i saw an interesting long post on here about mario and sonic which asserted at the start that neither franchise had made any significant impact on game design since the 90s (the rest of the post, thus, largely ignores the canonical entries and focuses on fan works). that's probably true but it made me want to write about the one thing i still find interesting about the legal mario games, which is the progression of ideas in the 3d exploration-focused entries (64/sunshine/odyssey)
super mario 64 was released in the 90s and was obviously the most groundbreaking and influential of these three titles. an aspect of it that i think is hugely important, but often ignored or even criticized, is that every time you get a star (except the 100-coin stars) it kicks you out of the level, and you have to start from the beginning next time you enter. this combined with mario's complex moveset and a lot of clever level design is the main reason why i like this game. kicking you back to the start gives you an opportunity to try alternate routes and discover shortcuts using advanced moves. for example, whomp's fortress opens with a little section where you run past some moving blocks and enemies, which most new players will probably go through, but once you know how to double jump it's easy to skip the whole thing. many shortcuts require more difficult moves like the side flip or wall kick. finding and taking these shortcuts is satisfying enough that for me, it completely counteracts any frustration or boredom from having to replay the level. and even the levels that have more of an "open field" vibe have a lot of vertical barriers you can either walk around or bypass with skillful jumps.
i think it's a bit like the often-maligned use of "lives" in older games. in a game that uses lives well, like umihara kawase, being kicked back to the start of the game isn't a waste of your time, it's an opportunity to experiment with new strategies, explore things you missed, and reveal additional depth you'd never see if you didn't have to replay levels. (super mario 64 has a lives system but it's almost completely vestigial, the mario games seem to have forgotten why lives are interesting very quickly)
banjo kazooie, released after super mario 64 and heavily inspired by it, lets you stay in the level after you get a "jiggy" and i find it much less interesting as a result. the levels feel more like there are a bunch of setpieces and you go around to each setpiece and do the thing, and then that part of the level becomes useless. even when you die and get kicked out of the level, traversing the levels felt like a much less interesting problem to me than in super mario 64 and they feel a lot more "flat" even when there are some vertical climbing sections.
i haven't actually explored a lot of the n64 platformer library (aside from rare's other masterpiece donkey kong 64, which works the same way as banjo) but the fact that this whole genre started being referred to as "collectathons" (derogatory) suggests to me that not many games actually took cues from super mario 64, which is not really a game about "collecting stuff", it's a game that constantly presents you with interesting and open-ended navigation problems.
that's why i find it delightful that nintendo recognized the strength of this design and kept the system where they boot you out of the level in super mario sunshine, rather than following what rare did in their very popular and successful games that were often considered better than super mario 64 by contemporary critics. i don't have a lot else to say about sunshine except that i like it a lot (some people don't) and that i don't think the water pack detracts from the design (rather, it's another fun aspect of mario's moveset to master)
then nintendo made a bunch of 3d mario games that were a lot less open-ended and focused more on "linear with side paths for secrets" platforming challenges in the vein of the 2d mario games, and i largely don't care about any of these (i played galaxy 1 and 2 and i think i liked them but i don't really remember anything)
finally, they made another cool 3d mario game, super mario odyssey. this one ditches the "kick you out of the level" system! but i was happy to find that nintendo still remembered why exploration-focused 3d mario is interesting. odyssey still requires you to repeatedly traverse old areas and find new shortcuts and master the movement, but this time, it's because there are hundred of secret moons to collect littered everywhere around the world. you are guaranteed to miss some and have to circle back later! this is a "collectathon", but not in the banjo vein where you go to the 10 setpieces and get the 10 gold things. instead there's an arbitrary amount of stuff to find everywhere, and it could be in plain sight but hard to reach, it could have a puzzle associated with it, it could require finding a non-obvious entrance, it could be invisible and hidden underground, or whatever. odyssey keeps the interesting movement and traversal of 64 and sunshine alive while having more of a scavenger hunt structure than a mission-based structure, and i found it fresh and interesting. i do think the postgame where they arbitrarily open up a bunch of big boxes that contain more moons was a little tacky, but i liked the game a lot overall.
other than odyssey i have played very few modern mario games. i haven't played 3d land or 3d world or bowser's fury (which might be the same thing as 3d world?) and i stopped keeping up with the 2d ones after new super mario bros. wii. i'm sure they're all fine and have some solid linear action gameplay and fun levels and stuff like that. but in my opinion, linear action platformers have long progressed beyond the need for super mario. nonetheless, i remain interested in what nintendo ends up doing with the exploration-focused 3d mario games.
