During today’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder-centric Nintendo Direct, we got to see a new and far more detailed look at the upcoming side-scrolling platformer, including its amazing approach to online play, and how you can now play as a Yoshi carrying an elephant.
Check out the Direct below:
The last trailer was bursting with small details, alongside the new banner features Wonder is adding to the Mario formula. Primarily, that’s the Wonder Flower, which when consumed sees Mario and chums sent on quite the trip. It sees the world’s objects and obstacles coming to life and animating all around them, in a way you might have expected eating the series’ previous mushrooms could have achieved.
The Direct went deeper in all these matters, focusing at first on several new playable characters. The full roster includes Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Blue Toad, Yellow Toad, Toadette, green, red, yellow, light-blue, and Nabbit, a few of them with perks that can make things easier for you. The Yoshis and Nabbit won’t take damage (but can still die if they fall down a hole), and the Yoshis can float and spit up enemies as is tradition.
Alongside characters, the Direct put a spotlight on new power-ups, including the previously-revealed elephant transformation, the Bubble Form which lets you blow bubbles that can capture enemies from a distance or act as a moving platform, and the Drill Form that gives your character a drill-adorned helmet that lets you burrow into the ground or ceiling.
Another new mechanic is the Wonder Effect, which will completely transform a level when you stumble upon a Wonder Flower in the world. These remixed levels seem wild, and can change things up by transforming Mario into other forms like a Goomba, changing the camera perspective so Mario moves in 3D as opposed to moving left to right, and some of the environment will shift or come to life. It seems like a cool way to give levels some replayability.
The end of the presentation focused on cooperative play, which is playable both locally and online. The online functionality also includes running through levels alongside “shadow” versions of other players, so even if you’re not directly playing together, you can still interact, compare stats, and even revive each other if you die in a level.
Wonder is the first Mario game after Charles Martinet, long-time voice actor behind the iconic jumping, mushroom-eating hero, retired from the role. Fans were curious about Mario’s voice after the character sounded a little different in the initial reveal trailer, then it was finally confirmed that Martinet wouldn’t be portraying Mario in Wonder. He will still be involved in the franchise as a “Mario Ambassador” who will be “sharing the joy of Mario” with fans around the world.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is coming to Switch on October 20.