Hey! I think I found why Sean Malstrom wants to off 3D Mario!

It is not that I dislike 3d Mario. I think Mario 64 is a very well crafted game. I just despise having 3d Mario being rammed down my throat in a desperate attempt for it to replace 2d Mario.
-- Sean Malstrom, Purpose of 3DS 

So, Mario started off as THE 2D platformer, beginning life as a unique skill game with a designated ending. This game was a bridge between the endless challenges of arcade games and the ending contests of carnival games.  Donkey Kong Jr. followed suit. Mario spawned a small line of arcade platformers: Wrecking Crew, Donkey Kong 3, and Mario Bros were all made available. Mario was quite recognizable as a 2D platform arcade character, but it was not until 1985 that he was made a global icon.

Super Mario Bros. was perfectly designed, and set Mario in place as a worldwide icon for video games. Everyone knew what Mario was and did. This game sold system after system after system. The Great Giana Sisters were an attempt to ape Mario, and became infamous for it. There were countless other clones. Platformers went on to flourish. Mario had to make a return trip. Japan's attempt was... not good.

It was basically a highly difficult mission-pack for the first game. There were new levels and some new objects and elements, sure, but it felt too close to the first to be anything special. We'd already seen similar things, but they were for specialized purposes: VS., Special, All Night Nippon... This was the "sequel" to SMB1. Japan flunked, and Nintendo of America knew it! Instead, Nintendo took Miyamoto's discarded plan for a new Mario game, which had already materialized as Doki Doki Panic, and decided to build a whole new Mario around it. And it worked!

The Mario TV show combined both Super Mario Bros. games equally for elements. Building a fantastic world was what Mario was about. Super Mario Bros. 3 learned from this. Mario was a flagpost, THE flagpost even!

This main Mario product vanished in 1998 after the failure of SMW2. Mario had no main focus anymore, which was VERY evident in the Gamecube era. The DS brought him back to his prime stomping ground, and he mostly kept there throughout the future. However, these games decayed over time. People noticed this decay, and as Nintendo tried to bridge the gap, they simply hoped 2D would get better, and felt they were forced into 3D. Too bad most 3D games felt the decay as well.

Hence for Mario, the world is flat.  Yet I don't understand why Malstrom changed his tune to thinking 3d is inherently bad.

The Mario Post

Yes, a Sonic Blogger discusses Mario. Recently, SA3 Facebook pointed out Mario may be in an even worse state than Sonic, and it's agreed amongst most gamers he's at least starting to slip. Now is the perfect time to chat about poor Mario.

"But sire, isn't Mario doing fine?"

Not anymore. As you can see by this giraffe

A-hem

AHEM, GRAPH:

Remember the Werehog?

We notice Mario's major releases have had comparative failures strewn in. It is generally agreed that Super Mario Sunshine and Yoshi's Island, the worst sellers, were ruined by an obtrusive gimmick for the entirety of the game. Note the "entirety" part: the gimmicks went on far too long, even when compared to the Werehog of all things. Many have griped about Baby Mario, and others whined about FLUDD. The other major flop shown was about 1 quarter re-hashed, with a few of the good assets of the original dumped.

As we can see on this other graph:

The Kicker....

2D Mario games indeed sell better than 3D ones. This can be blamed on certain consoles selling less than others, but explain the case with SMG and NSMBW. Some fans are indeed put off by the fetch-quest-based nature of 3D Mario, but then there's SM3D. What happened? The 3DS didn't flunk, so...

Maybe people were, dare I say it... BURNT OUT WITH MARIO.

BURNT-A OUT-A? ZAT'S IMPOSSIBLE-A!

I definitely am. Around the same time, the 2D Mario games had begun to become stale. The last two were very stale indeed. NSMB2 relied on a gimmick to protect from staleness, which failed unless one was Mr. Krabs or Scrooge McDuck. There was also a direct sequel to Super Mario Galaxy. Worse still, there were some really bad sports games, like Mario Tennis Open. MTO did not have Rosalina playable, but there were recolors and generic characters that took a large chunk of the roster.

The sheer number of Mario games in recent years compared to other Nintendo franchises has burnt people out. Not helped by all those shitty franchises Nintendo has made, or the deaths of their more mature franchises, or... whatever happened to Zelda. Not to mention the casualization of Mario and the like. 

This is why Mario Maker is a good thing. It allows players to build whatever Mario experience they want, and even include their own voice. Game Overthinker suggested an expert-level edition with full scripting in the future. Unauthorized ROM hacking and full fangame engines do have it, but they're of dubious legality and are hard to use, hence why official scripting would be better.

And Mario 64, hmph! It's just as flawed as Sonic Adventure, displaying most of the latter's flaws, and exaggerating some to make up for those it lacked. 

Alternate Gameplay

Sonic Adventure's additional characters had multiple styles of play to go with them. Mario 64 had all these random missions rather than just the get to the goal waypoint star or beat the lights out of the boss missions we needed to begin with. Unlike Sonic Adventure, these missions were absolutely necessary, in a way evoking Sonic Ordeal/Lost Cause and onwards. It wasn't till later that fans found a skip.  They were at least tolerable, but looking back, they're bollocks.

Bugs

The aforementioned skip above, anyone?  There's also a fair share of others.

