In normal Super Mario Bros. games, getting 100 gold coins usually means an extra life and not much else. But in New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Nintendo 3DS, that changes...big time.

Nintendo showed off gameplay late Thursday night during their Nintendo Direct presentation where gold coins were everywhere. Not only from hundreds of ?-blocks but a ring that turns enemies into gold and a gold block that will spew coins from Mario's head. Mario can even shoot gold fireballs at wooden blocks to turn them into coins. The gold standard is alive and well in the Mushroom Kingdom. Ron Paul would be proud.

Coin Rush mode will have gamers play three random courses with the goal of collecting as many gold coins as possible in the shortest amount of time. StreetPass comes into play as you can save your records and share it with others, who can try and beat it. This mode will also come with paid downloadable content in the future.

Every collected coin is tallied, and the video below asks if we have what it takes to collect 1 million coins. I would have to assume collecting all these coins is used to progress the story, and possibly unlock bonus levels. Hopefully getting 1 million will mean something unique.



New Super Mario Bros. 2 will release Aug. 19.

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