Highlights
- Super Mario Bros Wonder is a highly anticipated exclusive game for Nintendo fans, set to release on October 20, with vibrant visuals and new power-ups.
- This game is a significant milestone for the franchise, being Mario's first traditional 2D platformer in a decade and the first full-length Mario game in years.
- The reveal trailer showcased mind-boggling power-ups like turning into a shadow figure, a spiked bowling ball, and even an elephant, promising even more surprises in the game.
In a huge surprise during the Nintendo Direct last month, the company formally announced Super Mario Bros Wonder. Scheduled to be released on October 20, it is positioned to be a wonderful Mario installment for the platform leading into the holiday season. The reveal trailer showcased vibrant colors, lively animations, and some truly outlandish new power-ups for the Super Mario Bros franchise.
With Tears of the Kingdom already dominating the Switch spotlight in the first half of the year, Super Mario Bros Wonder will now serve as the must-play exclusive for Nintendo fans in the latter half of the year. There is still so much to learn about the game leading up to its release, but its announcement trailer did provide enough teases of what's in store. This game marks several firsts for the long-standing Nintendo franchise, for example.
New Super Mario Bros Wonder Is The First Full-Length Mario Game In Years
Not counting Bowser's Fury, which was released as a bonus with Super Mario 3D World's Switch port in 2021, Wonder is the first proper Mario game in years. Super Mario Odyssey was released way back in 2017, during the Switch's first year on the market. To break this down even further, Super Mario Bros Wonder also marks the first traditional 2D platformer for Mario and company in a decade, with New Super Mario Bros U on the Wii U being the last dedicated release in this style.
As fans know, Nintendo likes to take its time between major mainline installments of its flagship franchises. No further proof is needed for the company's commitment to polish than the six-year development time for Tears of the Kingdom, or the ongoing production of Metroid Prime 4, with the first version of the title being scrapped entirely as it wasn't up to standards. Anytime a new entry in the Super Mario Bros franchise is on the horizon is surely an exciting time, and with the Nintendo Switch entering its twilight years, the mustachioed plumber is sure to send the platform off with a bang.
New Super Mario Bros Wonder Features The Weirdest Power-Ups To Date
To be fair, the Super Mario Bros franchise as a whole is pretty strange. It stars a plumber who eats mushrooms and enlarges to jump on other mushrooms with eyes, crushing them with his body weight. The series has always had a sense of absurdity to it but Super Mario Bros Wonder kicks things up to a completely new level. In the first reveal trailer, there is so much insanity packed into the two-minute preview of the game that it's almost mind-melting how many zany concepts Nintendo has created for it. Specifically, the power-ups which Mario will be using this time around are a whole new definition of weird.
The trailer begins with a talking plant and then begins to showcase the usual pitch-perfect platforming the series is known for. Eventually, Mario activates something called a 'Wonder Flower'—yet another franchise first—and things go absolutely bonkers. Mario turns into a long shadow figure, a spiked bowling ball, rides an armada of sheep to a flagpole, and leaps across sewer pipes crawling like caterpillars.
If all that's not enough, the cherry on the cake appears in the final moments of the trailer. Mario activates one final power-up and just two words are perfect to demonstrate the strangeness of this new game: Elephant Mario. As insane as that sounds, it's likely that Nintendo has even more surprises in store for when the game eventually launches later this year.
Super Mario Bros Wonder launches on October 20, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
