I actually got to see the actual disc, box and everything it came in, and played for about an hour into the game at Game Crazy, the store I saw it at first.
I must say, at first I thought this Mario wasnt going to cut it, but after finally spending some time with the game, I've been convinced that I was wrong. It seems odd of Nintendo to offer the entire game to be playable at these stores, and I was even considering making frequent stops to play more of the game, and possibly copy the save file over to an SD card and finish the game at home....maybe.