Super Mario 3D Land has finally arrived for Nintendo 3DS and lucky folk in NYC were the first to get to grips with the new adventures of Japan’s most famous Italian (by-way-of-Brooklyn) plumber and also play in a real-life Mushroom Kingdom right in the heart of city!
Over this past weekend, Nintendo’s 26 year veteran mascot and pals warped into Times Square to celebrate the Super Mario 3D Land launch, hand out free Tanooki tails and pizza for all in attendance. The event featured an acrobatic display and there was also the chance for gamers young and old to bounce around the giant replica of a Super Mario level, including trampolines for coin grabbing and huge slides as warp pipes. Mario fans could also try and buy the much-anticipated 3D title early and ahead of its public release for Nintendo 3DS this Friday.
Super Mario 3D Land is a clash of new and old, balancing elements from Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, bringing the franchise up-to-date with brand new 3D graphics and some familiar features returning for first time in many years – such as the P-Wing and Tanooki suit – which has actually raised the ire of animal protection campaigners PETA.
PETA claims that the plumber wearing the Tanooki suit in Super Mario 3D Land endorses killing creatures and wearing their fur. The campaigners state that the make believe suit, which enables Mario to fly in the game, is inspired by the real-life tanuki – a Japanese ‘raccoon dog’ and to be perfectly honest, until this morning we didn’t even know that a tanuki was a real thing! But our ignorance of native Japanese beasties is beside the point. The lengths to which PETA are attempting to get its point across is purely obscene.
Setting up a website called “Mario Kills Tanooki”, PETA tells its world-wide minions “Tanooki may be just a “suit” in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur. By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it’s OK to wear fur.” – We’re all for the protection of our furry friends, but this is truly a mis-representation of the mindset of a typical Nintendo gamer. Clearly Nintendo’s family-fun is a far cry from the blood-lust witnessed on the more ‘hardcore’ gaming plaforms.
The worst part of PETA’s campaign is the game itself, bearing a familiar typeface on the logo, and a mockery of the classic Nintendo Seal of Approval, “Mario Kills Tanooki” features a simile of the Nintendo mascot in blood-drenched Tanooki suit flying above a player controlled tanuki which runs for its life in an ‘8-bit’ scene resembling a level of the popular gaming title. Hopefully the imminent law suit will make PETA see sense – but then again it probably won’t.
We have to wonder what’s next. A campaign against homelessness for koopa troopers who have lost their shells in random acts of plumber violence? – Absolutely absurd.
Super Mario 3D Land is released in the UK on November 18th for Nintendo 3DS.
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