros 3/world. It's bad enough to recycle music but recycled content is even worse. They've got the gameplay down but the mario universe is more than precision jumping. It's a universe. An Alice in wonderland like experience.
Somewhere along the way Nintendo forgot that. I hope one day Nintendo realizes this.
Mario U is very good too. But had they really put ambition behind it it could have surpassed Mario World or even 3.
The 3D games have done different things though. SM64 gave us a new outlook on Peach's castle, Sunshine outright took us away from the Mushroom Kingdom to Delfino Island and Mario Galaxy took us into space (not to mention there are subtle but significant differences in the gameplay between each one).
In lies the problem actually. The NSMB games are not just throwbacks, they are True Mario games, treated like second fiddle games. The 2D Mario games were the flagships of every console pre N64 era.
The 2D Mario games sells way more hardware as well. Yet, Nintendo gives the 3D Marios the royal treatment. I highly doubt Nintendo would recycle Galaxy music for the next 3D Mario outing.
If Nintendo treated the 2D Marios with as much respect and ambition as they do their 3D counterparts, gamers would surely be in for a treat.
Pops : )
Remember when Super Mario 64 first came out and you heard Bowser's Road for the first time? And even the remixes in that game were incredible, like the Wing Cap theme. Just brilliant