During today’s Nintendo Direct E3 presentation the prolific publisher announced a new 3D Mario game from EAD Tokyo – the team responsible for the stellar Super Mario Galaxy titles – in the form of Super Mario 3D World.

The new adventure obviously draws a huge amount of inspiration from EAD’s last outing – Super Mario 3D Land for Nintendo 3DS – and features co-operative play for up to four participants, allowing Luigi, Toad and Peach to aid Mario on his quest. However seeing as the Princess is a playable character this time around, evidently she won’t require rescuing, so it’s unclear what the plucky plumber’s mission will be at this point.

As in the classic NES title, Super Mario Bros. 2, each of the characters possesses their own unique set of abilities. Luigi can jump much higher and further than the others, Toad is faster and lighter on his feet and Peach can use her dress to float in mid-air for short periods of time.

During the debut trailer, a brand new costume was also revealed, known as the Cat Suit. Using the powers of a glowing golden bell, Mario is tranformed into a cat, giving him the ability to bolt around on all-fours, pounce upon enemies and scamper up steep walls and poles using sharp claws.

Super Mario 3D World will be made available exclusively for Wii U in December, 2013.

For the original story please visit Analog Addiction.

Rob Gisbey is a games journalist and music production graduate from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. To listen to his acoustic demo, read his articles and listen to the VxM Videogames Podcast head to his blog.