Topic: Super Mario Bros Wonder

I'm personally getting major Modern Rayman vibes from Wonder so far with how the levels themselves morph around Mario and co rather than it being strictly about Mario's skillset and when those Rayman games are some of the best 2D platformers of all time? That's immensely high praise

This art style reminds me of something...

Hmm

Hmmm

Hmmmmm

I didn't think they were gonna bring back NSMB but I'm still surprised at how actually new this looks. It looks wild and absurd, and I don't think they even needed to get THIS weird. Like I love the 3DS Kirby games and those are just another Kirby game with a gimmick or two added to it, that would've been enough. I'm curious how it will come together when playing it but for now, I'm impressed. Also it has an art style that's an actual style of some sort, in some way, that's nice.

Also kinda glad its not this year, I'm not gonna buy a lot of brand new games this year. and I didn't want to have to choose between this and the new Sonic game.

@kkslider5552000 It is this year! 20th of October.

@Dogorilla I realized this looking it up online like minutes ago lol

...well I choose to ignore this reality because I'm gonna wait. I don't even have Tears of the Kingdom yet, so that alone should prove my patience.

Mario. You’re number one.
Letsa Go

Would you look at that, a "New" Super Mario Bros. game that... actually has something new in it!
It's kind of amusing that the first Mario sidescroller to actually have something new for the first time in years... isn't a part of the "New" series

Finally, no more "Bah!"s...

Yeah, after New Super Mario on the Wii, the whole theme got old fast. I was hoping that one day they would make an actual new 2D Mario game, we finally got it.

I see people debating online as to whether or not Charles Martinet is still voicing Mario and friends in the Mario Bros Wonder trailer, and also the Wario voice. I’m pretty sure the narrator tried to make a Wario impression, either that or Martinet got punched in the gut while trying to say his Wario line. As for the Mario thing, it may be higher pitched. Recent games like Battle League and 3D World have a much higher Mario tone compared to the likes of the GameCube/Wii era Mario voice. Whether that is Martinet or Nintendo pitching his voice higher is up for debate, hence the online debate. Hmmm

Man, I’ve watched this trailer 6 times now. I’ve always been a sucker for 2D Mario. NSMBWii was one of the first games I played, just in general. That game gave me a lot of memories, and since then I’ve played pretty much every 2D Mario game. That’s nothing to brag about since they’re super popular, but they’ve always just had a special place in my heart. I still really liked NSMBU even though it is pretty basic. There was enough going for it for me to 100% it, like I’ve done with nearly every other 2D game.

But this, THIS looks like the 2D Mario to get the series back on track. It just looks so amazingly creative, something that the NSMB series was lacking in. The art style is amazing, the music is really fun and unique, and there actually looks to be quite a lot of humor in it! I’ve said it already, but this was easily the highlight of the Direct for me. Absolutely love everything they’ve shown so far.

This! I cannot understate how relieved I was when I saw they'd dropped the "New" branding. Those titles haven't been "New" in some time now. XD

Definitely a Nintendo Direct highlight for me.

I didn't think they were going to release a brand new 2D Mario, that seemed like it was better suited for a next gen launch title, but here we are. And this seems to be EXACTLY what 2D Mario needs, the last 10 years of 2D Mario games have felt so safe and repetitive and stale, and this game seems to be a much needed shakeup. This game is so wacky and trippy, and those are the kinds of Mario games I love. IMO Mario is at its best when it gets weird and this game seems to have the weirdness in spades. I love the Wonder Flower mechanic, kind of reminds me of Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair's state changes. Playtonic came up with a lot of crazy twists to their levels with that and this game looks like it's going to do even crazier twists. Looking forward to this one, I think it's going to be good.

It's about time they dropped the New title.

Wonder Seeds seem to be this game's equivalent of Star Coins or Green Stars, collectibles in the levels that can unlock new levels. Only this time, it looks like you get a free Wonder Seed just for beating the level.

