The day before I played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Bros. Wonder at Gamescom, the bombshell dropped that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Charles Martinet would no loꦏnger be voicing Mario. Martinet has voiced Mario since 1992's Mario Teaches Typing, and so changing him here felt like a major alteration to the very fabric of Mario. But what I found out in my hands-on session was that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Super Mario Bros. Wonder changes ▨so much about the fabric of a Mario game, yet manages to remain quintessentially, inescapably, Mario.
From the reveal trailer alone, I was most enamoured by two things - the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:ditching of the staꦯle ♛New Mario art style, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the presence of a playable Daisy. Coming away from the session, they remained my two favourite things. Where New Mario felt stilted and clean, Wonder Mario is bouncy and fresh. There's a warmth and whimsy in Wonder that was abundant in Odyssey but hasn't been present as overtly in a Mario game since Super Mario, a game so old it predates Martinet himself. 2D versions have languished in modern times, feeling a little out of date, especially as Mario excels in three dimensions. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is here to show you that form is temporary, but class is permanent.
I can't say too much about the voice itself, however. Not because of any super secret Nintendo NDA but because Gamescom is loud, Mario doesn't speak much, and we mostly played as other characters. You can play with up to four players (12 online, which I'll get to further down), and can choose between Mario, Luigi, Daisy, Peach, two different colour Toads for some reason, or Toadette. You can also be several different colours of Yoshi or even Nabbit, but these two act as the easy mode - they take no damage, but also can't use any power-ups.
Gameplay is far less hectic in Wonder. Characters now seamlessly pass through each other, and can leave checkpoints throughout the level so that teammates can return instantly. We often did this when attempting tricky obstacles to reach secrets hidden down hazards, and they came in very useful. There's a lot of synergy too - while the whole game can be played individually, and that's likely how I will play it (as Daisy and only Daisy, thank you very much), a lot of the secrets are best reached by two players working together, and if one of you is Yoshi, you can even carry players on your back, allowing them to reach new heights much easier.
With the New Super Mario games, it felt like their philosophy was 'how can we freshen up these classic Mario power-ups and tropes?'. Wonder, meanwhile, feels like its philosophy is 'what new Mario power-ups and tropes can we invent?', and ironically ends up feeling much truer to that classic Mario feel because of its creativity. As soon as we began the first level, I chose Daisy and raced ahead to gather the elephant fruit. Despite speculation, she does in 🌳fact turn into an elep💜hant rather than another animal, but it was easy to understand why. Elephants aren’t just random big powerful creatures, instead using their trunks to smash things and spray water throughout the level, which can grow flowers and unlock secrets. I silently cursed the devs for playing as Mario (who I'd seen as an elephant) and Yoshi (who can't become one) but the next level we got Luigi and Peach trunked out and all was right in the world.
The biggest change Wonder introduces are Wonder flowers. Mario has always been about getting to the end of the level and that's that, but these flowers are more like crystals from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Crash Bandicoot, where you haven't really finished the level until you get them. The ones I grabbed in World 1 were ♛easy to spot, but I suspect in later levels they will be hidden away less obviously. After touching a Wonder flower, the level changes in some way, and remains that way until you grab the corresponding W🐬onder seed. Perhaps you become invincible and must dash forward. Maybe the floor becomes lava, needing careful platforming to navigate. Sometimes it even makes a pack of magic bulls chase you, requiring you to surf on their backs to reach safety.
While I'm going to play most of Wonder in single-player mode, the addition of the online mode feels like as smooth an integration as you're going to get. Up to four of you can play on the same console, and you can then join parties with a maximum of 12 people. In these parties, you can see what level other players are attempting, but you can continue to play entirely separately if you want. It's not like playing in Mario Kart where you only connect to compete. It's a far friendlier connection, and while I understand why the team is going this route, ultimately I'm not sure online play is why most people will pick this one up.
There's also a greater emphasis on skill challenges here. I didn't play too far into the game, but if I had to guess I would say the difficulty has been dialled back slightly in order to offer greater challenge and control elsewhere. I played a 'break' level where, running on piano keys, I had to knock off piranha plants. It took place in a single room with no hazards, but was the sort of thing you'd try over and over again to get a better time for. I also had to unlock a wall jump by climbing a tower using only the power-up, and if I couldn't do it I could skip, but then I'd be without the power-up until I finished. It's a layered approach to 2D Mario that I think the more linear interpretations of the New era have been lacking.
It feels strange to think of Super Mario Bros. Wonder as a game Mario needs, when the series has just opened a massively successful theme park, a billion dollar movie, and continues to host the most recognisable video game character in the world. But 2D Mario did need a leg up to catch up to what its 3D and Kart racing brothers had been up to. Wonder is a super double wall jump up, taking the legendary series to new heights. Everything is new in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and there's no trace of New Mario anywhere.
