Super Mario Bros. Wonder

[winstein]

A new game in the Super Mario series is announced, and it's got more than 5 playable characters! Oh, and Mario gets an elephant power-up.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Mister Wu]

A few thoughts:

1) it seems based on the “Runized” version of New Super Mario Bros., with playable Peach and Daisy (and colored Yoshis too, apparently)
2) but boy, is it much more lively in both the animations and the atmosphere! Those loudspeakers seem to be the new “defining trait” of the game, and there’s a lot of wackiness that even surpasses the Yoshi platformers! And even the UI saw a revamp! Finally, something really new!
3) normally, the 2D Mario powerups don’t change Mario, only his clothes. Here, the elephant powerup changes Mario but not his clothes. Weird (well, ok, not so much if you’re a Super Mario Galaxy fan, but still)

 

[Koopa con Carne]

very lively and colourful aesthetics, which is where i think a lot of the positive reactions i see for this game are directed. interesting power-ups too. that said, i think the level design looks pretty vapid.

i spot a unique-looking toad NPC on the pink world map and at the end of the trailer though

 

[Skipsqueak]

Daisy's playable!
It's her first time on what's arguably a mainline Mario game. No the mobile autorunner doesn't count in my opinion sorry.
Nintendo missed a huge opportunity to have her be the face of this game.
3 reasons for my opinion

1. Many of the playable humans do have their own titles. Luigi's got his ghost busters series, Wario's got his microgames, and even Peach has her own spin on adventure games (I'd say the perk for hers' is that she has a utility of powers at her disposal, as opposed to picking up powers 1 at a time.) Then there's even the non-humans Toad's adventure puzzles, Donkey Kong's slightly more difficult sidescrollers, and Bowser's brute rpg. Yoshi took the genre of 2D explorative collectathons, which was originally for Wario but not anymore.
2. Daisy's in need of a theme refresh. She originally started on the GB game Mario Land, as the princess of a foreign kingdom to rescue. She was later rebranded as a tomboy who loves to party and sports, Nintendo completly erasing her kingdom from our eyes. Although they will occasionally mention it in her bios, we really don't ever see it again. So, let me reiterate, she's a foreign princess and a tomboy. This new game coming out, is of a foreign land with a whole new artstyle. It could have been her retcon she oh so needs.
3. Tomboy who shows up to partys and sports is fine as daisys, but what I got a problem with is she's being given the Waluigi treatment, despite her origin coming from a mainline game as opposed to an extra for a tennis spinoff. Anyway I know it won't be happen, but I sure wish it would.

 

[Mister Wu]

very lively and colourful aesthetics, which is where i think a lot of the positive reactions i see for this game are directed. interesting power-ups too. that said, i think the level design looks pretty vapid.

i spot a unique-looking toad NPC on the pink world map and at the end of the trailer though

Meanwhile, this game too was developed by Arzest and Naoto Ohshima is on a roll this year

 

[Koopa con Carne]

Arzest

ah, that explains a lot--including, but not limited to, the random array of pipes in the trailer

the signature of their masterful level design

 

[Swallow]

I will say it looks trippy as f*** but should be much better than the New Super Mario Bros games

 

[Paper Mario]

"Safe" is a word that cannot be applied to this game in any sense of the word, and you have no idea how happy I am to be saying that about a new 2D Mario game. Very curious about that "Dark Bowser Jr" and the unique Toads

 

[Koopa con Carne]

i think the actual elephant in the room here is that THE TIMER IS GONE (outside of a particular instance that looks like some sort of minigame/timed challenge)

the score too i guess. i like that the game is doing away with the arcade trappings that 2d mario games held on to for so long, albeit extra lives still seem to be a thing.

 

[Mcmadness]

"Safe" is a word that cannot be applied to this game in any sense of the word, and you have no idea how happy I am to be saying that about a new 2D Mario game. Very curious about that "Dark Bowser Jr" and the unique Toads

What unique toads? The toads all look the same to me. Unless you mean that thing that comes out of a house near the end but that wasn't a toad.

 

[Paper Mario]

Is that confirmed? I think it could easily be a Toad, it's definitely a mushroom headed creature. I want it to be a Toad so we can finally put the "Toads all looking the same" shit to rest once and for all.

 

[Shmaluigi]

i think the actual elephant in the room here is that THE TIMER IS GONE (outside of a particular instance that looks like some sort of minigame/timed challenge)

the score too i guess. i like that the game is doing away with the arcade trappings that 2d mario games held on to for so long, albeit extra lives still seem to be a thing.

Would be neat if that leads to more opportunities for exploration and/or puzzle-solving in the levels.

 

[Eric B]

Backgrounds remind me of Yoshi's Island. I remember not too long ago, when someone on Youtube speculated on what the next Mario platformer would be like, and if 2D, it seemed the NSMB series was a bit played out, and I wondered what else they could possibly do (other than the flattened 3DW style for SMM2), and Yoshi's Island came to mind.

