Click the image above to check out all Super Mario 3D screens.
Want to know something funny? A tribute to a 25-year-old RPG ensconced in a game heavily influenced by a classic NES game is one of the freshest takes I've seen on the platform genre in ages.
Nintendo's tentatively titled Super Mario 3D includes a level that pays tribute to The Legend of Zelda's silver anniversary. This stage wasn't featured on the E3 2011 show floor, unfortunately, but producer Yoshiyaki Koizumi demoed it at Nintendo's Developers Roundtable for an audience of press and developers. Frankly, it looked amazing, putting a twist on the idea of the platformer that feels as new and interesting as Koizumi's Super Mario Galaxy did when it debuted a few years back. And all with a simple twist in perspective.
Like the original Legend of Zelda, this single stage of Super Mario 3D is seen from a top-down perspective -- but it works like a typical Super Mario game. While this sounds like a decidedly terrible idea, playing a game about platforming and jumping from a bird's-eye view, it seems a perfect fit for Mario thanks to the use of 3D imaging. Granted, I've only seen the game presented on a large, standard projector, but anyone with the most rudimentary mental synthesis abilities should be able to put the demo I saw together with the capabilities of the 3DS and come out with an equation that suggests Super Mario 3D's Zelda tribute will be incredibly fun to play.
The tribute also works because of the decidedly old-school design of Super Mario 3D. Despite being developed by the Galaxy team and containing three-dimensional play, Super Mario 3D is structured more like the classic NES games. Stages are linear, compact, and timed, and the camera system isn't shy about locking players into a 2D perspective when it suits the needs of a level's design. So while a top-down stage traipsing through a dungeon would have felt out-of-place in any other 3D Mario game, and it would have been impossible in a pure side-scroller, here it seems like a natural fit -- a logical extension of the game design.
So how does a Zelda stage work in a Mario game? Well, besides being viewed from an overhead perspective, the level is broken into standalone rectangular rooms. Each room is its own action puzzle of sorts, with moving floor elements and enemies patrolling the area. There's even one room with a locked door which can only be opened by lighting four torches with a Fire Flower. Familiar elements like moving platforms take on a different feel from this angle, though judging attacks and jumps seems as intuitive as it would be from a side perspective. And the level designers didn't scrimp on challenge; there's one particularly tense moment at the end of the stage where Mario has to navigate a thin plank of wire mesh with fire pillars rising and falling beneath. Meanwhile, a pair of spinies is closing in on him, making for a real sweat-inducing moment.
The designers also didn't hold back on showing off; at one point Mario drops into a pit and trampolines into the camera, which is clearly just wanton and reckless abuse of 3D imaging. Koizumi demoed another, more traditional, side-scrolling stage in which massive spiked pistons blast out from the stage's background, forcing players to hunt for small gaps between the pistons -- a new, 3D-enabled take on the classic falling ceilings of Super Mario Bros. 3. Another level had Cheep-Cheeps and other watery hazards leaping into the screen from the background, an eye-popping new take on the classic Mario/Mario 3 stages where you had to dash along a bridge as the fish leapt upward from the water below. This time, they leap out at the player -- something Koizumi admits is traditionally taboo in a platformer, but which works beautifully here.
Click the image above to check out all Super Mario 3D screens.
Of course, the spirit of Super Mario Bros. 3 looms large over the Super Mario 3D. It even dominates the logo, whose shadow ends with the curlicue of a raccoon tail. It's a clear reference to SMB3's Raccoon and Tanooki Suits, which show up in the game. Well, sort of. Mario can grab a Leaf power-up which grants him the Tanooki Suit, but it's not quite as capable as players might remember from the old days. Mario can still spin attack with his tail, and the tail also lets him hover slowly to the ground, but he can't fly, nor does he seem to have the ability to transform into a statue. "Flying in 3D on the smaller screen would have been different, so we bent the rules of the mario world," Koizumi admits.
