Mario game in the form of Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U

But they didn't just announce it, as we actually got to play it too. So we figured we'd do

what we do best and analyze everything shown of the game so far, including the footage

we took ourselves, to see what secrets it all might be hiding!

And with that, let's get started.

Okay, so as the game's title suggests, Super Mario 3D World is obviously a sequel to Super

Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS. Big shocker I know.

After all, 3D Land did have a pretty distinct feel to it compared to the other 3D Mario

games and that's still very much in-tact here as well.

Take moving-around for example. The game still features the sticky 8-way directional movement

as 3D Land. Basically, if you're playing using the GamePad's control stick, the game generally

locks you into 1 of 8 directions, almost as if you were using a Control-Pad.

But like in 3D Land, you actually do have slightly more control control if you nudge

the control stick slowly, which allows for an even greater freedom of movement.

And running still works the same way too, where you get an additional speed-boost after

dashing for a second or so, as indicated by the spark here

But this time, if you keep on running, you'll actually get a second speed-boost as indicated

by an even larger spark, and the dust cloud

Now speaking of movement, there are now 4-playable characters as you probably well know, and

they are Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Blue Toad, as compared to just Mario & Luigi of the previous

game. And they all move handle noticable differently from one another.

Take their running speed, for example. As we can see here, while Mario and Luigi run

at an average pace, Toad is the fastest of the bunch and Peach is the slowest--hey cut

her some slack, she does have to hold her dress after all.

Though interestingly, if we take a look at this clip, we can see Mario actually gains

some slight ground on Toad briefly, as he seems to reach his top-speed just a bit before

Toad does

And they all handle differently while jumping too. Now although Mario, Blue Toad, and Peach

all jump at similar heights, Luigi leaps noticeable higher. And he gets some additional hang-time

both too, though Peach outclasses everyone with her ability to hover in the air for an

extra second or so, which can be a real life-saver.

Now if any of this sounds familiar, that might be because this is practically identicial

to Super Mario Bros. 2 which featured the same four characters with the exact same running

and jumping traits. In fact, even the character's artwork is more reminiscent of the cartoon

characters of the NES era than it is of their more modern 3D representations

In addition, the characters even retain the abiltiy to perform a super jump by crouching

for several seconds. Now while this also appeared in Super Mario 3D Land, in hasn't been seen

otherwise since its original appearance in--you guessed it--Super Mario Bros. 2.

So it seems pretty clear the game is taking at least some inspiration from that title.

Now besides the crouch jump, the characters also have access to every move that was available

to in 3D Land, such as wall-jumps, long-jumps, side-jumps, backflips, roll-attacks, ground-pounds,

and yes, you can still climb trees and even perform a hand-stand on top of them too, before

flipping off in spectacular fashion. You go Cat Luigi

But it's not all just old news as the characters have learned some new tricks too, like being

able to pick each other up and throw them around, just like in the New Super Mario Bros.

series.

And that's not the only element being lifted from those game, like the 4-player co-op we

already mentioned. And as part of that, the bubble ability also returns, and it functions

much like before, with characters who have died floating back into the level inside bubble,

which can then be popped by another player who touches it.

But this time, the bubbled-player can also pop out of it themselves at any-time, which

a nice addition

So that about covers it for the core move-set, but of course, the power-ups allow access

to even more moves.

So let's start off by taking a look at the brand new Cat Bell power-up that turns your

character into an adorable cat. Awwww.

In Cat form you gave access to a wide array of moves, like a new claw swipe, a slide that

replaces the roll, and if you're in the air, you can even perform a dive attack

But the main addition is that they can now scamper up walls cat-style--and they can even

move side-toi-side while doing this--which is useful for finding all kinds of secret

areas, as we discovered during our play-time with the game.

They can even scamper up flag poles too for an easy 1-Up.

But you can't climb forever, as you can tell by Mario tiring out here.

Now while The Cat Bell is the only new power-up we've seen, there are a bunch of returning

ones too.

Like Mushrooms, which makes sense as the game retains the classic power-up based health

system used in Super Mario 3D-Land instead of the health-meter used in every other 3D

Mario game.

