Super Mario Bros. Wonder developers discuss Nintendo's push to reinvent its classic side-scrolling formula
01.09.2023 - 08:17
/ eurogamer.net
/ Flower Kingdom
/ Shiro Mouri
/ Mario
/ Nintendo
It's been 11 years since the last proper Mario side-scroller, a fact that surprises Nintendo's veteran exec Takashi Tezuka when I point it out. Tezuka has worked on dozens of projects since the launch of 2012's New Super Mario Bros. U — including Super Mario Maker, Nintendo's create-your-own-Mario sandbox. Still, such a wait for more handcrafted Mario levels seems notable.
Why so long? Speaking with Nintendo, it sounds like the company's desire to keep its classic side-scrolling formula fresh has remained paramount. There have been so many 2D Mario games now — including a whole string of releases that sought to emphasise their freshness by sticking "New Super Mario" in their title. After those — and after letting players go wild with the company's own Mario toolkit — what could Nintendo do next? Something that feels truly new again, I'm happy to report.
In Super Mario Bros. Wonder I can be a Mario who shoots bubbles, capturing enemies and errant koopa shells in upwards floating soap suds, then suddenly transform into some form of sentient goomba — though I'm still Mario with his iconic hat, of course. Waddling across platforms and dodging enemies via stealth mechanics, I pass a talking flower who loudly wonders how I'll taste. Sure, why not.
«There was a lot of feeling about creating something else, something new,» Tezuka tells me, in an interview conducted after a hands-on session last week at Gamescom. «After Mario Maker I was actually asked by a lot of people about what's next — what's gonna happen next? I told them that at the time we were still thinking of a lot of new things to do. So I'm glad we now have the opportunity to show them!»
«In terms of the concept for creating a new Mario, we came up with the concept of mystery and secrets,» Super Mario Bros. Wonder's director Shiro Mouri, adds. Mouri has been with Nintendo since 1997 and previously directed New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, after working as a programmer on various 2D Mario and Zelda titles. «The first Super Mario game was full of secrets and mystery,» he continues, noting how power-ups and warp pipes — now-familiar items to any Mario fan — were once surprises.
«As we were developing more and more side-scrolling Mario games, the challenge became that these kinds of secrets and surprises were more and more normalised to players,» Mouri continues. «So I thought it'd be important to create a side-scrolling Mario that really fit the day and age that we live in now.
»You need to try harder to try and surprise these players."
Well, Super Mario Bros. Wonder definitely does that. A brilliantly original take on Nintendo's classic Mario formula, the game sees Mario and friends exploring the Flower Kingdom, a new world brought to life