First off Sonic Mania is amazing. It’s everything Sonic 4 should’ve been. A mix of new and old level design, excellent controls and physics and it’s just fun. Sega is going to kick themselves for not releasing this as a physical game.
But once again this upsets me that we can’t get a 2D Mario with the same level of ambition of Sonic Mania or Rayman Legends or Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. We know why of course. Miyamoto doesn’t want to make 2D Mario games. I wish Nintendo would hand 2D Mario off to developers who would want to make it.
I even asked on a forum of Nintendo fans about this and even the fans of 3D Mario want an amazing 2D Mario. Especially when you look at all the amazing 2D games out there.
It will never happen. Nintendo is all 3D all the time. They only want 3d Mario to sell like 2d Mario. The way to do that is to make shitty 2d Mario and put everything in 2d Mario into 3d Mario (Tanooki suits, four player play, etc.).
I think Nintendo has longterm plans for 3d technology, and making 2d Mario that isn’t using 3d assets they see as a complete waste of their time. They dream 3d dreams.