New Super Mario Bros. 2

[puggsoy]

I think that the SMB games being similar to the old ones isn't really that bad. They've barely changed since the original SMB, and they're still fun. A game doesn't have to change to be better than it's predecessors: it just has to stay interesting to the majority of the players. If you're not in that majority then tough cheese.
Furthermore, what if they had changed it majorly? What would they have to change? Gameplay? Well then, it wouldn't be a SMB game then, would it? You shouldn't expect something completely different between two games with similar titles.

The only thing that they shouldn't have done is keep those same animations. A bit of effort to make those a bit different would have been interesting.