In the latest 'Iwata Asks' (also known as 'Iwata Laughs' for obvious reasons) we find out that Super Mario 3D Land will have special stages after the main game, a Street Pass mode and more.

The latest edition of Iwata Asks was bursting with Super Mario 3D Land information and even gave an insight into how Super Mario 64 may have featured flag poles.

First, lets take a look at those special levels. It seems that there will be a lot to enjoy after finishing the main game of Super Mario 3D Land as the amount of special stages you unlock after defeating the dastardly Bowser nearly equal the amount of normal stages on offer. Daisuke Tsujimura, planner of the new title said, "There are so many of these essentially bonus special stages that they practically equal the number of normal stages!"

It won't just be a case of the same levels with different tasks though (as seen in Galaxy 2) because a lot of these stages will be completely new. The special stages are also very creative and feature a lot of things that didn't fit into the main game.

"We had lots of fun ideas that never made it into the normal stages, and we had to make the normal stages paying attention to strict order, so you could say that the special stages let you have fun with all kinds of different variations of gameplay, and I think we did a solid job in preparing something quite challenging."

The stages are also said to be a lot harder than the main game and feature different routes making the special stages similar to older 3D Mario titles like Super Mario 64.

"Earlier 3D Super Mario games are structured so that there are multiple scenarios for a single stage. There are various rules, like, "This time, I'm gonna get the Star," or "This time, collect the Red Coins. We adopted that structure for the special stages. It's sort of like we prepared different scenarios for the same stages as gameplay for after the ending of the normal stages. So there's 3D Super Mario gameplay after the normal ending."

Daisuke Tsujimura then goes onto explain how not all of these levels will be the same as in the main game and that some are completely new.

"There are some new stages among the special ones. The advanced stages that Tsujimura-san makes are really difficult! Tsujimura-san supervised all the special stages, so I hope advanced players will make it to those and experience the Tsujimura stages."

Due to the vast amount of special stages, Hayashida admits that the game isn't as compact as he originally planned but surely that's a good thing as you can never have too much Mario.

"Well, we really wanted to make a game that's easy to get into, so we weren't planning on making it a game full of features. But once we started making it and included the special stages, it turned out to have quite a lot of volume."

It's at this point that Iwata pipes in to show his enthusiasm for the game, "I agree that the volume is comparable with even the Super Mario Galaxy games so I'm not sure about it being compact."

So far, so 'anticipation levels are making me have a heart attack' but that's not all. It was also revealed during the interview that Super Mario 3D Land will have Street Pass features. These will allow you to swap times with other passers by and see who has the best scores.

As well as the time swapping tomfoolery there will also be item swapping courtesy of the lovable Toad (and that lad playing his 3DS at the back of the bus).

"This time, you can even pass by people who don't have the game! If you pass by someone's Mii character someplace like the StreetPass Mii Plaza application, you can receive an item from that Mii character at Toad's house. If you pass by the same Mii character again, you get something better."

Finally, we found out that the original Super Mario 64 was going to feature flag poles. It has been mentioned previously that at one point most of the levels in Super Mario 64 were linear and straightforward like the Bowser levels in the game so this is possibly why they were first implemented.

"when they thought about what was the most fun about playing in 3D, it was going to all sorts of places and looking for something, so they decided on players getting a Star."

The inclusion of flag poles in Super Mario 3D Land further push forward the fact that this game bridges the gap between 2D and 3D gameplay. Don't fret though as you will still be able to obtain stars, this time known as Star Medals.

"On the first stage, you just have to reach the goal pole, but we've prepared something called a Star Medal this time. They're like the items in New Super Mario Bros. called Star Coins. The reason we changed the name is that the Star Medals have the same function as the Stars in 3D Super Mario games up till now. We packed in gameplay that involves going various places around the game field in order to find them."

That's a rather hefty chunk of 3D Land information, does any of it entice you to buy the game? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.