I'm guessing they might be doing this to make the progression less linear, we see hints that the progression is a bit less strict in what looks to be the cloud world's world map where there's about 4 levels in the same section with seemingly no set order between them. I'm guessing there's not going to be much, if at all, restrictions of "You have to beat Level 1 to unlock Level 2" (which would be the major difference between this and say, the NSMB games and 3D Land/World which also had Star Coin/Green Star requirements in addition to requiring you to beat the last level to unlock the next, and it never really made much sense to require both of them since they conflict with each other), it seems like there might be some restrictions on needing a certain amount of Wonder Seeds to move on and it seems like the first (2?) world(s) have a recommended order, but for the most part I think the game is going to give you a bit more freedom of progression than we're accustomed to in a linear platformer. Like, you could choose to simply move on to the next level, you could choose to go back to a previous level and look for more Wonder Seeds, you could go complete optional levels/challenges/minigames, you could do whichever you're comfortable with the progress the game and potentially skip the content that you're struggling with provided you complete enough of the other content (which could DEFINITELY make the game more casual friendly, don't want casuals to ragequit the game because they're stonewalled by a tough level they're struggling to beat). That's where I think a "collectathon" element might come into play here.

Wow, in all of the other craziness I didn't even notice that, yes the timer seems to be gone for the most part and the game seems to let you take as much time as you want to complete the level. There are a few sections here and there which are timed, but they seem to be isolated to challenges that are either mini-levels or bonus rooms.

....All this, and lives are still a thing, for some reason. lol

I think I'm right in saying that the only 2D Mario games released in the last 10 years are the Mario Maker games, Mario Run and NSMBU Deluxe. So you're not wrong in the sense that Mario Maker and Run are fairly safe and repetitive despite being different to the main games, but it's crazy to think it's been over a decade since the last proper new 2D Mario!

IIRC, didn't the NSMB have some content that required Star Coins to unlock? I don't think they weren't quite as aggressive with it as 3D Land/World, but I don't think this is anything new for 2D Mario. I do seem to recall optional levels that could only be unlocked by collecting a certain amount of Star Coins.

I think the potential removal of strict progression is the reason they're giving out Wonder Seeds at the end of the level though, it doesn't make much sense otherwise. Collectibles like Star Coins, Green Stars, and Wonder Seeds in linear platformers are primarily designed to be hidden bonuses for 100%ing the game. They're extra challenges for skilled players that want to get the most out of the game. 3D Land/World's system never really made much sense in that regard, they retained the traditional progression system of "beat the last level to unlock the next" but also layered on collectathon elements of "collect X number of collectibles to progress", it made them the worst of both worlds making those typically above and beyond challenges mandatory while lacking the flexible progression system of typical collectathons. Rewarding the player with a Wonder Seed when beating the level helps them not fall into that trap, because now completing the levels becomes a part of that collection element. You can fulfill those collection requirements simply by making it to the goal in each level and nothing else. That system would be the best of both worlds, still retaining the simplistic game structure of traditional linear platformers while offering the flexible progression of collectathons.

Well again it IS there for some select Wonder Flower challenges, but for the general gameplay you're right. We can see a short timer for the section with the hippos bouncing off each other, the herd of rhinos (Reznors?), and the skydiving section. There also seems to be an upward counting timer when you're racing the skating Wiggler. From the sounds of it, some, but not all Wonder Flower sections are going to be timed (there are some that aren't such as the one with the pipes coming to life, the one with all of the characters stretching vertically, and the one where Mario turns into a ball).

Technically 13, as the later NSMB entries are part of that. I just said 10 years for simplicity.

My very important questions:

1) Can you ride other players in co-op? Because it looked a whole lot like Yoshi was playable (unless it was a transformation) and Mario is definitely riding a Yoshi which was indicated the same way players were on other screens.

2) Will we get Toadette? We better!

3) Will we get multiple colors of Toadette?

4) Will there be a zebra outfit? Actually it would be kind of hilarious if there was no squirrel, no cat, no frog, no new animals, only elephant mario.

Glad you liked it, this could be a really strong re-start for the series. It became a complete sellout with the "New" games so seeing them go back to the root and seemingly recapture that magic is gonna be very exciting. Having said that though... man it took them this long? We haven't had an original Mario 2D/3D game in six years!

The segments where you touch the flower and get a wonder seed at the end feel like they take inspiration from the "Refreshing Special" type of Mario Maker 2 levels. Those always seemed to be the most popular type of Mario Maker 2 levels.