New Super Mario Bros. 2

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is an upcoming side-scrolling platform game for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released in Japan on July 28th, 2012, and is set to be released in Europe on August 17th, Australia on August 18th and the US on August 19th, while in Italy the game will separately be released on August 24. It's the thirteenth title in the main Super Mario series, the eighth title to be a Super Mario Bros. installment, the third in the New Super Mario Bros. line after New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS and New Super Mario Bros. Wii for the Wii and the sequel to New Super Mario Bros. The game was announced by Satoru Iwata in a Nintendo conference in April 21, 2012. The game seems to be heavily based on Super Mario Bros. 3, as it features Raccoon Mario, and the P-charge bar, both of which were introduced in said game. It also combines elements from New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, as this is a follow-up to those games.

According to Nintendo, New Super Mario Bros. 2 will be the first Nintendo game (and specifically the first Mario title) to be purchased and digitally downloaded through the Internet. The game can be stored onto an SD card, along with multiple other games, and be played on the Nintendo 3DS, but they can't be shared with other Nintendo 3DS handhelds. It is also revealed that the game's overall goal is to collect one million coins.

Story
Description from the American website:

Trouble always seems to find its way to the Mushroom Kingdom! Just as Mario and Luigi go off on a coin hunt in the sky, their beloved Princess Peach is kidnapped by the dastardly Koopalings. The brothers have to venture through over 80 stages to rescue her, grabbing an endless deluge of coins across land, water, air, and snow along the way.

Gameplay
The gameplay is very similar to previous the New Super Mario Bros. games. However, New Super Mario Bros. 2 focuses on collecting Coins, with many and varied ways to collect many coins at once, such as golden items that award the player many coins. Like New Super Mario Bros., the bottom screen displays a kind of map, showing the length of the level and where the player is. Though unknown as of now, there are more than 8 Worlds and some will have more than one theme (World 3, which was just a beach theme in New Super Mario Bros., is now a beach and a forest theme). The item storage reappears too. Each world contains a random number of levels, including Ghost Houses, Fortresses and Castles. Reznors and Koopalings are found at the end of each fortress and castles, respectively.

A two-player mode is available, and the second player plays as Luigi normally through the stages alongside Mario. This mode can only be played with two Nintendo 3DS consoles and two game cards. Another mode, the Coin Rush, challenges the player to collect the most coins they can in three randomly-selected levels through three different options. The Mushroom opition will choose three levels from the starter worlds and a special world, the Fire Flower option chooses three levels from the middle worlds and the Star opition choose three levels from the final worlds. In other words, Mushroom is the easy difficulty choice, Fire Flower is the medium choice and Star is the hard choice. The game's overall objective is to collect a million coins. Downloadable content will be available just after the launch of the game.

Playable Characters

 * Mario
 * Luigi

Forms

 * Small Mario/Luigi
 * Super Mario/Luigi
 * Raccoon Mario/Luigi
 * Gold Mario/Silver Luigi
 * Fire Mario/Luigi
 * Mega Mario/Luigi
 * Mini Mario/Luigi
 * White Raccoon Mario/Luigi
 * Invincible Mario/Luigi

Other Characters

 * Princess Peach
 * Bowser
 * Toad

Enemies/Obstacles
Note: Enemies turn golden when Mario touches a Gold Ring. In this state, the enemies can produce coins.
 * Goombas
 * Paragoombas
 * Goomba Towers
 * Micro-Goombas
 * Undead Goombas
 * Koopa Troopas
 * Koopa Paratroopas
 * Dry Bones
 * Hammer Bros.
 * Buzzy Beetles
 * Spinies
 * Piranha Plants
 * Undead Piranha Plants
 * Scuttle Bugs
 * Cheep-Cheeps
 * Mega Cheep-Cheeps
 * Wigglers
 * Spiny Cheep-Cheeps
 * Lakitus
 * Bill Blaster
 * Bullet Bills
 * Banzai Bill Blaster
 * Banzai Bills
 * Thwomps
 * Super Thwomps
 * Podoboos
 * Pokeys
 * Urchins
 * Mini-sized Urchins
 * Spiked purple blocks
 * Raining Debris
 * Boos
 * Big Boos
 * Boohemoth
 * Bloopers
 * Spike Pillars
 * Boulders
 * Cheep-Chomps
 * Chain Chomps
 * Rocket Engines
 * Fire Snakes
 * Grinders

Bosses

 * Reznor
 * Koopalings
 * Ludwig von Koopa
 * Lemmy Koopa
 * Roy Koopa
 * Iggy Koopa
 * Wendy O. Koopa
 * Morton Koopa Jr.
 * Larry Koopa

Items/Objects

 * Coins
 * Red Coins (also in parachutes)
 * Blue Coins
 * Dash Coins
 * 10 Gold Coins
 * 100 Gold Coins
 * Star Coins
 * 1-Up Mushroom
 * ? Blocks
 * Brick Blocks
 * Coin Blocks
 * Note Blocks
 * Red POW Blocks
 * Dotted Line Blocks
 * Roulette Block
 * Assist Blocks
 * Wooden Blocks
 * Gold Blocks
 * Numbered Roulette Blocks that give coins
 * Donut Lift
 * Wide Donut Lifts
 * Red Rings
 * Gold Rings
 * Golden Mushrooms
 * Warp Pipes
 * Coin-spouting pipes activated with fireballs
 * P-Switches
 * Question Switch
 * ! Switch
 * + Clocks
 * Snake Blocks
 * Midway Flag
 * Flagpole
 * Doors
 * One-way gates from New Super Mario Bros.
 * Sinking Barrels
 * Sinking Crates
 * Beanstalk
 * Ropes
 * Trampolines
 * Cannons

