Nintendo wrapped up the latest Nintendo Direct with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a new side-scrolling Mario game coming to Nintendo Switch on 20th October 2023.
The thing that really stands out from the announcement trailer is just how much care and attention has been put into the game’s 3D graphics and animation. Everything looks so, so very fluid, from the animation of Mario himself, to the way that the level shifts and moves in a variety of inventive ways. It’s rather reminiscent of the greatest Rayman games.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s main new trick stems from the Wonder Flower, as touching these flowers makes the world come alive with more motion, hordes of enemies, characters changing their looks and more.
Alongside Mario, Prince Peach, Princess Daisy and Yoshi are confirmed as playable characters alongside mainstays Mario, Luigi and Toad.
We also got a little look at some of the quirky new power ups in the game. There was a Mario spike ball, a strangely stretched Mario, we had Mario riding on the backs of a herd of Mushroom Kingdom sheep and plenty more, but the imagery that will surely launch a thousand memes came right at the end of the trailer wiht a jumbo-sized power up: Elephant Mario!
Honestly, having been tapped out on New Super Mario Bros. through the Nintendo DS, Wii and Wii U (and obviously with a Nintendo Switch remaster along the way), this puts a fantastic new visual spin on the classic platforming series. I cannot wait to see more and play it later this year.
The most recent side-scrolling Mario was New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, the Switch remaster of the Wii U game. Filled with multiplayer shenanigans, it’s a solid all-rounder of platforming action, though it misses out on some of the ingenuity that the Wii U’s Gamepad enabled.
In our NSMBU Deluxe review, I said, “New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is a huge amount of great 2D Mario (and Luigi) platforming and it’s at its easiest to pick up and play on Switch, but even with the sheer volume of content this doesn’t really feel like a ‘Deluxe’ game. Toadette’s easier gameplay comes at the cost of a regular difficulty fourth character, and makes for a token appearance of Peach as a playable character, while the best all round multiplayer fun has been left behind with the Wii U’s GamePad.”
