ok so i feel like, and i dont have a lot of experience with smb3 and smw3, the cool big powerups from those were the tanuki suit and the cape. they both let you indefinitely fly and were later largely ditched. i think they should come back! the tanuki suit can be nerfed as in sm3dw, where instead of letting you fly, it lets you hover for a bit. i think the caape should let you do the ascending swoop and the big floor slam.
im replaying sm3dw (super mario 3d world) with my partner and i feel like it's a very good game still but also the 3d platforming is harder than i remember. it's still not bad! but just, i wonder if there's some middle ground that would allow for mostly 2d platforming while still feeling as depthy as the 3d art style now calls for. like the 3d art 2d marios never really aagreed with me super hard?
@shoofle Nintendo tried this during the Virtual Boy generation, especially in VB Wario Land (and also in spinoff titles like VB Mario Tennis, and with foreground/background interstitials in VB Mario Bros). The effect worked really well, enough so that Mutant Mudds includes homages to that gameplay.
Recent licensed titles, but notably not Mario, have been playing around with that concept (DK Tropical Freeze, Sonic Mania, SSBU). So I think it’s on their radar?