A huge new Nintendo Direct was held today, and there were many new announcements to behold, including the first new 2D Mario in eleven years, and it launches very soon. Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches for the Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2023, and it features a brand new, charming art style reminiscent of claymation and even voice acting for side characters.
Aside from the Super Mario Maker games, this marks the first new 2D Mario game in nearly eleven years, ever since New Super Mario Bros. U originally launched in 2012 alongside the Wii U. It brings with it returning gameplay mechanics from the New Super Mario Bros. games, with a new item called “Woner Seeds” seemingly filling the same or similar role to Star Coins, as it appears there will be at least a couple to find in each level.
Mario Is Not Alone!
The trailer Nintendo showed off also gave us a glimpse of four-player co-op support, with several other playable characters including Luigi, Peach, a yellow Toad, and for the first time ever in a major 2D console title, Princess Daisy. The trailer showed a brief look at a levels in which all four players directly controlled their own Yoshi, not just riding them. However, Yoshi riding was also shown in the trailer elsewhere, so it could be that Yoshis play a large role in the game’s mechanics.
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Many new mechanics were glimpsed in the trailer, such as a new world-switching mechanic of some kind which saw the various pipes in the level shown go haywire and start to wiggle and move on their own, a black and white silhouette level where the mustachioed plumber stretched his body and became a very long plumber, skydiving mechanics, and, of course, new powerups.
Mario’s Got a Brand New Bag… of Powerups’s
One of the new powerups, shown off at the end of the trailer, appears to transform the player character into a bipedal elephant and allows him to punt enemies across the sky. Not much gameplay was shown of it, but it certainly makes for an eye-catching stinger at the end of the trailer.
Another new powerup shown seems to transform the player into a large spikey ball that rolls throughout the level destroying blocks and enemies that cross their path. In this bit of the trailer, we see a few talkative flowers cheering the player on, shouting “Roll! Roll! Roll!” These cute flowers are glimpsed several other times in the trailer, including the beginning and end. It is not yet known just what role they will play in the game, but it seems likely it will be significant in some way given how often they appear in such a short trailer.
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The gameplay trailer also showed off how there are visual grading effects that appear on-screen when you stomp on enemies, kick shells, and otherwise interact with the world in fun ways. It is shown that as you stomp more enemies and interact snag more collectibles, grading you starting from “Good!” and progressing all the way to “Wonderful!”
Shockingly, the game will release in less than four months on October 20, 2023. October is shaping up to be a packed month for gamers, with Alan Wake II also launching on the seventeenth and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releasing the same day as Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Fans of the Mario series had a lot of new content to chew on aside from Super Mario Bros. Wonder in this direct, too, as a remake of the beloved SNES classic Super Mario RPG was also shown off, alongside a new, as yet unnamed side-scroller starring Princess Peach, a surprise release for the new DLC for Mario + Rabbids: Spark of Hope, and the announcement of a remaster for Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.
Are you excited for a brand new 2D Mario game? What did you think of the new elephant powerup? Would you have preferred New Super Mario Bros. 3? Let us know in the comments and on our social media feeds!
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