In Super Mario Bros Wonder, the eponymous hero has a trunk now. Given the Italian plumber's long-standing penchant for metamorphosis over the last almost-40 years – by way of scoffing mushrooms, leaves, fiery plants, and many other questionable foodstuffs – that's not the most unusual sentence. It is, however, a sentence I've just relayed to my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter following the latest Nintendo Direct. She seems pleased, and is now looking forward to October 20, when the next adventure from Nintendo's moustachioed poster boy is due to release.
For those who haven't caught up with their calendars yet, let me tell you that October 20 is also the launch date for another hotly-anticipated upcoming video game: Marvel's Spider-Man 2. In the immediate wake of the Super Mario Bros Wonder reveal news, I text my dad – a one-time Super Mario aficionado back in his late 1980s / early 1990s video game-playing hay day – who has now promised to buy my daughter, his granddaughter, the game and visit our house to play it with her on its day of release.
