Like I've said before, I'm waiting for a beautiful Mario game such as that wallpaper and maybe a true open-world, sandbox Mario game. You see it waaaay off in the distance? Well, you can go to it.
I like depth and realism. If you took Mario's world and put it in ours, that's how I've always imagined a Mario game. Like, hey, keep the oddly-shaped mountains and everything that makes a Mario world, well... a Mario world, but make it a bit more naturally occurring, I suppose, instead of feeling so robotic and planned out.
Haziness as objects get farther away from the player. ? Blocks lit up in All-Stars; their light should reflect off other blocks and maybe the ground. Happy clouds in the background could turn angry and develop into a storm. It could move from the background to foreground as the level progresses and add new gameplay twists (like the rain in the Pikmin Brawl level). If the rain couldn't be justified to be there just because it's cool, then it could affect levels in some way. It could be clear in one level, then a storm could move around similar to hammer bros. in Mario 3 or it could move across the world as a "front" of sorts. The storm could flood spiked pits/etc. out to let you swim to previously unaccessible areas and it could make vines and piranha plants grow bigger to find new places and present a bigger challenge.
Other levels should be visible in the background. Other sets of ? Blocks and enemies should be off in the background with hmm, maybe some of the colored blocks from Mario 3 or mountains from SMW, for example. Combine all elements from all Mario games (like World-e with the e-Reader levels) into one, beautiful package.
I could go on and on, but that's the Mario I'm after. Take that wallpaper I posted, combine those elements I just talked about above (plus a million more), then 100% orchestrated tracks from down the whole Mario line from SMB1 to NSMB Wii, blend it together nicely, and there ya go: my perfect Mario.
One last note: Please, please don't tell me: "OH, WELL, iTS ABOUT TEH GAMEPLAY. iT DUSNT NEED 2 BE PRiTTY AS LONG aZ THE GAEMPLAY iS GUD. i COULD GO WIT TEH N64 GRAFIX AS LONG AZ TEH GAMEEpLAY is GUD LoL"
That's bullcrap. Nintendo's had gameplay nailed for over 20 years. It's time to have beauty compliment gameplay. Some people think that if they focus on making the game pretty, then "OMFG THE GAEMPLAY WIL SUFFER!!!!" No, Nintendo's not stupid; I believe they can multi-task. I don't think focusing on making a game look great would make them be like, "durrr how do we maek teh gaemplay good. lol i forgotz"
I think that's one of Nintendo's issues. All they do is chant chant chant about gameplay and not worry about anything else while Nintendo fanboys just stand by it like it's the word of God. Yes, gameplay is very important; you can't sell a broken game, but you're Nintendo... I don't think that's a problem for you.
