^LoL. Thank you, basil.
Yeah, as much as people complain about cliches and the same ideas being recycled over and over again in games, it really isn't such a bad thing. Sometimes, the game just needs a couple of new spins and its good to go. By this I mean like tweaking the storyline a bit or adding some new weaponry or moves. The vital part of the process is that the storyline and gameplay basically remain the same. That way, not only is the new game easier to pick up, but it more easily retains the original fun of its predecessor. Mario has done this pretty well over the ages (with the exception of Sunshine, true) and that's why the Mushroom Kingdom still exists. Even Donkey Kong, Metroid Prime and PokeMon have been rehashed time and time again with good success.
That's why games can't deviate too much from the original storyline/gameplay--they just stop being as fun as the original. Sometimes a series can't even deviate from its original graphics. I don't mean to beat a dead topic here, but look at what happened in Zelda Wind Waker. I enjoyed WW, but I know there's a lot of people out there still seething at Miyamoto for the injustice.