[quote name='Strell']In the clip, when it goes 3D, the pit "disappears" somewhat. There's indentations on the sides that indicate where it is, but Mario can walk across it as if it isn't there.
If he were standing there and went 2D, he'd be standing over a pit.
The thing that bugs me the most about it is that in 2D, there's no question there's a pit there - the screen shows a definite green ground area that ends abruptly, replaced with the blue sky background.
But in 3D, it's suddenly cohesive land.
I would rather the pit still be there, and you'd still have to jump over it. Kinda like the old Crash Bandicoot games that were sort of pseudo 3D-on-rails-moving-away-from-the-player stuff.
Another example is the pipes - they are on different planes in 3D, which is fine. But I could swear I saw Mario switch to 3D while he was on one, and suddenly he was no longer on it.
Point being that I can see some people dying in areas they don't mean to due to inconsistent geography.[/quote]
I see what you're talking about, the pit at the beginning. I think it's maybe done like that to accomodate for a little lack of depth when you turn everything 3D. That's one thing I noticed in all the videos is that it's kind of hard to judge depth when in 3D. They should make the indentation a little more obvious for that though, so that you get the idea that that's not a good place to switch dimensions.
The pipe thing is a result of, when in 2D, being on a certain plane that's pretty much the middle of the path whenever you turn 3D, and since that pipe's not at the same plane in 3D, you end up at the same height as the pipe just off of it. As long as they give you a second to quickly jump onto the pipe, it doesn't seem like that much of a problem.