Super Mario 3D Land

Super Mario 3D Land
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD Tokyo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Genre(s)	Platformer

Super Mario (tentative title) is an upcoming video game for the Nintendo 3DS published by Nintendo and developed by Nintendo EAD Tokyo (Super Mario Galaxy series). It was unveiled at GDC 2011.

Gameplay

Key elements from the 2D video games are present in Super Mario for the Nintendo 3DS. Collecting stars, which since Super Mario 64 has been a prominent feature of the 3D games, has been omitted from the game in favor of the flags from Super Mario Bros. It's unclear if some of the alternative missions from the 3D games, such as racing and box-destroying missions, will be present in Super Mario 3D. Other features from the 2D games that have made their transition to the 3D series include, for the first time, time-limits, short/big Mario, running by holding down a button, extremely linear and relatively short stages, and levels and items based heavily on the Super Mario Bros. series such as the Tanooki Suit.

The Tanooki Suit.

Powerups in Super Mario include Super Mario, which increases Mario's size and health, Fire Mario, which allows Mario to shoot fireballs, and Tanooki Mario, which allows him to perform a spin attack and flutter in the air. Nintendo has admitted that despite the fact that Mario could fly with the Tanooki Suit in Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES, this power will not be present in Super Mario due to the complications of flying in a 3D environment (note: 3D as in the game world and not the handheld's 3D visual effects).

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda series, Yoshiaki Koizumi has revealed that a special stage can be found in Super Mario that centers around major aspects of franchise. Very little of the stage was shown during a roundtable, but Shigeru Miyamoto teased the crowd by questioning what could be found in a particular room.

Development

When the Nintendo 3DS was announced, Nintendo revealed several spin-off Mario games but offered very little information regarding the new Mario game on the system, merely saying that it was in development. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto teased interviewers with possibilities of a 3D Mario, but usually reiterated the fact that a 3D Mario would assist players in knowing where certain objects floating in the sky were, which according to him was a fault of games such as Super Mario Galaxy. At GDC 2011 Nintendo revealed Super Mario for the 3DS, showing off four images and the game's logo, as well as the developer of the game. President Satoru Iwata, who revealed the game, noted that more information on it would be shown off at E3. At E3 Nintendo released a trailer for the game and had a playable unit on the showfloor with four stages.