Yesterday we were invited out to Nintendo’s San Francisco office to go hands-on with a near-final build of New Super Mario Bros. 2. In our hour with the game, we were able to play through several single-player levels, try out some co-op, and play some more of Coin Rush mode. And we’ll be covering all of those in-depth in our Video Preview, coming soon. But for now, we hope you enjoy these brand new details we learned from our hands-on time.

The Facts:

• More than 8 Worlds.
   
• The Ghost House with Boohemoth is an auto-scroll level that you have some control over! Stare him down to stop the screen from moving
   
• At least one level features a water-level that rises and falls, similar to one of the Special levels from Super Mario World.
   
• White Raccoon Suit makes you invincible to almost everything, such as enemies and spikes, but with three exceptions: Lava, Poisonous Liquid, and Pits.
   
• Flying ? Blocks from NSMBW’s map screen are back. They appear seemingly randomly and hover over the level you’ll be able to find them in, granting access to a power-up early on.
   
• Rainbow levels are special bonus stages that appear on the far left of each world’s map-screen once you’ve met a certain requirement in another level in that world. These stages feature a ton of coins, but you only get one crack at it each time you meet the requirements.
  
   
   
• You no longer need to tap the “jump” button to fly as Raccoon Mario and can simply hold the button down instead.
   
• When playing co-op, a simultaneous ground-pound will cause an earthquake, affects enemies and items on-screen (such as flipping Wigglers over).
   
• However, you can no longer pick-up teammates in co-op mode.
   
• In Coin Rush mode, you have the option to play as Normal Mario or White Raccoon Mario.
   
• Although Coin Rush mode selects the three levels randomly, there is a difficulty select of sorts. “Mushroom” chooses the 3 levels from Worlds 1, 2, and a Special World, Flower grabs from the middle Worlds, and Star selects from the final few Worlds.
   
• First time you streetpass with someone, their Coin Rush record is not revealed until after you attempt the challenge at least one.

Watch our video preview for even more!