During a keynote at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata gave potential 3DS purchasers the news they've been waiting for: Mario is coming. Although the Italian plumber was always expected to appear on the console, this was the official confirmation. The title will be apparently feature, 'traditional Mario gameplay' and according to Nintendo's press release:
Will fulfil the dream of Nintendo video game designer (and Mario creator) Shigeru Miyamoto to bring true depth and distance into the game's mechanics.
The Nintendo team responsible for Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 is handling development duties, but there's no firm release date. It looks like we'll be finding out much more at E3.
Iwata-san also revealed details of a new Virtual Console service for the device, which, like the Wii and DS versions, will allow users to download conversions of classic titles. Intriguingly, this won't just include Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, there will also be titles from the Sega Game Gear handheld and NEC's cult TurboGrafx-16 console (also known as the PC Engine), launched in the late-eighties. The latter machine was famed for its brilliant 2D shooters, including GunHed, Gradius and Strider.
Nintendo is also planning a series of "3D Classics", veteran titles given a 3D makeover. Current DSiWare titles will also be available on the platform, as will an internet browser and a shortform video download feature, allowing owners to view clips of music videos and movie trailers.
But it's the confirmation of a brand new Mario adventure that will excite Nintendo fans. Miyamoto's creation has always been inextricably linked with the company's hardware launches, his games providing showcases of the available technology – Super Mario Bros defined the 8- and 16bit eras, while Super Mario 64 brought Nintendo into the era of polygonal graphics. It could be that a platform adventure is just the thing to show off the gameplay value of stereoscopic perception – those tricky-to-judge jumps into 3D space will surely be easier if we have some depth perception.
The Nintendo 3DS will launch in the UK on March 25.
*Unless you count his sort of 2.5D appearances in several Virtual Boy titles.