Fire Flowers are also back--and in this brief scene, we can see that the Tanooki suit is

too. And it appears to function just like it did in 3D-Land, allowing you to gain some

additional airtime by gliding slowly back to the ground--and we're going to guess the

tail-whip move is back too. But what we don't know is if it'll let you turn into a Statue,

like in Super Mario Bros. 3, or if you'll have find the special Statue Leaf, like in

Super Mario 3D Land

And based on our play-time with the game, we know that the invincibility Stars also

return, but they have a new ability this time: Sharing. You see, if you collect a Star for

yourself, you can now share the wealth simply by touching any of your teammates, making

them invincible too--cool!

Finally, while we were searching for secrets during the E3 demo, we discovered that the

Question Boxes from Super Mario 3D Land that you can wear are also back. And like before,

you'll earn more coins the faster you move while wearing them.

And speaking of Power-Ups, you can still store a spare one just like in 3D Land which you

can access at any time by pressing the Minus-Button.

Now as you might have noticed, all of the power-ups shown so far, besides the Cat Suit,

return from 3D Land. But they're far from the only returning element, some of which

go back much further in the Mario series.

Such as checkpoint flags, 1-Ups, or Red Rings, which still spawn 8 Red Coins and award a

power-up for collecting them all in time.

Then there are the Clocks which add precious seconds to the timer

Oh, and Warp Boxes are back too, which transport you to another part of the level. Though this

time, they'll automatically pull everyone else into it just a second or so after the

first player hops in

So there's really no mistaking this game for anything but a sequel to 3D Land, but there

are quite a few elements being taken from other Mario games too.

Like the POW block, which believe it or not, is the first time it's actually appeared in

a 3D Mario game.

Then there's the ? Coin in this clip, which first appeared in the Mario Galaxy games.

Typically, these cause any number of things to happen depending on the situation, but

we've only seen one example thus far, and that is you need to collect 5 of them here

in order to reveal a Warp Box.

And speaking of Mario Galaxy, we can see that the Green Stars that first appeared in those

games are back too. But this time, they appear to be scattered around each level from the

get-go, as opposed to Mario Galaxy 2, where they only appeared after first beating the

game. And in both Mario Galaxies, they unlocked additional levels. Now if you've played Mario

3D Land, then you might have noticed this sounds awfully similar to the 3 Comet Medals

hidden in each level of that game, which were also used to unlock levels. So it seems they've

simply been replaced by Green Stars instead.

Now interestingly, in the demo that we played at E3, all 4 of the main levels had 3 Green

Stars to find, as indicated by the icons on-screen here.

But in the trailer, we can see a couple of clips that also appear to show areas that

contain only 2 Stars, or up to 5.

Now one of these clips appears to take place inside a bonus room of the demo's first level,

which we played at E3, except as we mentioned, there were 3-Stars for us to find in the level

instead of just two as shown here.

And then we have this scene, which shows there are 5 Green Stars to find--and we can see

at least 4 of those Green Stars in this scene alone, and so we're guessing the 5th one is

probably hidden here too--maybe the tunnel here leads to it, as there seems to be no

other way to reach the ledge on the backside

All of this suggests that this area--and ones like it--might actually be self-contained

levels. So maybe these levels are actually similar to the Mystery Box levels in Super

Mario 3D Land? Supporting this idea is that those levels only had 2 Star Medals instead

of the usual 3, which remember, are what we think the green stars are replacing

And on top of all that, it appears you'll be playing as an entirely different character

here too: Red Toad here, as opposed to the Blue Toad seen elsewhere in the game. He even

gets his own portrait in the corner, which suggests he is in fact player-controlled.

But he's not just any red toad, because if we look close, we can see he's wearing a headlamp,

just like the captain of the Toad Bridgate in the Mario Galaxy games. So if it is indeed

the same toad what's he doing here--how's he involved in all of this?

Well, we have an idea. Based on this, admittedly very short clip, it seems that he'll actually

play entirely different than th e rest of the characters. For instance, he walks throughout

the entire clip, and doesn't run at all.

