It feels like there's a new Mario game every couple of months, with ports and updates and sports or Party games, but we've been waiting a long time for a real Mario game to come along. Not since 2017's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Odyssey have we had a fresh Mario adventure, until October's Super Mario Wonder answers our prayers. Wonder already has two big green ticks next to its name, with the double reveal that a) 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:we'll get to play as Daisy, and b) the New Super Mario art style is well and truly🅷 dead. It shall not be mourned. But as the release creeps closer, I find myself thinking about what levels themselves could lo♛ok like, and if one of my📖 favourite Mario experiences could be replicated.
While Super Mario Odyssey was the last mainline Mario, that was a 3D affair that took Mario to exotic locations he could freely explore, wandering in and out of buildings, finding secrets in alleyways, and discovering random puzzles along his zigzagged route to glory. Wonder is a more traditional, 2D Mario, the likes of which we haven't seen since New Super Mario Bros. U in 2012. Mario will have a lot more tricks up his sleeve with a decade to contemplate where he goes next, but it's New Super Mario Bros. U's crowning glory that I'm most hopeful for.
New Super Mario Bros. U had a level called Don't. Touch. Anything., and you can probably guess what you had to do. Don't. Touch. Anything. is like the anti-Mario level. It's like the most sadistic Mario Maker levels, except it feels fair rather than obnoxiously cruel. In the level, you can't touch any enemies or any destructible boxes, being met with an instant game over if you do. And I don't just mean get clipped by an enemy, you can't even jump on them to get rid of them. No touching at all. You can also only grab a maximum of five coins throughout the entire level, and predictably, it is littered with coins.
Your every instinct as a Mario player is thrown upside down. It doesn't matter if you can make that jump - can you make it without grabbing a coin? Can you jump without breaking that box? Can you avoid that enemy rather than just killing it? But in other ways, it is the perfect Mario level distilled. The reason Mario has endured on the 2D plane is its mechanical nature, and it's also why I don't always care for those Mario Maker levels that trick you with off-screen hazards. You aren’t ever left wondering what to do in a 2D Mario, only if you can do it. Don't. Touch. Anything. is the same - the goal is simple, the jumps are straight-forward. The only question is are you good enough.
It has been Mario tradition to shake things up with a level that either spikes out of nowhere or forces you to think differently, but Don't. Touch. Anything. has always seemed the most creative. It's a troll level, asking players to rise to the challenge. I don't need Wonder to recreate it, necessarily, only to keep the tradition alive. 2D Mario is the purest Mario, and Don't Touch. Anything. defies convention to make it the most Mario level of all time. Wonder needs to bring its A-game if it hopes to keep the Mario spirit alive.