On a very anticlimactic MAR10 Day (come on Nintendo, just give us something about a new Super Mario 3D game!), we have at least received an armful of new details about the upcoming Switch 2 edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, due toward the end of this month. It really does seem like a huge amount of change, especially if you’re into multiplayer antics with your chums. Oh, and if you have a spare $80.
The game is being packaged much like Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury for the original Switch, as a re-release of the core game with a whole new area added on. However,, unlike Bowser’s Fury, what we have here is not the delightful promise of an open-world Mario game that has so far failed to exist, but a peculiar hub world called Bellabel Park that links together a range of new multiplayer and training modes. An awful lot of them, too. Plus a lot of significant new ways to approach the original game.
Meetup in Bellabel Park is primarily about a whole swath of multiplayer games that seem like a sort of Mario Party Lite, but themed around the shape-changing antics of Wonder. And this is just the first of the “Attractions” on offer. (All of the following are played one person to a screen.) Local Multiplayer Plaza lets you and three others play together in 17 different minigames, and it uses the Switch 2’s GameShare thingie, meaning only one person needs to own a copy of the game. Then you have Game Room Plaza for either local or online multiplayer, this time with as many as 12 people competing in six different events. Tour Plaza then strings six courses together, and apparently lets you compete, work together, or work in teams, although even my ADHD can’t keep up with the speed at which this concept is introduced in the trailer.
The second Attraction is Camp Central, which appears to contain Toad Brigade Training Camp, where you (and friends if you wish) can play courses from the main game, but now with a whopping 74 specific challenges to complete as you go, and this time you can play with up to four people on the same Switch 2. These challenges are unlocked by reaching the relevant levels in the main game, which strikes me as the exact opposite of being any form of training, but I’ve long ago learned not to try to seek reason in Nintendo’s ways.
Playing both of these sections (I said this was complicated) will earn you Bellabel Water, which is used to water plants in the hub. Why can’t you use regular water? Because of The Man. Watered plants grow into all manner of pretty flowers which you can then use to decorate your park. You can also grow new emojis to display to other players, or even grow “instrument flowers” which, when harvested, get added to the ensemble of a marching band that parades around your park. So yes, everyone who was furious the original Wonder didn’t contain a wandering band playing home-grown instruments can finally calm down.
Changes to the main game
The main game isn’t untouched. Nintendo’s latest obsession, Rosalina, is now a playable character, plus there are naughty new Koopalings hiding around the courses for you to find. There’s also a new power that sees your character dress up as a flower and lets you fling flowers up into the air to break blocks and attack enemies, or gives you a double-jump with a floaty descent.
A rather big change that’s somewhat thrown away in this rapid-fire trailer is the ability to pair two different badges as you play, combining some abilities, such as “Auto Super Mushroom + All Elephant Power” and “Spring Feet + Invisibility.”
Next we have Rosalina’s Mario Galaxy buddy, a Luna star, who can be added to two-player games and even controlled by another player in mouse mode. And then there’s a new Assist Mode, essentially an invulnerability option you can switch on or off at any point. Imagine trying to tell a ’90s 2D Mario fan about that option. They’d kill you on the spot, and then prevent the future from ever happening. But for everyone else who got stuck on the original game, you can now play past that bit, and for those will young kids who just want the funny man to jump around the pretty levels, they can do so without constantly dying.
You can still pick up the original version of Super Mario Bros. Wonder for the Switch 1 for $60, while the boxed price of the Switch 2’s Bellabel Park version turns out to be another $80 game. The Upgrade Pack for those who already own the original is set at $20, although right now rather weirdly the digital edition is unpriced and not available for pre-order on Nintendo’s site. It’s due out March 26.
