Super Mario Bros. Wonder's Estimated File Size Is Revealed On Switch eShop

Nintendo are the kings of compression. And I don't think there will be (m)any full rendered video's or audio in the game. Keeping the size reasonably low.

I'm more amazed by the size of SuperMarioRPG.

It doesn't need to be huge. It's the size it needs to be and looks amazing so who cares.

Nope. This, alongside RPG, are finally Switch Mario games I really want to get physical, despite the price increase from doing so in my country.

Still not that big but still a little chunky on the side. But either way, I'm looking forward to playing this game soon in Fall or Winter. Most likely Winter due to Sonic SuperStars being released close to Super Mario Bros Wonder.

nobody is talking about where is the next 3D Mario, October this year will be 6 years since Odyssey

@KBuckley27 On the next console, which will be released either next year or in 2025.

I love Nintendo's small file sizes. It doesn't seem to be a priority for any of the other game developers.

My 256GB switch sdcard still have a lot of space left, while my 800GB ps5 storage is already gone after installing final fantasy 16

We should only be praising compression for efficiency's sake (particularly for those who plan on downloading the game), not where developers/publishers sacrifice A/V quality in order to squeeze a game onto a smaller cartridge/disc for the physical release.

Nintendo are usually good in this regard, but they did skimp on a 32GB cart for Smash Ultimate by compressing the hell out of the 29 hour (give or take) soundtrack, for example.

I suspect that Nintendo will also compress Super Mario RPG just a touch more so that they aren't forced to use a slightly more expensive 16GB cartridge for a game that only just barely requires it (unless the manufacturing cost to them is negligible, if not nonexistent).

@KBuckley27 : While perhaps not a full-fledged experience, we did get Bowser's Fury since then.

I suspect that Nintendo may be sitting on a few big-hitters and saving them for the next console. But who knows? Maybe next holiday season we'll end up with a sequel/follow-up to Odyssey, even 7.5 years into the lifespan of the console. Crazier things have happened.

I normally go the physical retail route, but I've found myself rarely grabbing digital this gen if there's a really good discount AND the file size is within my comfort zone. Both WarioWare: Move It! and Super Mario Bros. Wonder are within that zone....Though I might still go physical with the latter.

Another detailed 2D platformer that is probably a better comparison than NL offerings, is DKC Tropical Freeze which is a whooping 6.6GB, which means...

it's simply hard to predict if one game will be 'bigger' than another in any sense beyond GBs.

@KBuckley27 Mario Kart 8 is 9 years old and they still can't count to 9

Memories filled up on both storage devices and
I really hate deleting and redownloading games. I'm really grateful physical (that you don't have to install) media is still a thing! It's the only way I'm getting all these Mario games!

These devs just get more high every Mario game lol

@KBuckley27 people are absolutely talking about this. they have been for years and this announcement didn't stop them.

Definitive proof that size doesn't matter. Although having said that, when I started gaming, file sizes were not measured in Gb or Mb, but Kb!

@KBuckley27 ok, but we've waited 10 years for a new 2d mario, 3d fans can wait a bit too

Definitely awesome that Nintendo delivers the good without wasting too many file size.

They should make some Files optional on other Games.
For Example, it was possible to delete Audio Files on Doom 2016 and Eternal and save up tp 10 GB.
I mean, i don't need russian, japanese and others when i'll never use them.
Also they could make you choose Texture Sizes on the Beginning, don't have a 4K TV? Why waste so much Space for the Textures...

that's a small Twinkie.

So they actually failed to press it into a 4 GB cartridge.

I wasn't expecting a huge file size from a Mario Bros game. Even though it's Wonder.

But I just had to check this and yeah Super Mario Odyssey is apparently 5.7GB. So while much larger, and while nearly 1.4 whole GB's more, in some ways it's still not that much more.

Nice though.

Glad to hear these aren't too big. I recently upgraded from a 256GB to a 512GB microSD card because I have so many digital games.
Though getting Super Mario RPG physically is very tempting.

@Faucet yeah I’m in the same boat. I was interested in the Batman collection and the MGS collection they just announced but now that it turns out they are mostly downloads, I may pass on at least one of them just because of space…

Tears of the Kingdom is 16gb. Nintendo knows how to utilize the Switch’s resources.

@MSaturn two more collections of games I've never played that almost instantly went from "Absolutely yes" to "**** no", just like the GTA Trilogy and the Kingdom Hearts collections.
I may get the Metal Gear Solid one just for the original Metal Gear and the NES games.

As for SMBW, I hope the bigger size means more levels or longer levels. Though I understand if the extra GBs are used for all the craziness going on during gameplay.

The audio files containing recordings of that talking flower probably accounts for a significant proportion of the game's overall file size lol

Assuming that there aren't any pre-rendered cutscenes, it would be very difficult to make a 2d platformer thats larger than that. Think about how large your average mp3 album is. Transparent Png files. 3d model data (not the textures) is stored in what is essentially text files giving the co-ordinates. Compiled code is again, mostly text.

Right now I'm working on an enormous 2d metroidvania with a huge variety of unique landscapes/buildings, gigantic amount of sprite work, thousands of unique objects, hundreds of unique characters, tonnes of animation including full screen anime style cutscenes (not pre-rendered video but using the game engine and large sprites). Even full voice acting for all characters.

