In the latest Nintendo Direct, Nintendo revealed a brand new 2D Mario game called “Super Mario Bros. Wonder”. Unlike the notoriously unoriginal New Super Mario Bros. games, Wonder takes the core of 2D Mario and adds a creative and strange twist to the familiar gameplay. So, unlike what could have been done with the New Super Mario games, let’s take a look at 15 of the coolest details in the trailer for Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Because no videos are paired with what is explained in this post, I suggest having the game trailer on a separate screen to show what I am explaining. For some picks, the single picture does not show everything I mention.
1. No Timer or Score
One key detail that separates Super Mario Bros. Wonder from all of Mario’s past 2D adventures is the lack of a timer or score tracker. In the New Super Mario Bros. games (aside from New Super Luigi U), you would have up to 500 seconds before the timer ran out. The timer was never an important aspect of the game, and by the time you finished the level you’d still have at least a decent amount of time left on the clock. This extra time goes into your score, which also doesn’t appear in the Super Mario Bros. Wonder gameplay. This definitely shows how Wonder is moving on from the New series by erasing a feature that meant absolutely nothing in the game.
2. Extra Item Slot
Unlike the timer and score being prominent factors in the 2D Mario games, This feature has only been in one 2D title — at least in this form. During the trailer, take a look under Mario’s life count in the top left corner of the screen and you’ll find an empty circle with an A-button icon attached to it. If this is what I think it is, it seems to be an extra power-up slot, in which you can hold an extra power-up in this spot. When you want to use it, click the A button for it to appear. While this has only appeared in Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 3 and the New Super Mario Bros. games did allow you to hold multiple items throughout the game, in which you could use one before entering a level. However, there is one small aspect that sets this item slot apart from Super Mario World. In multiplayer scenes, smaller and less prominent circles appear to the right of the bigger circle with the number of total circles equal to the number of players. In Super Mario 3D World, its item slot worked the exact same way with every player having their item slot. So, it seems like this helpful item slot is back, though more like its appearance in 3D World than Super Mario World. And it seems like the multi-item holder on the world map won’t be here as there is no button icon shown in the scenes showing the overworld that are for this feature.
3. 10-Purple Coins
Not only are there purple coins in this game like the 3D games, though more like Super Mario Odyssey as it seems, there are also larger purple coins with a 10 on them shown, meaning they are worth ten purples. However, unlike how they work in Super Mario Maker 2, they seem to do a bit more. While they do award Mario 10 purple coins in the scene where he zips across the new platforms Mario hangs onto (the picture above), a graphic also pops up in the top right corner of the screen. This graphic shows three outlines on these 10-coins, even with the 10 in the middle. The leftmost coin is also filled in as the graphic appears. So, it seems like while giving Mario 10 purple coins, these will also function similar to star coins in the New Super Mario games and Super Mario 3D Land, or the Green Stars from Super Mario 3D World. Star Coins have always been a fun addition to the 2D games, so it’s nice to see them back — though it seems like they’re in slightly different form in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
4. Purple Coin Count into Decimals
Something odd happens to purple coins after grabbing a Wonder Flower — or so it seems. In every scene after Mario has grabbed a Wonder Flower, the purple coin counter in the top left corner of the screen adds a decimal point and a tenths place. In these scenes, there are no normal purple coins. Instead, they are smaller, like shards, and count as one tenth of a purple coin, which is shown as Mario collects them as they add to the counter. Interesting, right? These purple coins are very, very strange altogether.
5. Free-Roaming World Maps
Another neat feature fixing an issue with the New Super Mario games is with the world as, so it seems, you can free-roam the overworld maps. But here’s what’s strange — in the two scenes showing characters walking across the maps, one confirms this detail to be true and the other contradicts it. In the Luigi scene, Luigi moves linearly from one level to the next on a path with familiar looking dots. However, in a later scene with Mario and Yellow Toad, they aren’t walking on a specific path. Instead, they’re just running around the clouds. There aren’t even dots on the cloud they are running on. So, what is this about? Are the world free-roaming like Super Mario 3D World or are they just as linear as the past 2D Mario games?
6. Larger Characters
In the original New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, Mario could power-up with a mega mushroom to get huge, letting him stomp through all the enemies and obstacles in levels. This Mega Mushroom also appeared in Super Mario 3D World and other games since. It works pretty much the same in all of its appearances being a temporary ability letting Mario smash through levels. In Super Mario Bros. Wonder, there is no confirmation that this power is back, but in the trailer we do see characters larger than usual — including a multiplayer scene where only Peach is big, as well as a scene where Mario fights who seems to be a new version of Bowser Jr. In the boss scene, Fire Mario shoots Jr. before getting smaller as Jr. grows larger. It doesn’t seem like these larger sizes are from the mega mushroom, but what they are from is unknown.
7. On/Off Blocks
The Super Mario Bros. Wonder trailer confirms that the On/Off block, last seen in Super Mario World (outside of Mario Maker 2) will return. Now, even though this block was last seen in Super Mario World, a similar block appeared in 3D World being the ! Block used to toggle the track directions of switchboards. However the On/Off Block seen very briefly in the Wonder trailer shows a function we’ve never seen with the block. When Mario switches the block on, the area goes dark. While you can only see the eyes of the characters, one important aspect is revealed — literally! In the top right corner, the darkness reveals a glowing Wonder Seed, which can’t be seen with the lights on. It’s unclear if the On/Off Block will have other functions as well, such as ones we’ve seen it do before, but so far at least one new toggle has been shown off.
