‘Super Mario Bros Wonder’ is everything a Nintendo fan would expect from a new 2D game in the series… and everything to the contrary at the same time. By removing the constraints of its “New” releases, which ultimately ended up feeling more like a punishment than a blessing, the -probably- last great title for the Switch comes to dismantle everything we believed about Mario through the use of vibrant colors, talking flowers, incredible aesthetic choices, and once again, innovative gameplay. And, without a time limit. And this is not a coincidence but a statement of intent.
A marvel of brothers
A lot has been said about the craziness that Nintendo has prepared throughout ‘Super Mario Bros Wonder,’ from a musical to turning you into a Goomba or causing a stampede that even takes down the classic end-level flagpole, but not about what makes all of this fun and not just a gimmick to use while rushing to finish the level: the removal of the time limit.
The music that used to rush you to stop checking every corner of the kingdom and telling you that you’d better run is over because now the game no longer wants you to go from one place to another but to explore, have fun, go back and forth without worrying about how many seconds you have left before reaching the next Wonder Seed. There’s nothing more Nintendo at its core than that. Well, except for removing videos of kids playing on YouTube, but that’s another story.
You might think that a decision like this is trivial. That they’ve even removed one of the keys to Mario games. However, it’s proof that Nintendo carefully considers every detail of each game instead of going with the flow and churning out levels. If the animations of each sprite in ‘Super Mario Bros Wonder’ don’t fully convince you of the change in direction by the Japanese company, this will.
This is definitely a Mario game, but while you play it, it feels completely different. It’s like eating your favorite dish prepared by the world’s best chef. It tastes like the usual, but it’s absolutely original, masterful, and magical. Something as simple as removing the time limit is a statement of intent. The best one possible. It’s like someone smiling and saying, “I’m going to give you what you didn’t know you wanted.” And in a time of clone games, something like this is appreciated.
