Monster Hunter has been going through it over the past several games where it went from niche series to one of the biggest in the industry. Each entry has watered down combat, grinding, and skill requirement to make it easier to get into because Capcom tasted success with World and is chasing that high. Personally, most of the changes have been for the better, but Wilds (the newest) definitely feels sterile and sacrificed identity for appeal. The latest updates have addressed several of the big issues like the low difficulty so things are looking up.

Pikmin 4 is another one. Pikmin 1 and 2 are RTS games that punish rash decision making and poor planning with heavy casualties and aren't afraid to let you suffer multiple crushing defeats to teach you how not to do things and reward learning and strategy. 3 was still good but too short and had a noticeable difficulty decrease despite the increase in multitasking. Then 4 comes out and neutered the difficulty even further with very weak enemies, that are spaced out, that don't respawn, and can only kill 2-3 Pikmin per attack, AND you have auto-lock on so you never miss a throw. This is on top of the new companion who can attack enemies, transport your squad quickly, and stun enemies so you can one-shot almost anything. Nintendo wanted to make the series, which is known for its difficulty, more appealing to children and casual players to make it more marketable.

Mario Kart (price drama aside) has also been slowly making new courses wider with gentler turns, and remaking old tracks to be much easier to play by removing turns and shortening them. The average lap time drops with each entry because people don't want to spend 3-4 minutes on a race anymore.

Mario Wonder dropped lives entirely so dying is just a slap on the wrist and you can respawn in a level by touching another player/standee allowing you to keep playing and cheese difficult areas. The big coins you collect stay collected even if you die before completing a level. Badges give you abilities that break the difficulty even further. The difficulty through the base game is laughably easy. Even the intended difficult levels and significantly easier than past games.

Honestly, most games once they reach mass appeal sacrifice identity and quirkiness for marketability and mass appeal. I miss when Nintendo Hard was still a gaming trope and something to overcome, and you were rewarded for it. Now its all about ensuring everyone has the ability to beat the game- which is fine, but I wouldn't be so bummed about it if there were bragging rights rewards for playing in a way that challenges you, but as the rewards are the same regardless how you do it so why bother? Add the creeping factor of pay to win (RE4 Remastered) with their credit card warriors and its a mess.