ALttP had vastly different gameplay from the second Zelda and an actual plot players could actively be engaged in to differentiate it from the first(while borrowing some gameplay elements like the perspective). There be better video game examples. Especially since one of the biggest criticisms lobbied at Nintendo is that they often rely too much on repeating the same formula over and over again(to varying degrees).
A better example would have been using film series that are similar from film to film. Like Bond, Die Hard, etc. Problem there is that unlike those films, Star Wars has never really been all that similar between films. TPM was a story focused on a significant dispute that planted the seeds for the Empire and the discovery of the Chosen One. AotC was a flick about a romance between the Chosen One and a forbidden love, showing signs of his eventual fall, and the machinations of Palpatine to create a war from whole cloth. RotS was a film about the fall of the Chosen One, the Jedi, and the rise of the Empire. A New Hope was a story about a young plucky desert kid discovering his potential with a magical power and, with the help of some unconventional friends, dealing a powerful blow to the Empire. ESB is of course about our hero grappling with the complexities of his powers, a romance, and the Empire doing what it does in the title. RotJ is about our heroes finally proving themselves capable of the impossible and destroying the Empire for good while Luke wins a personal battle that proved he was right.
Which is not to say that the PT never bothered a lot from the OT, of course they did. It's not even heresy for a film like TFA to be similar in a lot of ways to the OT. But it is certainly something new for the series that a film so blatantly taking a lot of the structure and plot elements from a former flick in the franchise.
For my part, TFA reminds me a lot more of Eragon that ANH. Which is....not what many would want to hear.