Those quotes remind me of practically every mainstream gaming media review of modern SHMUPs, where sites like IGN routinely criticise the games for not having online play, not having spectacular next-gen graphics or for simply not being long enough. Reviewers like this gleefully ignore what it is the target audience wants and expects from SHMUPs and when one criticises a title for not being all that much different from it's ancestors they are usually right in a basic sense, but often utterly fail to understand that under the familiar surface it's the MECHANICS of the game that have evolved, with complex and in-depth scoring systems adding in high score-based longevity beyond the traditional 1 credit complete goal.
The same can be said of 2D platformers. To the naked eye the genre has not evolved much at all since the first Super Mario, but that's because it doesn't really need to. Platforming moved into the 3D realm in the 90's, and with it came some real evolutions to the genre, but that progression hasn't at all diminished the desire for 2D platformers within the eyes of the gaming public. And that should tell IGN something, maybe that the 2D platformer formula doesn't NEED to evolve all that much. It just needs to keep providing intriguing settings, well-designed levels and challenging and fun 2D platformer gameplay.