And he doesn't jump here either. But it seems like he may not need to, as all 5 of the stars

appear to all be reachable simply by using the ramps and various platforms--though we

are assuming the one in the corner here will travel upward once Toad steps onto it.

So it seems these levels may actually have a slower, more deliberate pace to them, perhaps

being puzzle-focused in figuring out how to actually get around and collect the stars,

which could be why camera-control seems to factor in so heavily here. It's actually a

little bit like the 3D Challenge rooms from 3D Land.

Now we couldn't help but notice that we only see one character here--is this a single-player

only challenge? If not, who will the other players play as? Perhaps the other members

of the Toad Brigade

So between the red Toad and the other 4 characters, it seems there are a lot of returning good

guys. But what about the bad guys?

In typical Mario fashion, there are a lot of returnning baddies, such as Pirhana Plants,

Stingbies, Fuzzies, Biddybuds. Boos, Goombas, in both original form that only take one-hit,

as well as their Super Mario World form that takes two, Bullet Bills, Bonzai Bills, Fire

Bros, Fire Bars, Spikes, who now throw Spiked Logs instead of Balls, and Chargin' Chucks\,

who also haven't been seen since Super Mario World.

But this time it appears you can knock their hlmet off, which might suggest they'll take

2-hits instead of Mario World's 3. Oh, and he sure doesn't look happy when you knock

his helmet off, so maybe he'll grow even fiercer when that happens, sort of like when you knocj

the flower off of Wiggler's head

And of course, there are a host of new enemies too, such as these odd-looking fish, Mice,

and Spiked Mice, both of which are seen running on rolling hills, Caterpillar-like enemies,

and a Snowman that looks strangely like a Pokey.

So it seems that'll be a good mix of both new and old, and that's only based on the

few levels we've seen thus far. And speaking of which, let's yake a look at those levels,

starting with the 5 we played in the E3 demo.

The first one we played was 2-1, which bears a suspicious resemblance to the very first

level of Super Mario 3D Land, right down to multi-colored blocks scattered around the

course, as well as the white birds that fly away when you get close.

Because of this--and the fact that it feels very much like a tutorial-type level--iut's

odd that it's evidently not the first level this time around, but is instead the first

level of the Second World--weird. Now the level itself is split into 2 outdoor sections

that are joined together by a brief underground area where you'll find the bonus room we've

talked about before. And this level also places a heavy focus on the Cat power-up which is

found throughout the level

And surely you noticed the rolling rills from the New Super Mairo Bros series

Then we have World 1-5, where everyone catches a ride on a large Yoshi-like Sea Creature

for most of the level. Now in order to control this creature, you need to work together as

a team to lean in the proper directions using the control pad--the more people that lean

together, the faster you'll turn.

NOw because this is such a unique mechanic, we'd be very surprised if it didn't appear

at least once more elsewhere in the game. Especially when you consider this was the

case for the similar Mantra Ray sequences in Mario Galaxy 1 and the Bird-riding sequence

in Mario Galaxy 2, both of which were made bu the same development team at EAD Tokyo

Next up we have World 4-2, which takes pl;ace highy above the clouds and places an emphases

on another of the game's brand new gameplay mechanics: Clear Pipes.

Now although you are propelled through them automatically, you can actually choose where

the direction you take at each intersection. Which is important to dodging enemies travelling

through them, as well as for choosing which end of the pipe to exit out of

In addition, you can even use the pipes offensively by launching fireballs into them--it's cool

stuff. Oh, and there's a freakin' slide later in

the level. Weeeee!

After that, we have World 6-3 where you'll ascend some tall structures using platforms

that look like clouds, spring platforms that also appear in Mario & Luigi Dream Team, as

well as a new conveyor-belt wall that allows your Cat characters to climb super high. Oh,

and you'll have to dodge Bullet Bills for much of the level too.

The final level in the demo is World 4's Boss Battle, and it appears to take place during

a castle's carnival.

And the snake-like boss you're battling appears to be the king, at least based on crown he's

wearing which also marks his weakspot. But you'll have to use his plate-wearing henchmen

as platforms to reach it.

But there's something a bit different about this battle

In vritually every Mario game to date, the boss fight came at the end of an ordinary