Still, New Super Mario Bros. 2, which will be released throughout North America on Aug. 19 (pre-order a copy here), was rather unceremoniously pushed to the back of my consciousness during E3 2012--thanks in large part to games like Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Project P-100, Pikmin 3 and even New Super Mario Bros. U.
The portable-platformer-to-end-all-portable-platformers returned to its position at (or at least near) the front of my mind yesterday, though, after I came across the following piece of New Super Mario Bros. 2 concept art (click on it to take a closer look):
It's funny how expanding the view of this game's box art makes the entire endeavor so much more appealing, isn't it?
Zoom in on Mario and Luigi, a la the above-mentioned cover image, and all you really see is a whole lot of gold. Zoom out a bit, though, and you see colorful blocks that call to mind Super Mario Bros. 3 and a bursting-with-Koopalings Koopa Clown Car that calls to mind Super Mario World.
I'm still not altogether sure what to think of New Super Mario Bros. 2's coin-obsessed storyline, but at the moment I don't much care. Bring on the Koopa Clown Car, I say!
(Via nintendolife.com, by way of tinycartridge.com)
