I wouldn't go criticising the themes just yet given we know so little about the game so far. Besides, there have been some really good levels with new ideas based around some of those themes in recent games. The Lava rollercoaster level in New SMB Wii for example was more exciting than most of the levels in Galaxy and the Ice levels introduced the Penguin suit which made for some interesting gameplay. Even in the original New SMB there were those bouncing on mushroom levels which were something I'd never seen before in a Mario Game.

If you ask me what New SMB 2 needs is a space themed level. Actually I don't care if it's not a new idea or if it's lava themed or ice themed or whatever, give me some more Mario Galaxy gravity fun in 2D!

@skywake
That actually sounds like a great idea!

What happened to the thread about this that was around when this game was first announced? Oh well.

Anyways, my opinion has changed on this game. At first I was disappointed, the "New" brand hasn't been my favorite. Now however, I'm looking forward to see what Nintendo has done with this one. I've never played a bad Mario game, all are consistently good.

So obviously this will be a good game, but will it be excellent? Will it be memorable among the other Mario games? That's what I'm wanting to find out. Just how will Nintendo differ this game from the other "New" games? That's what's most intriguing about this game to me.

@Emaan
Great to see you've opened up your perspective.

Well yes, I can't stay disappointed with it forever, it IS Mario after all

@TwilightPoint

Oh crap i just order'd a 32gb class 10 lexar sd card for for my 3ds.

A new themed World in the NSMBW franchise? Ha, now that's wishful thinking.lol
Get ready to revist the same familur goomba filled environments all over again. Hopefully they give us something new, seems like the Galaxy games are getting all of the new creative & fresh stages.

The real problem though is that the worlds that they're revisiting look identicle artisticly in design which is incredibly dissaPOOting.
Nintendo seriouly needs to bust out some new asthetics, this is just being lazy.....Oh and uh....whining aside, I'm still extremely excited for SMB2 regardless.lol

@Waveboy

Yeah when we were shown the game, and the screenshots...looked just like stuff from the first game...or was I completely missing something? I'm so confused T-T

I'm feeling the same way, I wish Nintendo would try something new with the 2D games, but I'm still excited for this game nonetheless.

Wait till you see it in motion.

I am looking forward to this game, but I do feel like they are trying way too hard to recreate different things from old, great games. The tail for example...I feel like they are pushing the fact that they have brought it back to the extreme, like they are trying to lure old Super Mario Bros 3 fans in with the power up. It just doesn't feel quite as original as what they used to come up with.
I feel this way about Super Mario Land 3D as well. It was a good game but....they could have done just a little something more with it...kind of felt like I was on little islands in the middle of nothing on every level too. Not much of a World.

Well people have been asking for it... and they got it.

Don't get me wrong though, I like it when some old favorite things pop up...but I feel like they are trying to purely run off of their past victories, ya know? Advertising like, nothing but Mario with that tail for Mario 3D Land. If they were going to reference the past with it, I wish they would have with the lesser known, but still interesting worlds of the other Land games.

@Joshers744 I agree with you. 3D Land was just a collection of little platform levels, and that's it. Pity. And, even though it's a Mario game, I'm still not excited. However, if the difficulty could at least be a bit higher...

Whhhaaaat. It was bright, colorful, vivid, and clean. I loved that game's graphics.

I thought the DS one was ugly lol. Wii one was Felt like a 3D model version of the old sprites.

The DS version for the time looked pretty solid during it's release, now however like practically all 32-bit polygon games it has aged pretty bad graphically. The same goes for Mario Kart DS...eek!

I'm still annoyed that Nintendo refuses to do a sprite based or hand drawn mario side scroller and keeps pumping out these plastic looking generic & stale 3D lookalikes. One thing i noticed different however is that Mario's Body shape in NSMB 2 seems more in tune with Mario of the old, which is great! Seems like he's shrunk down a bit in size regarding his larger state.

@WaveBoy, I would love a hand drawn style!

I thought the Wii one looked horrid, haha. That art style is definitely not suited to all of the screen space the game needed.

Just imagine if GoodFeel created their own Wario Land Shake it!-like look to the NSMBWii franchise. Hell, even if it were 16-bit sprites(With the 3D effect) in the same tune as Super Mario World I'd be more extatic than the current style we're getting. But with the power of the 3DS, we'd be seeing something absolutely gorgeous if Nintendo did something sprite based. Mighty Switch force is a pretty beautiful example-eenO of that!