In a sense, the Tanooki downgrade could be seen as a nod to its heritage. According to Super Mario Bros. 3 director Takashi Tezuka, "The idea for the Tanooki suit came from wanting to put a tail on Mario. We wanted to use tail for spin move as an attack. But we thought, well, we've got this great tail now, can't we do anything with it? So we added a flutter motion was like a propeller... once we started doing that, it felt so good we said, well, let's just make him fly!"
Mario may no longer fly -- a design decision that really does make sense within the context of the hybrid 2D/3D level layouts -- but Super Mario 3D nevertheless seems to be a game centered around free use of power-up. Though the E3 demo contains only two powers (the Tanooki Suit and the Fire Flower), they're not limited in use as they were in the team's Galaxy games. Once you grab a Fire Flower, you can pelt bad guys with fireballs until you either take a hit and lose the power or swap it for the Tanooki Suit. Fireballs in Super Mario 3D bounce as they travel and reflect off of walls, opening up interesting strategic possibilities. Piranha Plants that shoot fireballs at Mario can be outsmarted by positioning yourself at corners of pits in a way that causes their fire to fall into the hole while yours bounce over the corner.
Nearly every moment of Super Mario 3D feels like a reshuffling of previous Mario games -- not in a rehashed way, but rather in the sense that the familiar has been rearranged to feel different and new, creating new challenges and ideas with a well-defined tool set. "I had the opportunity to research for Mario Galaxy: what is the tempo that makes a Mario game?" Koizumi says. "In making this game, we asked ourselves, what are the fun elements that we can use? We want to make the most Mario game possible." So, here Mario moves a little more slowly than he did in Super Mario Galaxy, with physics that feel more akin to those of Super Mario 64. You can tilt the camera angle slightly to the right or left with buttons on the touch screen, much like the shoulder-button functions in Super Mario World. The Tanooki Suit is joined by other Super Mario Bros. 3 concepts, like an auto-scrolling airship filled with cannons and pitfalls and a giant Boom-Boom Koopa at the end. Boom-Boom perfectly reinvents an 8-bit element in 3D, as he spins around the room flailing his arms and caroms off walls when hit.
The most charming 8-bit nod, however, is the fact that every single level appears to end with a staircase next to a flag pole, just like the original Super Mario Bros. These don't necessarily make sense in the context of the game world, but each one is presented in the general style of the level. It may be nicely integrated into the layout, or it may be a standalone stair stack off to the side. On one level, the stairs are actually constructed on the fly from the temporary green blocks that appear throughout the demo. With these, Mario steps on a switch and thin green platform square unfold from one another to define new pathways that disappear after a few seconds. In many cases, multiple switches need to be activated in the proper sequence in order to activate block combinations that create staircases and shafts for Mario to climb or wall-jump his way up to new areas.
Each of the four levels playable on the 3D show floor give a tantalizing taste of what Super Mario 3D has to offer. They vary in structure from open to focused, sometimes within a single stage. They're tough, demanding plenty of precision platforming, but they're hardly impossible. And at every turn, the game offers new things to do with the old, familiar Mario game mechanics. Super Mario 3D is due out by the end of the year, and if the entire game manages to maintain the creativity and sheer sense of fun contained in the E3 demo, it'll be a standout title in a year already packed with great software.
I am looking forward to playing this game. It really does look like it will take advantage of the 3D aspect of the Nintendo 3DS. It will definitely be on my list to get.
smb3 is my favorite mario game....no words can express how excited i am for this game....ever since mario went 3d i have been wanting them to structure it like the 2d games, with the old health system and a level timer. the sense of speed was lost in the transition to 3d, but i think we finally are getting it back i will be getting a 3ds solely for this game
...it had occurred to me to play this with the 3D off, just to see if it still worked as well.
I know that "3D is the point" and all, but the fact remains: there are people who either don't like or can't see the 3D. I know this first-hand from trying to show my own system off to people I know.
It's something which really needs to be considered.
a series more consistent than the Mario games (not spinoffs) ? I don't think so. Glad to see we're getting one of these so quickly... The last 4 Mario games have been some of the most fun I've had with video games (New SMB DS, New SMB Wii, and Galaxy 1-2).
