This might not be something that most people care about or even notice, but I must say, when I saw the Wonder artwork I was delighted to see that they'd fixed Mario's design and reverted him back to his old look. In the previous generation they had absolutely nailed the 3D Mario artwork. As we can see from these beauties.
So there was no need to fix what wasn't broken, or change things for the sake of changing them, but alas, that's what they did. In the most recent (non-port) Mario games on the Switch (such as Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Party, Mario Party Superstars), they'd given Mario a more realistic look, and I really did not like it. It looks busy, cluttered and just kind of ugly. It doesn't make sense to make stylized cartoon characters realistic, they just end up looking like creepy dolls. Also, simplicity is very important when it comes to character design. Obviously not so simple that the character is bland and uninteresting, but simple enough that a child could perfectly draw it from memory. That's what helps make a character iconic, so adding in extra superfluous detail isn't generally a good idea. That's one of the reasons why Mario is such a popular and iconic character; his design falls right in that sweet spot. But as you can see in the images below, they decided to add in all this extra realistic detail; They added very prominent realistic detail to the fabric of his dungarees, and also very prominent seams and stitching. His moustache was now a weird mishmash of the original stylized cartoony moustache, but now also with realistic strands of hair (which makes no sense). They added extra unnecessary buttons on his pockets. He now has shiny gold buttons instead of the normal bright yellow ones (in most contexts, gold isn't actually a very pleasant colour. It tends to look garish and vulgar. Another reason why Mario is such an aesthetically-pleasing character is that his colours are the three primary colours; red, blue and a bit of yellow). You'll even notice that the colour fades towards the edges of the dungarees, so they actually added decay and deterioration to their own character design... Hell, why not add a big gravy stain on there while they're at it? Whoever Nintendo was trying to impress with this, they don't exist. I just don't think it's as nice as the normal, simple, clean, cartoony aesthetic.
To me this was clearly born out of the dark days of the Wii U (when Odyssey was being developed), indicative of a company lost and drained of confidence. You just know that at some point someone said "We need Mario to look more next-gen!" These are the sort of design decisions you make when you're not in control of your own destiny. It doesn't seem like the sort of decision that Nintendo would make in normal circumstances. So who knows, maybe in the future, people will be able to gauge the health of Nintendo at any given time based on the realism of Mario's clothes!
So now that brings us to the Super Mario Bros. Wonder artwork, and like I said, I was delighted when I saw it. They've pretty much fixed all the issues that I mentioned in the list above. There is actually still a bit of texture on the clothes, but it's considerably toned down, nowhere near as noticeable and distracting and egregious as before.
So anyway, I realize that's probably the longest you've ever spent reading a rant about the texture of a fictional character's dungarees...
@Haywired I think the semi-realistic look works well with Mario Odyssey imo. A bit more debateable for Mario Party, but either way, I think both designs have their charm!
@Nintoz
I'm not hugely keen on his movie design, however, it's fine because it's its own separate thing and is supposed to look different and 'off-model'. Kind of like how his design in the Mario comics has always been deliberately separate to the normal mainline design.
@Tanookduke Hmmm, I would be suprised if they did to be honest.
Mario games don't typically receive demos (with exception of Rabbids and Battle League) and I think that's because and soon as a game with Mario is announced there's usually enough hype and interest to not warrant releasing a demo.
Also some people have mentioned the danger of datamining which may reveal secrets in the game that will get spoilt across the internet. (Sakurai made a cool video about it here)
I know they went to the effort of making one for Nintendo Live/Journalists but as much as I would love to try it, I think we'll have to wait until it releases!
Game looks great and the Wonder-flower effects will be fun. And the Elephant and Drill-hat look fun too (though the Drill-hat is just a variation on the Drill from Mario Galaxy 2). But the Bubbles power-up looks lame. All the characters play the same. And there are no missions (the badge-missions probably don't count). I loved the missions in New super Mario bros u and felt it gave some body to the game.
@Henmii I suspect there are a ton of things they haven't shown us yet. There could be missions or any number of other things either in the base game or eventual DLC.
As for the bubble power-up, I agree the outfits aren't super exciting, but the platforming tricks by jumping off your own bubbles looks fun! I also wonder if there are any more power-ups they haven't shown us.
I'm still hoping the Tanooki Leaf and Super Bell make a cameo appearance. That would be so cool!
I'd be shocked if there were no bonus world to explore aswell.
@Nintoz They said 7 worlds, but Bowser's-castle-world plus a bonus world is pretty much guaranteed. I wouldn't be surprised if they even went the 3D world route and had multiple bonus worlds.
I'm not sure about Tanooki suit, but most Mario games have some form of flying power-up. 🤔 Maybe we'll get a new one.
bee, bullet mask, cape, bunny outfit, squirrel, p-balloon, propeller, tanooki/raccoon, flying yoshi. There have been so many different flying power-ups.
@HenryKibble Actually that gives me the idea to start 2 separate files. File1 for Mario & Co. & File 2 for Yoshi/Nabbit. By that, for file 1, I'm not allowing myself to use Yoshi or Nabbit for ANY REASON WHATSOEVER. Just as an example. I can use Peach/Daisy or Toads/Toadette or Luigi if I ever get tired of playing as Mario.
I do want to see some players impose some challenges of their own onto themselves. And Wonder is definitely ripe for these kind of opportunities. Though mines sounds EXTREMELY basic & simple but it's better being simplistic to some extent.
I sell my famous Chesapeake Tupperware.
I ACCEPT NO DEBIT CARDS!
DO YOU HEAR ME!?!
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot I'm going to guess that there'll be some kind of bonus for beating every single level as any character EXCEPT for Yoshi or Nabbit.
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot I'm going to guess that there'll be some kind of bonus for beating every single level as any character EXCEPT for Yoshi or Nabbit.
@HenryKibble There isn't in Super Mario Brothers U Deluxe. I doubt they want to make people feel bad for using what is essentially an accessibility option. 3D world does keep track of who beats a level, but since every character is different in that game, it makes sense to.
As stated by Shiro Mouri in an interview, Daisy was made playable because his two daughters would often fight over who got to play as Peach in past Mario games, and was hoping that the fights would be resolved by giving them the option to also play as Daisy. Nonetheless, he also mentions in the interview that he thought that “having Daisy would be something that a lot of Mario fans would be happy with!”.
Not to go off-topic, but just for those who read my post on the previous page (about how happy I was to see that with Wonder they had gone back to the simple, clean cartoony Mario design and gotten rid of all the ultra-realistic clothes textures, stitching, seams, extra buttons, etc. that they had on Odyssey and the recent Mario Parties, because I think it's ugly and cluttered and distracting and just fundamentally bad character design), well you won't be surprised to learn what my reaction was when I saw what they'd done to Luigi in the upcoming Luigi’s Mansion 2 remake...
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Topic: Super Mario Bros Wonder
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