We toured the Nintendo booth today at the San Diego Comic Con, and the main attraction was undoubtedly New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the 3DS XL (preview of the system itself to come soon.) When the crowd thinned and we finally managed to put hands on the game, we found a familiar but fun experience.

If you've ever played the first New Super Mario Bros. game, or the Wii spinoff, you'll find this sequel to be quite familiar, a sort of comfort food of the video game world if you will. The running and jumping all feel more or less the same as we remembered them. The real change here comes, like Nintendo themselves said earlier, in the gold.

By jumping through gold rings scattered liberally throughout the environment, for example, Mario can turn enemies into virtual gold fountains. The standard Mario fish enemies became gold-trailing cash fountains when we jumped through the rings. A new costume for Mario will have much the same effect on him, too. By equipping the new Gold Block hat, Mario will begin to spew coins out of his body, adding even more to your stash.

Secret paths and areas will play a big part in this new Mario romp. We found several invisible blocks and warp pipe paths just in the first level alone, all of which led to massive piles of coins and other treasures.

Judging from our hands-on demo, New Super Mario Bros. 2 is hardly reinventing the wheel when it comes to the old running and jumping formula. The platforming is as standard as it's ever been, and the new focus on collecting coins, while kind of amusing in the sheer numbers of them, didn't really seem like a game-changer. We did enjoy the game in the sense that one might enjoy a comforting scoop of ice cream or a burger and fries. When it releases later this year, New Super Mario Bros. 2 might just be the portable comfort we need. Stay tuned to GameShampoo for a detailed review.