The surprise is the Super Mario Bros. Wonder engine. The feeling of not knowing what awaits you on the next screen has always characterized the games of this character, but the new installment for Nintendo Switch that hits stores this Friday further underlines that emotion that so few video games are capable of transmitting.
Mario’s new adventure wants to be so surprising that, to begin with, it doesn’t even take place in his usual setting, but instead transfers the action to the hitherto unpublished Flower Kingdom. There are also mushrooms in this one, but what stands out are its flowers, talking plants that are as capable of singing and giving advice as they are of transporting the player to amazing parallel worlds.
Let’s admit it: The Italian plumber’s games have always raised suspicions about the sources and methods of inspiration of the Nintendo team, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder is already on another level. Although we were recently able to interview Shiro Mouri and Takashi Tezuka, director and producer of the title in question, we still don’t know what these people eat for breakfast before going to work, but we do know that when it comes to creativity they have no rival. They are the best.
If traditional side-scrolling Mario games have always been characterized by offering a new idea or mechanic in each level – it is something that is very studied – in this new adventure it is possible that several of them converge within the same screen. great and unique situations. The causes of this are the Wonder Flowers, a new item that transports the characters to a parallel dimension in which the established rules are subverted. The pipes bend, gravity is reversed, time slows down, perspective changes… We could continue and we wouldn’t finish.
They are also surprised by the new transformations of Mario and company. The most striking is the elephant, an idea that arose with the desire for players to experience what it would be like to have a bigger and stronger body. Other notable new powers are the ability to launch bubbles that trap enemies or turn into a drill that can move underground. However, a server’s favorite transformation is Jelly Mario, controlling him is so enjoyable that I would ask Nintendo for an entire game with this character.
Speaking of control, nothing new under the sun. Sorry for the rhyme. The gamefeel – let’s get splendid – is wonderful. Nintendo has always taken great care of the sensations that its games transmit to the hands to the millimeter and in this new installment the result is glorious. It is not a minor detail, it is the most important thing in a platform game and here it is indescribable how good it feels to control the characters.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an easy game. I would say very easy, although here the experience – not the skill – of the writer also has something to do with it. Getting to the credits to see who will be the voice actor who will voice Super Mario from now on –Kevin Afghani– took me about eight hours, which is not a few for a 2D Mario game, but also They didn’t know much about me once the trip was over.
None of the levels have been overly challenging for me, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You can see that this is a delivery very designed to play with family and friends. The new Super Mario adventure breaks – finally – with the New Super Mario Bros. series, but maintains this multiplayer component in which up to four players run and jump in a chaotic but fun way, after all.
The game prioritizes surprise over challenge. What it seeks is for the player to smile – and it achieves this – and not so much for a level to be a challenge of millimeter precision as in some previous installments. Another way to convey this emotion is through the secrets that flood all levels. In this sense, another notable novelty is very important, such as badges, which allow each player to give their character a special movement.
The game is designed graphically and sonically so that adults and children alike – especially the latter – are surprised and burst out laughing at every detail. The new visual style is the best a 2D Super Mario game has had since the days of the Super Nintendo. The music, on the other hand, seemed to me below what this saga has accustomed us to, mainly because it doesn’t quite connect with either the tone or the playability.
Surprising is exactly what Nintendo has been doing all its life. When in the sixties and seventies, before entering the world of video games, they created mechanical gadgets and toys, their main obsession was to provoke that fleeting emotion that is surprise. Super Mario Bros. Wonder marvels with its ideas and is an explosion of creativity. It may not be the best Mario game ever created, but that doesn’t matter when it makes you play the entire time with a smile.