Terrible Characters

Mario 64 has many terrible characters who rarely or never showed up again. Ukiki,  those stupid rabbits, that cheating penguin, et ecetera. And the recurring cast weren't used well here either. You can only meet Yoshi as a 100% bonus (or via glitch), and you can't even ride the feller. I want to trod about on my dinosaur who eats all that stand in my way to defecate it and make it his weapon, or spit it out as fireball spread-shots and other cool projectiles. Maybe we could get some more things like his hover-jump.

They did rectify this in the DS remake, where you can play as Yoshi on his own, and he has most of those said abilities. Too bad that he still comes off more as the "fat frog making retarded noises" you are subject to in his own games. He's still fun to play, however. And Luigi? Where'd he go? Some said that there was a statue reading "L is real 2041", which really read "Eternal Star", but in reality, he was missing. We did get him in the DS remake, however.

Really, disuse of characters and making terrible characters is a huge problem with Mario. Remember the Honey Queen fiasco? Or Pink Gold Peach? 

What happened to the discovery factor so key to Mario? Before, we were always going somewhere new: the Mushroom Kingdom, Subcon, Sarasaland, the Eight Kingdoms surrounding the Mushroom Kingdom, Dinosaur World, the wonderful magic pictures inside Peach's castle, and fucking SPACE. (Even Sunshine had Delfino Isle, even though the game was shit). This occurred in spin-offs too: each RPG had a new world to explore. 

It is clear Mario suffers from similar symptoms to Sonic: awful stories without immersion, cumbersome gimmicks, horrendous characters, and being too happy-slappy for its own good. The difference is that Mario often succumbed later than Sonic. He might have shaken off some of these as well. The games are only different from Sonic in that they remain solid. ROL was a gas. 

According to Roger Van Der Wiede's Sonic is Dead video, I've positioned Mario at middle-age at the moment. The games have no new environments, instead trying to make old ones, but lacking the charm. There's no sense of adventure anymore. The Sprixie Kingdom seems incredibly lame.  Overall the games blend in many factors, like their story and tone. I can barely tell them apart. And like Sonic, Mario also has some lame fanboys and their pseudo-detractions.

Two words: "3D BOOGEYMAN!"

Considering that Sonic is now officially on its deathbed and only the movie can save it, it will soon be Mario's turn to get dunked on.

You heard me right, soon Mario is going to be bashed.  Mario Sunshine 2.0. Sunshine's defenders won't like it. Maybe they'll get rational and start attacking it and the rehashes of the early 2010s. Mario's gonna fall. Will it be The Mario Cycle or Mario 37+? I hope for both. I hope 3D Mario games are rehashes and 2D become victim to a Mario cycle.

With his fall, will new mascots rise?

Diving into the Malstrom

Hey, remember this?

Sean Malstrom has gone insane. It is clear as day: he once said they needed to bridge the gap between 2D and 3D Mario, and when they did, he claimed "Nintendo is shoving 3D down our throats" What does he mean? The new Mario games try to bridge the gap, slowly. Galaxy 2, while dull, was still simplified compared to past 3D Mario games, and 3D Land was a total rework, given a breath of greatness with 3D World (which bothered with a new (if uninteresting) setting and multiple playable characters).

Is this a "fuck you"?

The "3D" series changed the many-waypoints gameplay, which was complex and would degenerate to a scavenger-hunt fest if kept unchecked, to a style that was similar to the 2D games (NSMB to be specific). It also put things like ? Blocks into greater focus. There are other things to complain about, like the lack of immersion, but dissimilarity to 2D games SHOVING 3D DOWN OUR THROATS is not one of them. I did clear the whole main campaign of Land. Lost interest in the second campaign, though that is for other reasons (the lack of immersion)

He wanted more acceptable 3D Mario, he got it. Beggars CAN'T BE CHOOSERS. "Help DVDs treat me like an idiot!" They're meant for new fans, and if you don't like the shitty friends and lack of immersion, don't we all hate those traits? "The goalpost is the likable element? Absolutely not! WAAAAH!" Yes it is, and it changes the goal of 3D Mario to be like your precious 2D Mario.  "They're butchering and neglecting 2D Mario!" 3D Mario is suffering all the same with lack of immersion and impact. "When food and poison compromise..."

What the fuck is WRONG With you! There is no 3D boogeyman!

You and your extremist metaphors...

And what's with his hate-boner for 3D Sonic? 3D Sonic actually did do many things right: it was still clearly an action game, and the plots were well-done. Is he riding the bandwagon? That's not something this "reputable source" should do. He needs to sit down and play it for himself. All 3D Sonic games prior to Lost World (Colors does not count, it's 2.5D with some crap 3D sections) featured immersion, action, atmosphere, glitzy sounds, and good graphics. Hey, he does like Descent. Why does he parrot on that one subject? That is where he always falls apart.

Thankfully he seems to agree that this is bullshit, for the most part.

What's really weird about him is that sometimes he seems to get it. However, just after, he gets lost in his own little world once again. Why? Why do you keep babbling about "3D Manifest Destiny?" Isn't it the lack of immersion and badly designed consoles that we have to worry about? For all we know, you're making a "2D Manifest Destiny" yourself. You don't seem to be putting on a funny face, like the Nostalgia Critic (he needs to end already). Your 2D Manifest Destiny is the opposite of your old plan! You were once well-respected, but now you seem to be a madman and troll.  Why is this happening?