 

[Fennekin]

Wow, I wasn't expecting a new 2D Mario game after so long. I really like the fact that Toad, Peach, and Daisy are playable, and the new art-style really changes things up from the same old NSMB style we're so used to. There's also no timer around, which is kind of odd, but now we don't have to worry about missing collectibles anymore and can play at our own pace.

 

[MegaBowser64]

I used to believe in Cow Mario as my hope for the future. Now those hopes are crushed... by Elephant Mario. oh well, ya can't win 'em all

 

[Ray Trace]

I'll be the first to say this here but I really do not like the artstyle of the game. I don't think it does enough to sway me over (I think it has a small influence from 2D art but like...also not enough too) and there's a very "off" feeling about it. Like, this Mario looks like a bootleg Mario rather than a stylized Mario from an official product. I don't know why it looks off, the legs, the proportions, the eyes....

I do like the attempt to try to differentiate itself from prior New Super Mario Bros. games but I really don't think it goes far enough; we still see this terrible orthographic camera 3d model tileset shit and I'm frankly tired of that style. Again I must reiterate that it does look better and they're at least trying to advance the art but overall, I don't really like this effort and I still think something like Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is a nicer game to look at.

Other than my artstyle gripe I think the game looks solid so far. It obviously won't dethrone my favorite 2D platformer of all time but it looks like a fun time, and I really like the attempt to stand itself out from the sludge of New Super Mario Bros. entries before it. The soundtrack is okay, definitely an upgrade over NSMB games. I also noticed that you can step on underwater creatures now...which is a good thing because underwater levels sucked for negating your jump ability.

I like the weird full voice acting from those flower things I guess. Mario characters themselves should get full voice acting again, where's my "just what I needed".

i think the actual elephant in the room here is that THE TIMER IS GONE (outside of a particular instance that looks like some sort of minigame/timed challenge)

the score too i guess. i like that the game is doing away with the arcade trappings that 2d mario games held on to for so long, albeit extra lives still seem to be a thing.

Sonic ditched the lives mechanic recently so it's really about time for Mario to ditch it too.

 

[Mcmadness]

Is that confirmed? I think it could easily be a Toad, it's definitely a mushroom headed creature. I want it to be a Toad so we can finally put the "Toads all looking the same" shit to rest once and for all.

I mean it's clearly more meant to be like, a flower seed to fit in with all the flowers everywhere.

 

[The Conniving Canine]

Game looks interesting. More playable characters, (Daisy and Yoshi), but Blue Toad is missing. I hope they removed that pausing that happens when getting an item in multiplayer, but I'm pretty sure that it's not going to be removed.

 

[Ray Trace]

I don't know why the normal red Toad isn't a choice you can make, it's not like normal red Toads are extremely prominent in the NSMB series (you can't even rescue them in multiplayer in NSMBW in the only time they coexist with other Toads). Just give me the choice to be a regular red Toad.

 

[Skipsqueak]

Yeah about the artstyle, the animation is stiff. If this operated like Nickelodeon I'd suspect it to be Nintendo Jr.
Yoshi games get categorized as such by Youtube,
Wonder & Yoshi same creators right?

 

[Luciano Barone]

I don’t know about you, but the games art style and gameplay always reminded me a bit of the 2D Wii U and Nintendo Switch Kirby games, don’t you think?

 

[Mister Wu]

Meanwhile, this game too was developed by Arzest and Naoto Ohshima is on a roll this year

Well, about that…

the Italian Nintendo site states that New Super Mario Bros.U was produced and developed by Nintendo:

but Wonder? Only produced by Nintendo

now, that means nothing because the game isn’t out yet and the information is preliminary, but the Arzest meme really writes itself at this point, they even used “Wonder” in the title like a certain other platform game by Arzest…

 

[MegaBowser64]

From 0:17 to 0:21 in the trailer it looks like there could be some 2.5D going on...

 

[Skipsqueak]

it really does resemble one of those knock off mobile games, the ones you know not to click on

But also reminds me a lot of Dream Team

 

[winstein]

One rather odd thing about Elephant Mario is how unlike the other animal power-ups he's got, he turns into the specific animal with his clothes on, rather than wearing a onesie of that animal. So Cat Mario isn't Mario being morphed into a cat, or Frog Mario isn't Mario changing his appearance to be a frog. I wonder if they pondered on making Mario wear an elephant suit before deciding that they would rather him becoming an elephant instead of dressing up as one, given the characteristics it entails (e.g. the elephant's trunk)?

If that is the case, is it a new era where if animal powerups return, the characters become the animal? So maybe Mario with the Super Acorn becomes a mustachioed flying squirrel instead of dressing up as one? Or a Super Bell making Mario a real cat instead of a dressed up one? Or that Elephant Mario is practically the exception to the pattern?

Thank you for reading.