New 3D Super Mario Game Has a Huge Surprise, Leak Reveals

A new rumor about the next 3D Mario game, rumored to release this year alongside the Nintendo Switch 2, has potentially leaked a major surprise Nintendo has in store with the latest release in the long-running series. This week we relayed word that the game's world is supposedly four times larger than all of Super Mario Odyssey's environments combined. This is major news if true, but it's not going to get old-school fans excited. What will though is the fact a certain character is apparently in the game. 

According to a rumor making the rounds, Luigi, Peach, Captain Toad, and Pauline will all make an appearance in the game. What capacity these appearances are, remains to be seen. That said, these four characters stopping by isn't that noteworthy. What is though is that Donkey Kong will be in the game, and it sounds like it will be in a significant way though there's no word if he will be playable, a boss, or just a reoccurring character. What is seemingly clear is that it's not just a brief cameo. Obviously, is this is true, this already differentiates from recent 3D Mario games. 

Is it true though? Well, as the rumor points out, Nintendo has been coupling the two characters back together quite a bit after separating them for a while. Whether it's the LEGO sets, the upcoming remake of Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the movie, or even the theme park promotions, Mario and Donkey Kong have been reunited fully lately, so it makes sense this would continue with the next 3D Mario game. 

Again though, is any of this true? Well, the information comes the way of an anonymous source that goes by Zippo. In the past, they've proven themselves reliable, but they've also been off the mark in the past as well. In other words, take this information with a grain of salt. 

As for Nintendo, it has not been drawn out for comment, and we do not expect this to change as it almost never comments on rumors and speculation. If it bucks expectation though and does provide any type of comment, we will update the story with whatever it has to say, salient or not.