Nintendo shocked everyone at E3 ’06 when the media learned (via Nintendo’s web-site) that Nintendo had a huge GameCube game in development (and in playable form) that WAS NOT shown at the show, or even mentioned (matter of fact, the GameCube was completely absent at E3, replaced by everything Wii).
That game was a sequel to the best-selling critically acclaimed RPG, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. But outside of the trailer released for the game, not much was known. Now some more new details about the game have been released at the World Hobby Fair going on now in Tokyo Japan. The details are:
– The game WILL retain RPG elements including HP, items & talking to characters (what about leveling up?)
– But the majority of the game will be platforming in classic side-scrolling style.
– The biggest and coolest new announcement is that the game is not a pure 2D side-scroller. But you can actually switch to 3D at anytime, allowing you to access sections of a level you couldn’t before.
– 3 playable characters switchable on-the-fly via the d-pad: Mario, Bowser & Princess Peach
– Some very cool new items include: a Mega-Mushroom style star, which transforms your character to the size of the screen for some ultra-big rampaging in the style of the original Super Mario Bros. sprites. Another new tool is the Mini Mario item, which summons loads of miniature Mario’s to act as your shield, slowly being killed off as they fight enemies around you.
Click below to watch a vide of the game in action (including the switch to 3D), and a boss fight.