Uh, here's a bit of mind vomit from me.
Well I enjoyed 3D Land way more than Galaxy 2 for starters, and I'd really rather play it over Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World if we're being honest, even if the 3D aspect of things can be so grating (such as aiming fireballs or punishing you hard for missing jumps you can't judge distance of because you can't move the camera). There is a bit of reliance on nostalgia pandering, but nostalgic throwbacks have been commonplace in the series for a while. I did criticize several Mario platformers for being overreliant on it.
Mario Kart 7 wasn't as content filled as Mario Kart Wii I suppose but it did introduce some cool things like underwater and gliding. Granted, they didn't change up the gameplay too much, so I was left wanting more from those, but they also introduced interchangeable kart parts, and that's really nice, if only they had more parts to choose from. Mario Kart 7 also lacked a VS mode, which is sore, but it's not like Mario Kart games are exactly content rich in the single player department (I didn't like Mission Mode in Mario Kart DS but it should've been a first step into having Mario Kart step up its content in comparison to kart-style racers like Blur, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, Team Sonic Racing, Diddy Kong Racing(!!), and more) nor has it ever been super customizable unlike a painful bunch of other racers, and I've been griping about this for years.
Hell, Mario Kart Tour isn't even around this era. It's during supposedly Mario's "high" after Super Mario Odyssey.
If I had to make a case for a "bland era" of Mario I'd start at Galaxy 2 to be honest, where it began the idea of recycling your games for your mainline content while doing a little too much nostalgia pandering. People give it a free pass, but really, it's just Galaxy with a 2. Mario Sports Mix DID come after Galaxy 2, though, and that was great, with just its roster I disliked.
The video ripped on Dark Moon, but while Dark Moon did lose out on the atmosphere of the first, it's a really good second entry in the series and I'd consider it superior over the first in spite of the worse set-up (they did dial back on the whole brother rescue thing, which was kind of lame, but since it's a Mario story, that doesn't matter) due to the different mansions you can explore, the better collection/exploration aspect of the thing, the better boss fights, the Boo hunting being better, the upgrades, etc, oh and the Scarescraper thing.
The video also really disliked World Tour and Mario Tennis Open and even compared Aces favorably to World Tour (I disagree). Again, probably not as complete of an experience I've liked from Power Tennis or Toadstool Tour, but they're still solid entries in the series and I still suggest people to check it out. Heck, Tennis Open has its own perks, such as Chance Shots not being this time-stopping nightmare Power Shots have a tendency of being, and it still had actual match length and character vs CPU matchup records and stuff, all that good stuff Power Tennis had too, but it kind of fell short because it lacked some minigames I guess (but seriously what happened to item battles, and gimmick courts are sorely missed) and maybe it was a paint by the numbers tennis game. I suppose at the time, Mario Tennis Open, I viewed as inferior to Power Tennis, but Mario Tennis Aces made it look really good in comparison.
There's no mention of Ultra Smash, and boy, that's a big omission since it's a horrible Mario Tennis game.
World Tour is really good. I mostly griped about the Castle Club mode which is just a single player mode where you just play a Mario game to not play as Mario characters. It always sucks. But beyond this, it actually has steps up above Toadstool Tour such as better courses and a pretty good roster, and the post-hole animations were seriously top notch. It did miss out on the taunts and trophy animations, and I prefer Toadstool Tour's multiplayer (team golf, w00t), but it's not a "meh" entry in Mario Golf. Certainly, Super Rush made World Tour look amazing.
There's mention of the two Mario Party games, but while Island Tour was met with derision, people were generally more enthusiastic about Star Rush. I didn't enjoy the idea of not being able to use Mario and friends barring amiibo, and I'm not really hot on the minigame selection (too many seem to require some rapid memorization skills which I'm never any good at, hence I hate games like Messy Memory and The Beat Goes On, but I really enjoyed Toad Scramble (with amiibo) for what it was. That Coin side mode took the most time from me and I kinda miss playing that and screwing with Wario. Anyway Star Rush is decent. I'm also not seeing Mario Party 10, even though it's a lukewarm entry.
Sticker Star is definitely the Whomp in the room here, and I agree it's probably symbolic of that hypothetical era. But it's the same arguments I've heard already, that Nintendo abandoned "unique characters" (like a Koopa with a scarf?) and "moved away from RPGs" (does the video maker know what "RPG" is). I also consider Super Paper Mario generally worse than Sticker Star, at least in its direction (can't judge the gameplay). No mention of the Mario & Luigi games? I consider Dream Team to be a solid entry as well as Paper Jam.
I do suppose "not as great as the old" is a recurring theme here barring Luigi's Mansion 2, but I wouldn't call them bland. The Mario sports games continue their decline I think (hell I think Aces and Super Rush are more fitting of a "bland" era even if they have some nice cutscenes), but I do agree some of these entries are overshadowed by newer ones (3D Land -> 3D World, Dark Moon -> Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Kart 7 -> Mario Kart 8; but do note ALL these examples are practically handheld-console comparisons so it might not even be fair). Mario Party has a promising upcoming game, and Super Mario Party people consider to be good if not better than Star Rush (just lacking content).
That being said, I can see a sense of impatience with Mario games and people certainly were having pretty low expectations until Odyssey came. We also had a really good entry in Luigi's Mansion 3. New Super Mario Bros. games practically stopped after this, unfortunately (I don't consider the Super Mario Maker games all that great nor are they anywhere near replacements for 2D Mario). I'm not sure what this guy's opinion on Origami King is, but I'm going to guess it's not all that positive (even though I hear it's a pretty solid entry). The Mario Sports aren't so hot (though they did sell well), and Super Mario Party I already think is around Star Rush.
This is a list of video games within the Super Mario franchise and all related series, organized by their initial release date. All release dates are for the first...
www.mariowiki.com
Look at the games after 2017. A ton of ports from Wii U and some w/e Mario & Luigi remakes. Mario Party Top 100. An overpriced port collection that was sold for limited time only. Mario Kart Tour. Yoshi's Crafted World. There's a lot of arguably "meh" games on that lineup with some gems like Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario + Rabbids, and possibly Paper Mario Origami King and Super Mario Maker 2, mileage may vary. So honestly, I'm not sure if "bland era" has much merit even if New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Sticker Star are so cemented in people's idea of a Mario on auto-pilot looks like, especially when the video maker put Luigi's Mansion 2 on there when it mostly certainly is not "bland".
