Beautiful Mario-Inspired Shadow Hand-Puppetry

Super Mario 3D World spends a lot of time playing with the camera. Often, it’s fairly standard, following you around the level and occasionally panning across an item just off the screen.

The Toad levels, however, give you a wide-angle shot of the whole landscape and leave you to control the angle yourself. Other levels pan the camera constantly, leaving you behind if you can’t keep up. There’s no in-game explanation for this – it’s just there to make things difficult.

Perhaps the most beautiful of these was the shadow level. It’s built entirely in 3D but you only get to see the shadows that everything casts upon the wall. To celebrate it, Nintendo have commissioned this fascinating video from Drew Colby, an expert in hand shadows.

Also see: my review of Super Mario 3D World.