u/Head-Cherry-3841

Is the 3D Mario series technically a spinoff of the “mainline 2D Mario series”? I know Nintendo puts just as much if not more effort into 3D Mario series than the 2D Mario series, but does Nintendo themselves consider Mario 64, sunshine, galaxy etc. to be a separate series from the Mario bros and new super Mario bros games? Like, Mario world is clearly Mario bros 4, but NSMB is closer to Mario bros 5 than super Mario 64, so they are clearly separate series to some extent. So doesn’t this mean 3D Mario is a “spinoff” series?