Levels

 * World 1-Peach's Castle: Appears in the intro before Mario and Luigi start flying.
 * World 1-1: A level with Princess Peach's Castle in the background, colored blocks from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Note Blocks.
 * World 1-Toad House: A Toad House that requires 5 Star Coins to enter. There is a Fire Flower, Super Leaf and Mini Mushroom inside.
 * World 1-2: An Underground level with a Mega Mushroom and Koopa Troopas. And where Mario shoots fireballs into a pipe for coins.
 * World 1-3: A grassy level with Snake Blocks and the Super Leaf powerup.
 * World 1-4: A level in the sky with rising and lowing mushroom platforms.
 * World 1-Fortress: A tower with many Snake Blocks and undead enemies. A duo of Reznors are the bosses.
 * World 1-5 An underwater level with Cheep-Cheeps and Cheep Chomps.
 * World 1-Cannon A dash Mario level where the player can't stop running.
 * World 1-Castle: The first castle level. Roy Koopa is the boss. His battle is similar to Super Mario World.
 * World 2-1: A desert stage with spinning Brick Blocks and the Gold Flower.
 * World 2-2: A sky level with wooden platforms
 * World 2-Ghost House: A Ghost House where a Boohemoth lives in.
 * World 3-1: A beach/water level with floating Barrels, many Gold Rings, Piranha Pants and Jumping Cheep-Cheeps.
 * World 4-2: A snow level with red pipes and many coins.
 * World 5-3: A grassy level with dome shaped buildings.
 * World 5-5: A sky level with Bullet Bills, Banzai Bills and a Gold Ring.
 * Dash Mario: A level (Levels) with blue-colored platforms and blackgrounds, with bright white outlines, where Mario can't stop running. It's accessed via cannons.
 * An underground stage with a P-Switch and Koopa Troopas.
 * An underground stage with a lot of Green Pipes and Piranha Plants.
 * An area with a lot of Pipes similar to Pipe Maze.
 * An underground stage in a desert with POW Blocks.
 * A sunset area with a mountainous background, Snake Blocks, Warp Pipes and Mini Warp Pipes.
 * A tropical rainforest level with poisonous water similar to World 5 from New Super Mario Bros. Wii with climbable Spider Webs and Scuttle Bugs.
 * A snowy forest with reddish pink pipes.
 * A tropical rainforest level with poisonous water similar to World 5 in New Super Mario Bros. Wii with floating boxes and Wigglers.
 * A castle or fortress area with a quartet of Reznors as the boss.
 * A snowy level with icy floors and walls that has a background which resembles Chocolate Island backgrounds.
 * A grassland level with shallow water.
 * A grassy level with dome shaped buildings.
 * A level with colorful blocks and Lakitus.
 * An underground volcanic level with a bone dragon similar to a Bonecoaster.
 * A castle level with Thwomps, Podoboos and ropes.
 * A sky level with Bullet Bills and Banzai Bills that seems to be inspired by World 7-5 from New Super Mario Bros.
 * An underwater level with Urchins and a smaller version of Urchins.
 * A desert with Pokeys.
 * An underground desert area with floating platforms and Pokeys.
 * A Coin Heaven with a 100-Coin, multicolored pipes, and moving platforms.
 * A Ghost House with a Big Boo and climbable spider webs.
 * A sky level with golden totem poles.
 * A volcano overworld level with Raining Debris.
 * A snow level with rolling rocks.
 * An underwater stage with giant boulders.
 * A castle or fortress level filled with underwater Spike Pillars.
 * A castle level with the Koopalings shining a very bright light in the background.
 * A castle or fortress level with a ceiling of spikes lowering.
 * A Mountain level with many Piranha Plants and a Mega Mushroom.
 * A castle level with Morton Koopa Jr. as the boss at the end.
 * A fortress with rising lava.
 * A fortress filled with Grinders.
 * A snowy level with mushrooms and weight platforms.

Power-Ups

 * Super Mushrooms
 * Fire Flowers
 * Super Leaves
 * Gold Flowers
 * Mega Mushrooms
 * Mini Mushrooms
 * Invincibility Leaves
 * Invincibility Stars

Other

 * Koopa Clown Car
 * A monster skeleton similar to a Bonecoaster which travels through lava.
 * Toad Houses

Nintendo eShop Description
''This new side-scrolling installment in the fan-favorite Super Mario Bros. franchise launches Aug. 17, as the Mushroom Kingdom bursts with more coins and gold than ever before. Players can transform into Gold Mario and Raccoon Mario, and battle friends for high-scores in the new StreetPass-enabled competitive Coin Rush mode. Also, for the first time in a hand-held Mario title, players can enjoy a cooperative two-player mode for the entire game via a local wireless connection.

Trivia

 * In New Super Mario Bros. 2, the Super Leaf gives Luigi honey-colored ears and a different tail, resembling a Japanese fox (a kitsune) rather than a raccoon, similar to Super Mario 3D Land.
 * A special 'Gold Coin' cartridge case is available to those who preorder the game in Europe at GAME.co.uk or at EB Games in Australia.
 * Nintendo considered this game to be called New Super Mario Bros. Gold, but due to some of the over 80 stages being said to stand on their own outside the coin theme of the game, the game was renamed to New Super Mario Bros. 2.
 * Interestingly, both handheld New Super Mario Bros. games have been released around the same time as the variation of the handheld on which they were released (i.e. New Super Mario Bros. was released around the same time as the Nintendo DS Lite, and New Super Mario Bros. 2 was released around the same time as the Nintendo 3DS XL).