Super Mario 3D Land has playable Luigi and Tanooki statues in Japanese videos

Fans of Mario’s less loved brother Luigi had some tough years as the green one was basically ignored in core Mario games like Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine. Then he made his big return as a special unlockable in Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, plus he was fully playable in the New Super Mario games from the start. Through some new videos posted on Nintendo’s Japanese site, we now know that Luigi is playable in some form in Mario’s next adventure, Super Mario 3D Land.

Our old pal Weegee seems to control similarly to the Galaxy titles, as he’s running faster and jumping higher than we’ve seen do Mario so far. We’re not too sure yet on if he’ll be unlockable through lots of hard work like Galaxy, playable a few hours in like Galaxy 2, or open from the beginning like New Super Mario Bros Wii. For now it’s just great to see he’s in the game.

The second video posted was also reassuring as it showed an aspect of the Tanooki Suit that had been missing to date. Mario 3 fans will remember that Tanooki Mario could turn into a sort of Buddhist statue and be invincible (but immobile) in that state. This new video finally confirms the power is back and apparently it has something to do with Mario’s jaunty red scarf. The statue ability wasn’t present in our recent time with the game, which suggests you get the scarf and the stone power later on.

We’ll let you know more as this develops, and in the meantime, watch this third video full of the many classic Mario enemies now sporting raccoon tails in Super Mario 3D Land.

Oct 27, 2011