Think New Super Mario Bros., but newer. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata assured investors today that a new 2D Super Mario game is in the works for 3DS, this one distinguished by its “side-scrolling action.”

Iwata offered no further information about the game in his presentation, but expects it to launch sometime within Nintendo’s next fiscal year. That places the new Mario’s debut sometime after March 2012 — just far enough to complete Super Mario 3D Land and yearn for the days when things were nice and flat.

Article source: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/26/new-side-scrolling-super-mario-headed-to-3ds/

Exploding Rabbit

Mega Man vs. the Hammer Bros in “Super Mario Crossover 2.0.”

Despite their original exploits being decades old, many classic 8bit characters enjoy new adventures to this very day, thanks to homebrew developers. A perfect example is “Super Mario Bros Crossover,” which deposits the leads from various NES classics into the Mushroom Kingdom.

The current version allows one to explore “Super Mario Bros” environments as Link (from “Legend of Zelda”), Samus (“Metroid”), Simon Belmont (“Castlevania”), Ryu Hayabusa (“Ninja Gaiden”), Bill Rizer (“Contra”), the SOPHIA III (“Blaster Master”), or Mega Man (from the series that bears his name). The key hook: everyone’s characteristics, which were designed specifically for completely different circumstances, must now be put to use in foreign territory. One can also play as the title’s original hero, Mario.

As the video above illustrates, a massive update is on the way. It includes two new characters: Luigi, who exhibits traits from his “Super Mario Bros 2″ appearance, and Bass, one of Mega Man’s frenemies. Furthermore, several characters are getting alternate personas. It’s easy to guess which games Dark Link, Dark Samus, and Proto Man come from, plus who they’re associated with. But not so much with Haggle Man, an alternate outfit for Ryu, or the Demon, Mario’s second skin. Both are from the relatively obscure “Game Center CX/Retro Game Challenge” as Tiny Cartridge points out.

In addition to the original 8bit look, Crossover 2.0 will also provide SNES or Game Boy visuals (borrowed from the “Super Mario All-Stars” version of “SMB” and “Super Mario Land 2,” respectively). For the latter, everything can either be in original monochrome or Game Boy Color-ized. There’s even an option to replace the assets from SMB1 with SMB3′s. “Super Mario Crossover” has a loyal audience among modders, which is being utilized with this new release, or so it would seem.

No release date has been given, other than “coming first quarter of 2012.” So perhaps any day now, or a few weeks down the road.

More Super Mario related stories:

• Super Mario Bros.: The Movie, The Musical, The Madness
• Five reasons to leap into ‘Super Mario 3D Land’
• Cartoon karts get real for ‘Mario Kart 7′ ad

Matthew Hawkins is a NYC based game journalist who has also written for EGM, GameSetWatch, Gamasutra, Giant Robot, and numerous others. He also self-publishes his own game culture zine, is part of Attract Mode, and co-hosts of The Fangamer Podcast. You can keep tabs on him via Twitter, or his personal home-base, FORT90.com.

Article source: http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/17/10175768-super-mario-bros-crossover-20-announced

If you ever read my blog that listed my top ten Mario games, you know I have fond memories of Super Mario Bros. 2. Many gamers don’t consider it a “real” Mario game considering that it was originally Doki Doki Panic in Japan, but I say nuts to that. The game is better than the original, and certainly better than the ludicrously hard Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2.

I went into this Replay confident that it would still be a ton of fun, and it didn’t disappoint. Watch below as I play the game (and end season 1 of Replay) along with commentary from Andrew Reiner, Joe Juba, and Matt Helgeson.

Want more Replay? Check out every episode at our hub.

Article source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/14/replay-mario-2.aspx