Super Mario 3D Land

Overview

The game's official logo.

Super Mario 3D Land is a 3D platformer developed for the Nintendo 3DS. It's the first portable 3D Mario game, not counting Super Mario 64 DS, which was merely a remake, and marks the return of the popular Tanooki Suit, although its alternate ability--namely turning into a statue--is not available until halfway through the game when you first encounter silver leafs.

The game was released in November 2011. As of April 2012, it has sold 5.84 million copies worldwide.

Gameplay

Avoiding Bullet-Bills in an enemy ship.

In the Nintendo E3 2011 press conference, a trailer for Super Mario 3D Land was shown. The gameplay is a combination of of New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy, and will feature many locked camera angles that can result in 2D and isometric gameplay. The game will feature Mario without a super mushroom, Super Mario, and the Raccoon suit. In 2D Mario fashion, Mario will have to land on a flagpole to end a level.

The levels shown in the E3 2011 show the usual plethora of Mario levels. There is a tropical level, sky level, Bowser level, Egyptian level, clockwork level and an underground level. The demo also shows a stage that gives homage to the The Legend of Zelda series with top down gameplay and classic Zelda Elements.

The game features 8 worlds at first, but after defeating Bowser in World 8, an additional 8 "Special" worlds become available which feature added gameplay elements such as the full Tanooki Suit and Luigi as a playable character.

Reveal

Boom-Booms from Mario 3 appear as bosses

A new Mario title for the Nintendo 3DS was announced by Satoru Iwata at Nintendo's GDC keynote on March 2, 2011. The game is being developed by the Nintendo EAD team responsible for the Super Mario Galaxy series. At the GDC presentation, a "Super Mario" logo was displayed with a silhouette of a tail similar to that of a raccoon's, this hinted at the return of the Raccoon Suit power-up from Super Mario Bros. 3.

In addition to that there is something that resembles a Star Coin found in the New Mario Bros games or Comet Medal from the Galaxy games in one of the screenshots.

Iwata also told the audience how they're working on how to solve design problems like how to help players hit the question blocks even in if it is in 3D and not 2D while showing this game.

Power Ups

• Tanooki Suit: A returning favorite from Super Mario Bros. 3, the Tanooki suit allows Mario the ability to attack enemies by swinging his tail. It also grants the player the ability to float down by repeatedly pressing the jump button. The ability to turn into a statue is only available once the player has unlocked the special levels.

• Golden Tanooki Suit: Does everything that the regular Tanooki Suit can do with added bonus of making Mario completely impervious to all enemies and their attacks with the lone exception of falling of a platform to his death. Its effect lasts until Mario makes it through the level. Only appears after you've died a certain amount of times in certain levels.
• Mushroom: The original Super Mario power up. This makes Mario slightly bigger and protects him from instant death if it by an enemy or any of the hazards found in a level. Mario starts of in his big state by default and thus the Mushroom will only appear if Mario has taken a hit.

• Boomerang Suit: Similar to the Hammer Brother suit featured in Super Mario Bros. 3. This suit grants Mario the boomerang throwing abilities of the Boomerang Brother enemies in the game. Boomerangs can be used to grab far away coins and Star Coins

• Starman: A Mario classic. Starman makes Mario completely invincible to everything except falling to his death for a brief period of time.

• Fire Flower: A Super Mario staple. The Fire Flower grants Mario the ability to use fire balls to defeat enemies.

• Propeller Block: Functions similarly to the Propeller Suit in New Super Mario Bros.. When Mario grabs a hold of the block, he will be able to do a second jump in the air and use the block to float around for a short period of time.

• Coin Block Mario: Transforms Mario into a coin block. As Mario walks around with it he will acquire coins. Can be used in conjunction with whatever suit Mario is wearing when he picks up the coin block power up.

StreetPass Functionality

• Question Mark Levels: Most worlds feature a level which is shown on the top screen as a purple cube with question marks on each side. These levels contain star coins which can only be collected once. StreetPass allows for these levels to be replaced with different levels which will contain new star coins and may be more challenging.
• Toad's House: Many worlds will have Toad's house as a level. These levels feature free power ups which will be replaced with more powerful ones by StreetPass. Each time you connect with a person, the power up linked to them will be more powerful. For example: on the first StreetPass with Person 1, a house will contain a Super Mushroom, on the second StreetPass with that same person, it may contain a Fire-Flower.
• Leaderboards: After the special worlds are unlocked, leaderboards become available for each level. If you finish a level from start to end (without dying) your time will be recorded and will be displayed to others who have unlocked these levels. Your times are recorded from before the special worlds are unlocked, however you cannot view them until afterwards.

Websites