Super Mario 3D World is everything great about Mario games bundled into one

If there's one series that has consistently gotten better and better with each new sequel, it's the main console Mario 3D platformer series. The last one we got was Super Mario Galaxy 2, which did every thing Galaxy 1 did but way better. Galaxy 1 was better than Sunshine, and Sunshine improved upon what made Super Mario 64 great.

Super Mario 3D World looks like it takes every that was great about the 3D Mario games, and blends it with everything that was great about the 2D Mario games, and adds a whole bunch of new unique things ontop of all that. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be the best Mario game ever.

Super Mario 3D Land, the 3DS Mario game that came out a couple years ago, is said to be the prototype of this new console Mario. If 3D Land felt kind of cheap to you, it's probably because they were saving up all their real effort for 3D World. THIS is the next full-fledged, main Mario title.

The four playable characters in this game are Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach, which is reminiscent of Super Mario Bros 2 USA. And just like SMB2, each character has their own traits. Mario is well-rounded, Luigi is slippery and jumps higher, Toad is faster and can't jump as high, and Peach floats in the air. It also goes back to Mario Galaxy 2's idea of having hidden green stars to find in every level.

All of this info has been known since the trailer that was revealed at this year's E3. And since then, it looked like the cat suit was the only new power up in the game... But a new trailer has come out recently that revealed a LOT more things:

There's these Zelda-ish fairies, that Bowser captures and puts into a bottle. Apparently there are 7 of them... heh, I'm sure this Zelda fairy reference was intentional. At least he's not capturing Peach this time.

Some of the new powerups include:

• A cherry that creates a clone of your character. And you can get multiple of them, so you can have who knows how many clones of your character on the screen all at once.
• A Canon block... it literally turns your character into a cannon
• A Goomba suit, that lets you walk around peacefully among other goombas
• Kuribo's Ice Skate, an upgrade over the Kuribo's shoe from SMB3
• You can also pick up Piranha plants and use them as weapons

There's also a bunch of returning powerups, like the Boomerang suit from 3D Land, the Propeller, the Gold block from NSMB2, Tanooki suit and Fire Flower, etc... There seems to be more powerups they still aren't showing us, too. It looks like this game will have even more powerups than SMB3!

As for enemies, this game looks to have about an equal amount of both new enemies and familiar returning enemies.

• Some new ostrich with sunglasses and a spiky shell, and the Chargin Chucks from SMW:

• Cat Bullet Bills and Cat Goombas:

•  As well as Goombas that float on the water:

• Whatever these things are:
  
  
  
  
  

• The Bullies from Super Mario 64 make a return, and there's a snowman variation of Pokey:

•  The Super Mario World variation of the Goomba is back also: 

 

There's probably many other new/returning enemies I'm not even mentioning here. Nintendo seems to be certainly going all out with the quality on this game. Which is to be expected, considering it is the same team that made the Mario Galaxy games... Anyone who thought this would be just a bland retread of Super Mario 3D Land, is going to be pleasantly surprised.

You know what this game is still missing? A Yoshi of some kind.

Wait what? There's some kind of giant, aquatic variation of the Yoshi in this game?
Well, that's an unexpected twist...

Other interesting things about this game:

• The bunny-chasing minigame from Super Mario 64 is back, and seems you can also chase birds and other things, not sure if they will have a purpose other than to waste time in the levels.
• The world map is a freely roamable board, with hidden level entrances that can be found by exploring.
• In multiplayer, the character who gets the most points on a level gets to wear a crown in the next level, and other players can try to take the crown from them.
• It's even taking little bits of themes from obscure spin-off Mario games, like Super Mario Strikers and Mario Sluggers. Some levels have soccer balls and baseballs that you can whack around to destroy enemies with.
• Bowser has a new ride:

"Straight Outta Koopton"

Here's something else I noticed. What's that area that's faded out up in the top right corner?

Is that what I think it is?

Yeah, it seems to be the Comet Observatory from Mario Galaxy 1.

What could this mean? Is there gonna be a Galaxy bonus level, like how SMG2 had a throwback Mario 64 level?
Or maybe Rosalina will be an unlockable 5th character?
Who knows... whatever it is, I'm sure Nintendo is keeping its secret locked tight until the game is released on November 22.