New Super Mario Bros. 2, when will it arrive on DS? Before Super Mario 64 DS arrived in time for the Nintendo DS launch in November 2004, New Super Mario Bros. development was already started. Two years later — the month after the May 2006 release of New Super Mario Bros. — many interviews were given by its lead designer Takashi Tezuka.
As we reported back then Mr. Tezuka, who has worked on every major Mario platformer with creator Shigeru Miyamoto, wasn’t able to comment about a New Super Mario Bros. 2, except to say that he’d love to make any sequel into a 3D Mario on DS as he looked back on Super Mario 64.
A week later the developer dropped another hint of a New Super Mario Bros. sequel in a survey hosted on the Nintendo of America website that read: “Assuming a reasonable price, how likely are you to purchase a sequel to New Super Mario Bros. or ask for it as a gift?” [On a scale from 1 to 7 it could be indicated between “no purchase”, “neutral opinion” and “will definitely purchase a sequel”.]
Obviously sequels to Mario games are no surprise as long as they sell well. Luckily the game has many fans, by the end of 2007 New Super Mario Bros. sold over 13 million copies worldwide! By comparison worldwide sales of other fan favorites are: Super Mario Bros. 3 = 18 million, Super Mario Land 2 = 11 million, Super Mario World = 20 million, and Super Mario 64 nearly 12 million. Sounds pretty favorable for the chances of a sequel, especially since the “Super Mario” development team at Nintendo must’ve been busy on something the past two years.
Outside of the question if the sequel should be in 2D or 3D, what about new gameplay modes? Did you know that early versions of New Super Mario Bros. had a 2-player co-op mode during the main game? While the 2-player battle and 4-player mini-game modes remained in the final version, the co-op mode was removed. That sounds like a fun new feature for a sequel. What would you like to see added in New Super Mario Bros. 2?