If there's one character that screams 'Nintendo', it's the moustachioed plumber and perpetual mushroom muncher, Mario. And while it was announced fairly shortly after the release of last year's brilliant Super Mario 3D Land that there was a new Mario game in development, we weren't expecting the official confirmation of the game to come via last week's downloadable Nintendo Direct show (which you can download for yourself to have a peek at all the latest Nintendo news from the 3DS eShop). We were kind of expecting a massive reveal with fireworks, hoards of sweaty journalists and cake baked by Princess Peach herself at some huge press conference like the Electronic Entertainment Expo in July or the Tokyo Games Show...
Anyway – New Super Mario Bros. 2 carries on where the New Super Mario Bros. games on both the Wii and DS left off, with more two-dimensional platforming goodness. Tradition suggests that Bowser will break through Princess Peach's seriously ropey security and kidnap her, and Mario will have to run, jump and stomp him way through the Mushroom Kingdom after them – defeating the various boss characters and navigating all the traps Bowser leaves in his wake.
Looks like the Tanooki Suit is here to stay then...
We're kind of in two minds about this one – more Mario is always welcome, and both New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 3D Land were awesome, but we're not 100% sure we want them to become yearly events. Nintendo are running a real risk of going all Activision with customers being knee deep in Guitar Heroes and Call of Duty; besides which, how would we find the time to find all those extra stars they cram into each and every game?! Don't laugh – it's a very serious concern!
According to the aforementioned Nintendo Direct show, we should expect New Super Mario Bros. 2 to hit 3DSs sometime this August – just in time for the annual summer games drought. Seems like a good time to us! Until then, make sure you keep checking back as we're sure to have more information on it soon – to be honest, it's hard not to have more information than stuff all, really...
