2023 has been a huge year for video games so far. Not only has it been packed with fantastic games, but for me personally, my son has reached the age where he can grab a controller and play with me. And not the old trick of handing them a disconnected controller and letting them think they're playing either. Actual co-op gameplay with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kirby and The Forgotten Land and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sackboy: A Big Adventure already under our belts.
Despite his disappointment upon learning 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man 2 won't have a co-op option despite it having two web-slingers, he’ll be busy around that time anyway. Between 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sonic Superstars and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Bros. Wonder, our two-player plates will be very full from October 17 onward. However, the little time we've spent playing Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe together had me thinking Wonder might be a game I play alone.
If you've been playing 2D Mario games your entire life, it's easy to forget many of them are actually really difficult. Especially if you're a three year old with no prior experience. Our co-op sessions in Mario Bros. U usually end with my son too afraid to have his character be released from the bubble they retreat to upon losing a life, or putting the controller down entirely to just watch me play.
I've explained that if he picks Nabbit, the game will be easier. He doesn't know who Nabbit is, though, so he's having none of it. He wants to be Mario or Luigi, Toad in a pinch. That all changes in Wonder, as not only will Yoshi be a playable character, but playing as the Mushroom Kingdom’s resident dinosaur is effectively Wonder’s easy mode. My son has already asked 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:why Yoshi can't turn into an elephant, though. That might be a problem.
Even if an inability to turn into an elephant and blow bubbles - something else my son is very excited about - stops him from wanting to be Yoshi, Nintendo has sent us another significant co-op lifeline. Rather than dropping from the screen immediately and returning in a bubble or disappearing entirely if they're out of lives, players will turn into ghosts for five seconds before they lose a life. If an active player can touch them before the timer hits zero, they return to the game with all their lives still intact. I can also leave a standee (like a checkpoint) before tough sections for him to fly back to. I’ll probably need them too.
This new feature might be an even bigger godsend for my potential co-op adventure with a preschooler than the addition of Yoshi. I love playing video games with my son, but their ability to lose lives at an alarming pace, especially in Mario Bros U, can make things very tricky. Should we both lose all our lives, we're returned to the start of the world, forced to replay levels we’ve already struggled through. That makes him tap out too, and honestly, I'm not too hot on replaying levels I already played ten minutes prior all over again myself.
Not only will Wonder's ghost feature mean I can often rescue him before losing a life, but I'm hoping once he gets the hang of what it means, he'll return the favor. I know I've implied I've been carrying him through the games we've finished together so far, but he has been solving puzzles I'm stuck on in Little Big Planet 3 lately. He also has so many hours invested in all of our Kirby games that I'm fairly certain he'd carry me if we were to play through any of them again.
Wonder's new standee feature feels like a great way to level up my son's ability in Mario games. Those moments where he wants to throw in the towel usually come after he has lost five lives in quick succession in the exact same place. The chance to tap a standee right before that moment so he can try it repeatedly without a penalty will be a real game-changer.
Last but certainly not least, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the badge abilities. There are so many moments in 2D Mario games where you need to time a jump or a dash to perfection to achieve what the game wants you to achieve. Something that lets you jump higher or use a rope 𓂃that attaches to a spot high up will be a massive help. That one will be just as much for me as it is for my son.
It's like someone at Nintendo has been watching us struggle through Mario Bros. U together and built Wonder around our experience. Considering the size and presence of Nintendo in 2023, I'm not entirely convinced that isn't exactly what has happened. Hey, if the co-op changes in Wonder are the end result, watch away Nintendo. Maybe tune back in while we're playing Pikmin 4 and take note of how Player Two has almost nothing to do. I look forward to the imminent announcemen🍌t of Pikmin 4 Deluxe with proper co-op in the near future.