I can not think of a single other game, besides Zelda, that gives you that awe inspiring feeling when picking it up and playing it. Every main Mario games has that feeling. There is nothing quite like it. Nintendo has yet to make a bad 3D Mario game. Super Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy 1 & 2 were all amazing.
surely knows what they are doing. This game is giving me the same feeling I had for when Sunshine was about to be released. Can't wait! It was also smart to manke this available for the holidays as it will surely make the 3ds gain sales.Although the Vita should be out around then also; the holiday sales for portable devices should really be interesting. Not to mention that of the Apple products. Things just got harder...
I know that's right because I was thinking, "I've got to get this game," and then when I realized it was coming out for holiday season, I was like, "I know what to ask fo for Christmas!"
The Vita's not due out until December 31, though, unless they change the release date.
No matter what they do to the Mario formula, it always feels fresh. This is my most wanted game for the 3DS this year, possibly my most wanted game. The mix of different Mario games seems brilliant imo, something I always wanted. And yeah I know it sucks that they nerfed Tanooki suit but I guess it was only possible to fly on consoles or something, IDK. All in all, this game looks epic, can't wait for this.
The tanooki nerf saddens me. Anybody really give a shit about the tanooki suit if you can't fly? Does Nintendo think we get off on close range tail attacks?
No, no one gives a shit about tail attacks. People give a shit about flying, nintendo. People give a shit about flying.
Bullshit motherfucking teases.
With all of that said, looks like another solid Mario platformer. I miss flying though. Not the conditional flying we got in Mario 64 and on, I'm talking pulling snazzy ass tricks with a cape whenever the fuck I want flying. Damnit.
still turn into a statue, but honestly I used the tanooki suit more for tail attacks and hover than I did flying. And I didn't even know it could turn into a statue until years later when I was playing 3 on emulators, lol!
When I first played the demo, the guy overseeing that group of 3DS units said that they weren't in the demo, that didn't necessarily mean they wouldn't be in the full game. The developers' words at the roundtable seemed to indicate otherwise, though.
Which leads me to wonder why they would use the entire Tanooki Suit, rather than just the regular Raccoon tail. At least then, there are no statue expectations.
As for flying... sure, if they say so. We got flying in SM64 and SMG, so I don't see why it's such an issue here... particularly as all flying with the Tanooki Suit was basically just a longer, higher jump.
On the bright side, the tail is considerably more powerful now. You can even use it to whack Boom-Boom!
I have to admit, the trailer for this game excited me more than any other game at this year's E3. This looks so much like an old-school Mario game that I felt nostalgia for how I once anticipated games such as Super Mario 3 or Super Mario World. There's a charm and creativity here that I feel is lacking from the more literal treatment of an old-school Mario in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. "Reshuffling" was a perfect way of describing the game's relation to previous Mario games; it doesn't seem derivative, but it is familiar.
Honestly, the only reason to be let down from this year's E3 lineup from Nintendo is because most people are acting like the 3DS doesn't exist. I'm assuming this is because of three often-repeated ideas: the system had a poor launch, the price was too high, and 3D is a gimmick. Ironically, the first two issues are symptoms of virtually every console/handheld release (hurray for groupthink!) As for the 3D, I happen to think it creates space in a startling way, which does contribute directly to game design and gameplay. I have never seen a more solid first-party, first-year lineup for a Nintendo system than the 3DS is receiving, and yet, even though the system is less than three months old, every gaming news site is treating the 3DS games as also-rans. I would say except 1up, but it's more like two or three writers on 1up that actually seem to care about games anymore.
The sort of limited space, fixed-camera angle structure and the slower speed of Mario really reminds me of the Crash games, which is cool. Strange to know that probably the biggest feature with Mario 3, flying, came about as some sort of afterthought to the tail-attack.
Old Crash Bandicoot levels is the first thing I thought of when I saw the demo for this game. I can't claim to be as enthusiastic as you though. I really like my mario to have more exploration than this game's trailer implies.
For some reason, I was reminded of Crash Bandicoot when I played it as well, but in a good way. Can't quite put my finger on why, but I think the way some of the stages were arranged might have something to do with it.