Mario bores me...

[Garamonde]

^ Pretty much this (I was even playing it with my cousin and we still had some trouble). And I feel like I'm the only person who doesn't think about plot that much. I mean, that's not what we really play Mario games for. Would you play it if it had a brilliant new plot but crappy gameplay? Because it kinda sounds you would (I actually think it'd be neat if Tatanga made a return, so I do think about it a little but I don't let it hinder my experience of playing the actual game). I mean sure Peach getting kidnapped gets rather tiring and a slightly different story is always nice I agree, but again that's not one of the things that Mario games are focused on so you shouldn't really expect anything too extravagant except from the RPG games.

(I liked Sunshine's story myself, but TBH the whole framing deal gets tiring too)