The last 2D game before M64, Yoshi's Island, had plenty of exploration..
Yoshi Island also wasn't a traditional Mario game in many aspect. Also, although it had larger emphasis on exploration, it still kept a large number of levels that the player needed to go through, rather than changing to Mario 64's set up of only a few stages that needed to be replayed many times to get anywhere in the game.
Galaxy also has secret stars and locations, just like the 2d games. Galaxy doesn't have, however, just like the 2d games, a focus on throwing the player into the same area over and over.
I never had a problem with that in Mario 64. You'd have to be really spatially challenged to get lost in that game.
I don't mean getting lost. However, jumping repeatedly to the same stages to go through the same locations seemed like a rather limiting experience, especially compared to the 2d Mario games which presented entirely unique stages every time.
Recycling is wrong word to use here IMO
It's the correct word. Go play any of the 2d Mario titles. The core of the games always was going through new areas, with the exploration being an extra, exactly like in Galaxy. The focus was
never just in exploring the same limited locations repeatedly. Until Mario 64.
Well that's just what you write, I don't have any proof that that is even what you feel yourself deep down, or if you have other motivations to say what you do...?
Well, if the post history still worked, you probably could find some very old posts of mine (pre-Galaxy) talking about how I felt that 3d Mario games structure felt limited, and wondering how they could bring back the sense of adventure, of going through a large amount of places and obstacles like in the 2d titles, rather than just the limited locations of the 3d Mario games.
Either way, I know that there are people who prefer the "exploration" style. That's obvious. However, it's just a lie to claim that Mario 64 was an "evolution" of the series. It was a change, due to both 3d gameplay and the new focus on exploration.
Years later, now with more experience in 3d design, they managed to bring back the "adventure/action" gameplay back to the series, in a 3d environment.
Most of the levels allow you to go after any star you like (hence the "open" statements made by many), thus no part of the level is ever unused--it all exists for your exploration at any time.
The problem wasn't parts of levels getting unused, it was parts of levels repeatedly used as "filler" content before the player could get to a new area with another star.
Also, that is the one of the more liberal uses of the word "recycled" I've seen. The specific challenges within each level were not recycled.
In a 2d Mario game, if you unlocked a new stage, and it was just a previous stage with a "twist", everyone would scream that it was a recycled level. The fact that Mario 64 built an entire genre around that idea... a genre that went on to disappear... shows to me that people were willing to overlook that limitation due to the "3d marvel", but, when they got over that, the concept became much less appealing.
Like I've said before, Galaxy 1/2 still didn't break that idea completely, although it advanced in that direction, so I think there's still space to create a title that truly breaks that characteristic of 3d "platformers" and that's probably the direction they're going, considering the progression from Mario 64 through Sunshine and finally Galaxy.