8. Flowers in Overworld
Not only can Mario and friends use their hats to float, they can also seemingly fly with flowers in the wind. However, this doesn’t look to be quite as interesting as it does at first. In the top left corner, a few icons are shown laid out in horizontal fashion, unlike stacked on top of each other as in the other gameplay scenes. Instead, this is how these icons are laid out in the clip where Luigi is exploring the overworld map, showing this is actually the world map. You can even see part of another world in the back, complete with a dotted path and a Toad (sorry, Egg) house along the path. So, it seems as though you’ll use flowers to fly from world to world, using the wind to help you soar across the sky. If you ask me, it’s much more interesting than hopping into a cannon.
9. Wonder Seed At the End of Levels
Alright, let’s talk about Wonder Seeds. It isn’t very clear what exactly these collectibles do, however they do have one function we know of that we’ll talk about in a moment. So, when Luigi goes past the level ‘Welcome to the Flower Kingdom!’ there are two Wonder Seed icons in the bottom left corner of the pop-up preview of the stage. The following level, ‘Piranha Plants on Parade’ includes two dotted outlines of Wonder Seeds, meaning there are two Seeds to find in both of these levels — or so it seems, as it turns out you only have to find one. Let me explain. So, at the end of the trailer when Mario and friends finish a level, the Egg creature comes out of his house and throws Mario a Wonder Seed. This fills in the second outline for the level, being the second seed in the stage. This means that (at least in this stage) Mario only needed to find one seed, with him getting the other at the end of the level. Interesting.
10. Wonder Seeds End Wonder Flower Effect
Though we know very little about Wonder Seeds, we do see one thing they can do. When Mario picks up a Wonder Seed before the game’s logo pops up, the world goes back to normal after the weirdness caused by Mario touching a Wonder Flower. So, it seems like in sections of these stages, Mario will hit a flower, go through this wondrous portion, and collect a seed to go back to normal. Interesting.
11. Caterpillar
It appears that a new character might be helping Mario and friends in their newest journey — in some form. Take a look at Mario during the scene with the On/Off block. Before Mario turns the lights off, take a look at the creature on Mario’s back. It seems to be a caterpillar with a crown. The scene of Mario and friends finishing a level gives a much better look at the creature, as it hops off Mario to celebrate. I’m very confused but intrigued on what this caterpillar might be about. I have two ideas: One, it could be a helper that gives Mario a new ability throughout his journey, such as Luma in Mario Galaxy and Cappy in Mario Odyssey; or Two, what if the story is centered around this creature? We know Bowser’s back because of his airship in one (this) scene, but we know he didn’t take Peach since she’s a playable character. So maybe the caterpillar will act like the Sprixies in 3D World. However, this is just speculation because I have no idea.
12. Difficulty Levels
Let’s take a look back (yet again) at the Luigi scene with him exploring the world map. There’s actually a neat detail seen on the pop-up preview when Luigi stops next to a level. In the bottom-right corner of the pop-up, there’s a single star with the word ‘difficulty’ next to it. This seems to represent the difficulty of the level, with the number of stars depicting how hard the stage is, similar to Super Mario Maker 2’s story mode, in which each level at a certain amount of 4 outlined stars filled in. Now here’s my question: Mario Maker 2 had this difficulty level for players to know which level they should play and which they should steer clear of. However, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is, as it seems so far, a linear experience. So, if you wouldn’t be able to choose which levels you play, what’s the point of this difficulty level? Or does this confirm that the entire game won’t be as linear as this world looks to be? That cloud world didn’t seem to have any direct path after all, so maybe in some worlds you’ll be able to pick what levels you want to play.
13. Crowns
Yet again I have found what seems to be a feature in the game that was originally used in 3D World. In the multiplayer scenes, one of the characters has a crown icon above their head. Now, I think I may know what this is about because of 3D World, but it definitely won’t work quite the same. Here’s what I mean: in 3D World, when you finish a level in multiplayer, the game will show which player had the highest score. The player in 1st place would have a crown on their head during the following level (unless another player bonked it off). However, Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t have a score tracker as I’ve already mentioned. Could it have to do with collecting the most purple coins or killing the most enemies? The crown could be for something else, but I think is probably the most likely thought for what the crown is.
14. Checkpoints
Checkpoints are back! Having appeared in pretty much every 2D and 3D Mario title since the original New Super Mario Bros., checkpoint flags, which save your progress from the flag if you die, are back in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. When Mario and Peach are floating with their large hats, a checkpoint appears on the next platform. Nice!
15. Smooth, Bounce-less Multiplayer
Multiplayer has been a key feature in 2D Mario since New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and it’s in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. However, Wonder’s multiplayer seems to act a bit different than the New Super Mario Bros. games and even Super Mario Maker 2. The best way to see this is in the scene with this gigantic snowball ramming through the level. Notice anything? Well, none of the characters are picking each other up or bouncing off each other. This means that the hectic and monstrous multiplayer from the New Super Mario Bros. games is finally going to play easier and more fun.
Did you notice any of these in the Super Mario Bros. Wonder trailer? What else did you notice? Let me know in the comments.
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