During development I've not really spent any effort to keep filesizes small. The only thing I'd say is because its running at a base resolution of 424x240, the individual sprite sizes are quite small - 4.5x smaller than a 1080p game. Like Sonic Mania, all assets are in 240p then internally integer scaled upwards. But there are still probably more frames of animation, individual sprires, variety in backgrounds etc than anyone could reasonably expect in a 2d platformer.

Baring all that in mind, even before attempting any kind of compression or optimisation (other than standard png for graphics and mp3 for audio files) the folder including all of the uncompressed assets and uncompiled code is under 1 gb - around 875mb in fact. I've no doubt that when we release on Switch it will be on the 4gb smallest cart size, and yet it will be one of the biggest games on the platform as far as variety and runtime (if you were to go for 100% completion).

[edit - This part is wrong! I was being stupid, ignore!] Of course, Mario Wonder is running at 4.5x the base resolution, so its reasonable for the file sizes to be 4.5x bigger. So thats 3.9gb. [/edit]

As the article pointed out, a good comparison is NSMBU at 2.5gb. The underlying programing will be very similar, as will the size for music. So that would imply we will have about 170% the frames of animation. Considering what we've seen of the extra nice little animation touches, plus the extra number of characters, that seems perfectly reasonable.

(and yes I'm aware that the majority of the game will be using 3d models not sprites... but again, the data for the models themselves is minimal in file size, its the texture, lighting data and extra 2d effects drawn on top - like the movements lines, facial expression animation changes etc that I'm refering to - which in a game with this much animation is a fair comparisson to 2D sprites, especially when you factor in that most of the animation data for the 3d models is no longer auto tweening between key frames but is actually a unique hand positioned frame, more similar to good quality Pixar animation, so the individual point data for the geometry will change with each frame too)

@wiiware Same here; PS5 space goes too quickly.

No studio gives a crud about trying to save space except Nintendo, just a waste of time and money for them. Most companies like taking up more space so you can't have any other games competing with theirs for your attention.

@Maulbert I don't think that's the case. Many companies have more than just one game available on Switch to begin with so they would affect themselves too. It's simply a matter of not investing more time and resources to do it because more money spent reduces their profit and takes time that could be invested on future projects. Not to mention that people are already buying them without them doing that. Let's also consider that making a game for a specific console allows better optimization and that might not be possible with many third party games.

Nintendo NEEDS to allow us to use a hard drive if they refuse to make/force 3rd party developers and publishers fit games all on a cartridge!

@roy130390 I'm not just talking about the Switch. I've seen a lot of PC and PS/Xbox gamers complain about file sizes.

8gb for Mario Rpg has gotten me excited. It's not a long or huge game by any means, so having a file size that large gives me hope that's it's not just a straight up hd remake.

It’s so refreshing to see smaller file sizes for games these days. I can’t stand when I need to download 400GB for an Xbox and PS5 game, even when I have the disc inserted!

@wiiware
Do you also have your ps5 overheating from ff16?
My cousin had that problem.

Seriously, Nintendo could make a side gig as compression specialists

@Maulbert I mean... you did mention Nintendo compared to other companies. Also, this applies regardless of the company and console.

The problem on the new Xbox and PlayStation games is the ssd cost. It was one thing having big file sizes on an Xbox one where it was cheap to add an external drive. But without cheap storage of course PlayStation and Xbox fans are worried about large games.

@samuelvictor The sprites in a 1080p game would be 20.25x larger than a 240p game, since they have the 4.5x the horizontal resolution and 4.5x the vertical resolution

@GX_64 Ah yes, you are right of course, that was an obvious sloppy mistake, sorry!

However the rest of my points stand as I'm 99% sure that what we're seeing in the trailer is 3d models not pre-rendered sprites, so the 20.25x larger only counts for 2d assets (or flat 3d plains) that face the screen. Of course theres no way for us to know how big the texture maps are, but I'd guess no bigger than 512x512.

My main point (before I rambled on about my own game in a "I've drunk too much coffee and my brain is looking for an excuse to be distracted from work" state) was meant to be that its a perfectly reasonable file size and people shouldn't expect it to be bigger or think that it would mean a small game or not having much variety. In fact, if it was much bigger than that, I'd expect the files size was being bloated by cinemtatics, which Nintendo don't tend to do, usually using in engine cutscenes.

@KBuckley27 I talk about it to myself every day. I was sure there'd be an odyssey 2.. bit doesn't look like it. Maybe waiting for the switch 2? But then the odyssey team are supposedly making a DK open world game. Odyssey was my favorite switch game so I'm ready for more mainline mario.

@The-Chosen-one Nope, I usually play at night in my room using air conditioner. But then again I'm still in early part of the game, I hope my ps5 didn't heat up though lol.

@ERGgamin Yup. I still want to play some games like ubisoft the division 2 but the game file size is more than 100GB, I want to buy ssd for ps5 but I know in the end I will just hoard the game and not play it

Newsflash - nobody cares about the file size

@sanderev Yeah. But from the looks of the trailer it almost looks like certain segments are straight up pre-rendered cutscenes now, so perhaps that hikes up the size.