Super Mario Bros. Wonder is now available to play on the Nintendo Switch.
As senior Nintendo designer Takashi Tezuka has stated, this represents a new phase for 2D Mario games. With the Wonder Flowers, Badges, Elephant transformation, and more, it’s certainly a drastic change from the tone and theme of the New Super Mario Bros video games.
We know from both the early previews and final reviews that this would be a special game. In fact, it enjoys universal critical acclaim. But we aren’t exactly sure what the deal with this game is, as quirky and fun as it looks.
The biggest thing that we knew about the game was that the dev team was allowed room to foster their ideas in the game’s development, but that doesn’t really tell us what the devs were thinking.
The core concept behind Super Mario Bros Wonder is mystery and secrets. If Super Mario World for the SNES was packed with secrets, this would have even more, and it would be ramped up to 11.
The biggest game element are the Wonder Flowers, which you do not actually have to activate in every stage. But if you do, you will change Mario, Mario’s enemies, and the entire stage itself, forcing you to rethink every situation that comes across.
Next to that is the change in how levels work. You won’t have to beat every level to finish this game. In fact, you can pass through a lot of those levels if you’re just looking for casual play. Building the game in this way, however, means that the game has something for beginners and high level players alike. The latter will naturally want to take on the challenge of the harder levels.
The Badges seemed like they could have been a monetization strategy, but thankfully that’s not the case here. The Badges act as modifiers, and some of them can make the game easier, or make it harder. Some Badges can be bought with in-game currency, but others fall into the mystery and secrets part of the game.
These certainly sound like quirky and funny things to add up to a new Mario game, but what again evades these previews is the actual level to level game design that makes all these ideas come together. Up until now only Nintendo and select media have had a chance to experience that, but now, we can all do it.
You can watch the launch trailer below.
