Super Mario Bros. Wonder already looks appealing for a lot of reasons. The titular Wonder Flower promises to bring a lot of creativity to Mario level design, and the strange new elephant-themed item hopefully means more surprising power-ups are on the horizon. Perhaps the most important improvement in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the playable cast; not only does Princess Peach join another platforming adventure, but Daisy finally gets to join Mario and Luigi on an adventure too, and Yoshi is his own character now. Still, there's room for growth. Luckily Super Mario 3D World already proved that unlockable characters work just fine in a Super Mario platformer.
3D World already had a solid cast between Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad -- plus a few Captain Toad challenges on the side -- but it also gave players a chance to unlock Rosalina once they got far enough into the game. Unlockable characters are uncommon in mainline Mario games, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder could build it into a more central feature for the franchise. Despite already featuring a couple demanded characters, Super Mario Bros. Wonder could put an emphasis on hidden unlockable characters, scattering a bunch of Mario stars across the game and encouraging players to experience the game from a ton of perspectives.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder Can Double Down on 3D World's Rosalina
Despite only starring in a couple previous Mario games, including Rosalina in Super Mario3D World was a smart move from Nintendo. Besides her remarkable popularity among fans, Rosalina showed that Mario platformers can push the boundaries of each characters' unique abilities. Mario games have given each playable character strengths and weaknesses for decades, even beyond the platformers, but Rosalina's spin attack made her stand out in 3D World. It's not every day that a Mario platformer character has a built-in attack or special ability they can use without getting a power-up.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder can build on that idea with a higher number of unlockable characters. While most of the starting characters probably only have passive strengths and weaknesses, Yoshi might still make use of his tongue as a signature ability much like Rosalina's spin. As players progress, they might come across more classic Mario characters who have special skills or more dramatic strengths and weaknesses that dramatically alter the gameplay loop. That'd be a great way to encourage fans to replay Super Mario Bros. Wonder, challenging themselves to master each level many times over.
There's plenty of other Mario classics that could join as more complicated characters in Wonder. Wario seems like one of the most obvious picks; his signature shoulder charge from the Wario Land games would be a great active effect for bashing enemies and breaking blocks. Waluigi would also be a great unlockable character, especially if his key Mario Tennis connection allows him to bat enemies around and deflect projectiles. If Nintendo feels really bold, it could even add Donkey Kong, who might pick up enemies and blocks to throw around.
If there's one thing about 3D World's Rosalina that Wonder could improve upon, it's the means of accessing these hidden characters. Not only does Rosalina unlock very late in the game, but she's simply obtained by progressing far enough in the post-game. Super Mario Bros. Wonder could scatter bonus characters across the main campaign by setting up special challenge levels themed after each character, celebrating their status as one of Wonder's guests.
Nintendo hasn't indicated that a large cast of unlockable characters with special abilities is a priority, but there is hope for a broader roster. Given that Mario Wonder already seems to contain significantly more playable characters than most 2D Mario platformers, Nintendo could be planning to lean into character options. Only time will tell if Super Mario Bros. Wonder plans to follow in 3D World's footsteps, but if it does, it should do so in the biggest way it can.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder releases October 20 for Nintendo Switch.
