that's true and I fully recognize that, however, with TotK especially, you have a swat of people that became increasingly frustrated with the game and Nintendo's design philosophy
I always really struggled to express my main issue but essentially these are games that become increasingly shallower the longer you play them. The dungeons are often cited, as they no longer contain exclusive gameplay mechanics that make them stand out and lost intricacy through something like keys no longer existing. And that's kinda these whole games. You have a handful of interesting mechanics but none of them are particularly deep or intricate, none of them are ever really pushed in a regular playthrough and the games just kinda incentivise to use the simplest solutions
And there are so many, absolutely baffling Nintendo decisions that no other game company would ever make. Why can the memories be collected out of order? So that the design philosophy of exploring the game on your terms can be upkept? That's just stupid and ruined the experience for many people
They are also really empty games. Like there are landmarks and shrines and all that but there's so much empty space inbetween. And even if there is something, it's maybe just the thousandst map boss that becomes trivial after a few hours of play (like every other enemy in the game) or another shrine that's just a straight line. This video expresses my thoughts quite well
And this is a video that explains in general pretty well why I haven't enjoyed a Nintedo game in like... 10 years?
Super and Super Circuit are decades old by now. Nintendo learnt how it was done in MK64 and always followed that. The point could've been something like: 1st place 30 points, 2nd place 25 points, 3rd place 21 points and then just deduct every place a point until last place gets 0 points. It's a very volatile game by nature and comebacks are always possible, there's no need to give last place any points or to not reward 1st place greatly
with the system now, 3rd place is 10 spots ahead of 13th place, but somehow only 5 points ahead? That's insane. I mean look:
View attachment 733371
You can consistently underperform another player and somehow be rewarded more points
edit: sorry I completely forgot: I haven't played Bowser's Fury. Heard it's good but can't judge on that
I completely agree with you post and this sentence was noticeable to me because I really, really hate how Mario worlds are designed
It's an island with designated zones. That's it every single time. I like Mario World a lot because the world interconnects and makes sense. Something like the sunken ghost ship or Donut Plains, it's intuitive and forms a world that feels natural. Other Mario maps are just "oh here's the grassy area. Now comes desert. Here's the sky world." and it always feels lazy. Like there's an obligation to have these zones and the map is forced to have them. Which in a game where the overworld is just a level select screen isn't too bad, but in an open world game... yeah can't imagine that's gonna be great
Generally, the more I think about it, the less a open world Mario Kart makes sense...