Super Mario 3D Land

[Turtlekid1]

Augh, levels look horribly railroaded.  Note Blocks are neat.  Power ups look like they might be cool?

[ShadowBrain]

I'm not seeing anything really intriguing so far (I hope the Tanooki Suit isn't the only new thing they'll be relying on), but it still looks fun.

[Red Menace Forman]

I'm just cool with the level design.

[Luigison]

The Youtube video posted above is a repost that's in 480p.  You can watch the orginal in 720p on Nintendo's official Youtube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/nintendo  There's also a new Mario Kart and Luigi's Mansion 2 trailer there. 

[Weegee]

Other than being three-dimensional, SM3DS appears to have more in common with Mario's sidescrolling platformers. (EDIT: Especially SMB3, as demonstrated by the inclusion of the Tanooku Suit and Boom Boom.)

It's a relief that this game's power-ups don't seem to have time limits.

Isn't it a bit strange that a Super Leaf bestows Mario with the Tanooki Suit in the trailer? Speaking of which, Tanooki Mario is never shown flying, only floating...

[ShadowBrain]

Even though it looks like it probably will be largely "railroaded", I've noticed that unbridled flight has been frowned upon in the most recent 3D Marios, at least during main levels. Probably too much risk of beating everything really fast, or something like that... but I guess we'll see.

[BP]

If you ever hack Mario Galaxy so you can use Flying Mario anytime you want, you'll see, it's really wacko and obvious that they weren't planning much for it. It's not programmed to work with water. It's not programmed to work smoothly with gravity changes.

[CrossEyed7]

Isn't it a bit strange that a Super Leaf bestows Mario with the Tanooki Suit in the trailer?

I always thought the whole Raccoon/Tanooki thing was weird in a couple of ways. The leaf is obviously a reference to legendary tanuki magic, but the non-magical power-up (a suit that Mario dresses up in rather than a magic leaf that changes his shape) is the one that grants Mario magical powers? Better to combine them this way, I say.

Speaking of which, Tanooki Mario is never shown flying, only floating...

It was confirmed that he doesn't fly, just flutter. They had problems making flight work on a small screen.

[Weegee]

It was confirmed that he doesn't fly, just flutter. They had problems making flight work on a small screen.

*coughSM64DSworkedjustfinecough*

[Weegee]

Nine minutes of gameplay

Between the timer (assuming it's not just for the demo), the lack of smooth features like slopes, and the flagpole endings, this looks to be the most linear of all the 3D Mario platformers.

I'm beginning to think that Nintendo is afraid of players finding level-breaking exploits in Mario games, and is thus making them more linear in design. "Why bother making each level compatible with Yoshi when we can just restrict him to specific levels? Why waste time ensuring that no levels are broken by the Tanooki suit's flight capabilities when we can simply remove said ability altogether?" Gone are the days of stages with multiple solutions and entirely skippable sections, my friends.

[WarpRattler]

On the other hand, one could argue that the old sort of level design is pretty broken, keeping in mind how pathetically easy Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World are with their flight power-ups and SMW's Yoshi. Hell, Super Mario Bros. doesn't have either and it's still easy.

Keep in mind also that the more breakable Mario games are 2D, not 3D, and that level design fundamentally works differently in each. Unrestricted flight in a 3D platformer is a great way to remove any sort of challenge that may have been offered.

[Weegee]

True, although nerfing power-ups like the Tanooki suit rather than balancing levels to deal with them shows a lack of integrity on Nintendo's part.

At any rate, making the games increasingly linear seems like a step backwards to me. Much of the fun in SM64 and Sunshine was just messing around and trying new things. Doesn't preventing the player from doing such things effectively defeat the purpose of making the games 3D?

[WarpRattler]

They could probably create a completely new full-length game without an unrestricted flight power-up to balance in the time it would take to properly balance one.

And, er, a vast number of the stars/Shines have pretty linear solutions as well, outside of glitches, design quirks, and a few tricks available/more readily known to players who have been through courses/the game already. So this forced linearity isn't really a new thing.

[BP]

Hell, Super Mario Bros. doesn't have either and it's still easy.

wat r you talkin bout noob u dont know gamez

super marrio brothers is hte hardest game i ever playwd and i mean like i played a diamond b4

i never beat it in my life

[CrossEyed7]

I'm kind of getting a Sonic Colors vibe from this, making a 3D series get back to its linear 2D roots rather than trying to be a dramatically different genre like its predecessors. The difference, of course, being that Mario didn't really need it, because, while Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure were both just a bunch of random stuff they tried out to see what worked, Mario 64 was inherently fun to play, and actually had some surprisingly good design decisions considering how early it was made.

Anyway, I would really like to see a more Banjo-Kazooie-esque 3D Mario again, but a smaller, more linear one like this seems much better suited for a handheld.