The SuperMario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Direct might have been short, but Nintendo crammed a surprising amount of detail and information in just 15 minutes. There’s a large cast of characters, a vibrant, if familiar world, new powers, monsters, and more. We get to see Wonder Flowers in action, and it looks like Nintendo is trying to improve its online game with Wonder, a first for the 2D Mario series and its traditional reliance on local co-op.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches on Oct. 20, 2023, on Nintendo Switch, and here’s a bit of what you can expect from it.
The Flower Kingdom has hidden depths
Wonder takes place in The Flower Kingdom, where Bowser touches a Wonder Flower, absorbs the prince’s castle, and wreaks havoc across the land, as he’s wont to do. Mario leaps and runs across the usual set of themed worlds – grassy plains, icy hills, and the like – but it looks like Nintendo got a bit more creative than usual.
The icy area gradually evolves from snow-covered foothills to peaks high above the clouds, for example, the haunted forest sends you underground, and even the grassy plains have some unexpected features.
Flowers have things to say
So we knew from the first Mario Wonder trailer that the flowers sometimes spoke, but it turns out they all do. Some of them ponder things like how Goombas taste. Others give you coins and gratitude if you water them, and some even point out when there’s a secret area or object nearby. They have subtitles, thankfully, so you don’t have to turn the volume up to hear their petaled words of wisdom.
There’s a lot of playable characters
You can pick quite a few other characters to play as, in addition to Daisy, who Nintendo finally let out of Mario spinoff prison.
- Blue Toad
- Yellow Toad
- Toadette
- Light-Blue Yoshi
- Yellow Yoshi
- Green Yoshi
- Red Yoshi
- Nabbit
There’s a distinct imbalance in the Yoshi-to-Toad ratio, but given how expressive the Yoshi are when elephants sit on them, we won’t complain.
Elephants in the room
Speaking of elephants, nearly everyone can be an elephant in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, or anything else for that matter. Unlike Super Mario Bros. 2, every character plays the same in Wonder – except two.
Nabbit and the Yoshis are a sort of built-in assist mode. They don’t take any damage from enemies, so they’re a solid choice if you just want a more laid-back experience.
They won’t transform with power-ups, though, and they can still lose a life if they fall into a pit or lava pool.
Brand-new enemies make an appearance
The New Super Mario games fell into a bit of a rut on the enemy front, but Wonder drops some fresh ones. Hoppycats are flat little critters with spikes on their back who mimic your jumps. Melon Piranha Plants spew seeds at you, Condarts try to impale you with their pointy beaks, and Maw-Maws want to eat you whole.
That’s just the tip of the proverbial enemy iceberg, and Wonder brings back familiar favorites as well, including Goombas and Boos.
You’ve got more power
Wonder also introduces new power-ups in addition to the elephant maker. The elephant power-up gives Mario a powerful nose that can sweep enemies away, destroy blocks, and even reflect projectiles back at their launcher, so take that Lakitu. He can dash across gaps, destroy blocks by jumping, and even store water in his trunk.
The bubble power lets you fire off floating globs that capture and destroy enemies – even invincible ones such as Dry Bones – and serve as little platforms for you to hop on. Mario Galaxy’s drill power is back as a nifty little helmet that lets Mario deal with hard-bodied enemies and crystalline or rocky obstacles, and you can even burrow underground with it.
You can also store an extra item now, a la Super Mario World.
Wonder Flowers seem pretty wonderful
The fancy new Wonder Flowers do more than just make pipes wiggle and turn every stage surreal. They’ll transform you, not unlike Yoshi’s Island’s powerups, let you run on walls, take you to completely new stages – it’s a lot. The Direct didn’t mention how often these flowers will show up, but they certainly make you sit up and take notice when you do find them.
Badges are back
Badges, that RPG-like feature from Mario and Luigi and the old Paper Mario games, are back, and like their predecessors, they give Mario and friends a very specific power. One lets you use your hat as a parachute – what the hatless characters use is a mystery though – while another gives you dolphin powers underwater, and there’s even one that lets you wall jump. It seems like a pretty expansive system, though you can only equip one badge at a time.
The online play actually seems good
Proper online multiplayer still doesn’t exist, but Nintendo is adding some features reminiscent of what we saw in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. If you play online, you can see “ghosts” of other players getting through the game in real time. You can exchange items and even revive them if they lose their lives, and you can even set up little signs near difficult places to help revive other players when you aren’t nearby.
It’s not quite full online co-op, but it looks like a promising step in the right direction.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
