Wonder about Super Mario Bros.
The kind of game Super Mario Bros. Wonder would be was clear from the moment Nintendo revealed it during the June Nintendo Direct. This will be the first 2D Mario game since New Super Mario Bros. U in 2012, a game that launched alongside the ill-fated Wii U. Nintendo released four New Super Mario Bros. games in quick succession, making it alone a surprise that they’ve gone so long without releasing one.
As a 2D Mario game, Wonder will sell, you know, wonderfully regardless of whether Nintendo switched things up in this installment or not. (I promise the remainder of this post won’t be as cringey… in this particular way.) The first Mario game to release after the wildly successful Super Mario Bros. Movie will be an inevitable hit even if the result will be only halfway competent. The itinerary of the Super Mario Bros. Wonder Direct was to highlight just how different this game will be from previous titles. It’s clear that Nintendo and the development team weren’t content with this simply being another NSMB title.
That Wonder will take place in the Flower Kingdom instead of the Mushroom Kingdom explains why the game’s aesthetic appears more vivid in its palette. The playable characters have arrived in the location at the behest of Prince Florian. But they’re all surprised — shocked! — when the omnipresent Bowser merges with Florian’s castle. Just when anyone thought he might be turning over a new leaf, he has once again proven that it’s just too difficult to change. It’s, of course, up to our heroes to mend a broken world for the prince.
The story has never been anything to write home about in a Mario game. That’s, fortunately, the only element that hasn’t been given at least a slight overhaul for Wonder. The game will come with an impressive assortment of playable characters, including Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Blue Toad, Yellow Toad, and Toadette. Yoshi and Nabbit will be available to provide an easier challenge. A certain part of the fanbase has been begging to have Peach and Daisy playable in a new 2D Mario game for over a decade, and they’re finally getting their wish. The characters will venture through six worlds with seven levels each, many with familiar settings for the Mario series. But this is the kind of familiarity feels welcomely nostalgic considering the franchise’s history.
The Wonder Flower will provide the biggest gameplay change, items with a wide variety of effects depending on the kind of flower picked up and the levels they’re in. I can’t get over how talkative the Talking Flowers in particular are, with some being very concerned about how enemies handle incineration and what cannibalism is like. Sickos. From the moment I saw the power that lets the player characters turn into giant elephants, I knew a subset of the internet fanbase would be frighteningly infatuated with the Peach and Daisy transformations. All the fan artists who brought Bowsette to life are having too glorious a time. But I’m not complaining. It’s possible that Nintendo is still underestimating how, uh, creative some fan communities are.
Nintendo running down the multiplayer modes Wonder will have during the Direct made for one of the funnier moments. They key online options include seeing where your friends are in the game, and playing alongside live and semi-live player shadows. Online co-op would have been among the first features mentioned if it was present. Indeed, co-op is local-only, where four players can complete a level. Super Mario Maker 2 struggled mightily online, which has resulted in Nintendo not even bothering with the feature for this game. That’s kind of a shame, because co-op play itself looks fun. Players using other characters can even jump on Yoshi players, even when they’re in elephant form.
It was also clear as I was watching the Direct that Badges would become a point of contention with part of the base. Said Badges have special gameplay-related abilities, including wall jumping, an underwater Dolphin Kick, and invisibility. There’s a certain crop of players Very Mad Online about the mere presence of accessibility features that will help players. No part of the presentations provided thus far say that players have to use them. Accessibility is good for a certain crop of players who find games like these too challenging. If a player wants to cruise though the game by using the combination of Yoshi or Nabbit and badges, that’s on them. As it stands, this is only worth getting upset about if they’re forced on the player.
I don’t expect Nintendo to show much more of Super Mario Bros. Wonder before it releases on October 20th. The Direct marked the game’s biggest pre-release showcase. Outside them, all we’ll receive from here are trailers, Treehouse level playthroughs like those streamed yesterday, and previews from the enthusiast press. Nintendo is also releasing a Mario Red Switch OLED edition on October 6th. The Switch’s overall color scheme is one thing (though not my type), but the dock looks very cool. The game is bound to be cool, too. We’ll see.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
