Ah, I despised the series too, but we haven't gotten a game in years, and Newer Super Mario Bros. made me realize that you can achieve an excellent New Super Mario Bros. game. It's just that Nintendo is way too formulaic and it does seem like they don't actually care about their product beyond its printing money. So you get something that resembles a checklist. World themes? Check. Roller coaster level? Check. Dark level with a raft and/or lights? Check. A poison-water level with a raft thingy? Check. A sky level with dancing Mushrooms? Check. It gets so boring that seeing Mario climbing on a vine to get to outer space and then platforming space bits is so refreshing. Or you see a tiny Star Coin above a regular Buzzy Beetle, and you have to enter a tiny pipe, where you then see this Buzzy Beetle all huge and a normal sized star coin on top. Or the bosses are fire and ice balls that shoot projectiles, and you use a Yoshi that can grab these projectiles and spit them at the appropriate boss. Newer IS easier than New Super Mario Bros., sure, but it's more creative.
But man, if I wasn't convinced that they gave up on the 2D scene, Super Mario Run changed that. That, and I'm spoiled after 2D Rayman. And I'm a bit interested in Shantae but I haven't gotten to that point yet.