3DS Super Mario Game To Be Playable At E3, Planned For Release This Year

The next portable entry in the Mario series will be playable at the E3 convention this June, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto said, with a full release planned for sometime this year. Speaking at a press event today, Miyamoto described the "completely original" 3DS title as "a combination of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario on N64," as reported by Edge, and urged those in attendance to "play it at E3" to understand what he meant. The currently unnamed 3DS Mario title was officially unveiled at a Game Developers Conference keynote presentation by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, though few details were provided save for a logo and a quartet of screen shots. In London today, Miyamoto confirmed that the raccoon tail shown in that GDC logo "is what you think it is," hinting that flight via Super Mario Bros. 3's Raccoon Tail may be part of the new title. Miyamoto once again talked up the 3DS' ability to improve the experience of 3D platform games, making it easier for players to judge the distance to platforms floating in space, for instance. The side-scrolling New Super Mario Bros. DS has sold over 9 million copies in the U.S. and over 6 million copies in Japan since its release in 2006.