E3 2011: More details on Super Mario 3D, out before the end of year

Reggie spills the beans on a familiar tail and its due this year

Amongst the slew of information during Nintendo’s big presentation, fans were treated to the most well-worn of Nintendo franchises: Super Mario. Super Mario 3D was previewed with a long trailer and a lot of cool new features.

The game itself appears to play and look like a mixture of Super Mario 64 and Galaxy, with a lot of familiar enemies and some dazzling new environments. The trailer showcased isometric, side-scrolling and top-down viewpoints. The action seemed very familiar.

Of course, we were expecting the tanuki suit and it’s back! Mario can perform a spin with the tail while the suit is equipped. Adding to his arsenal of normal moves is a forward roll, not dissimilar to our resident hero, Link.

In regards to stage design, there was no shortage of pitfalls, spikes, rotating blocks and bodies of water. An interesting element was a moving keyboard floating in deep space. The graphics are very bright a lush, only the tiniest step down from Galaxy.

We can expect to see this fantastic-looking title in our hands by the end of the year.