If you’ve been counting down the days ‘til the release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, we’ve got some good news. Nintendo South Africa turned up at this year’s Comic Con Africa 2023 to put on a show, featuring some of this year’s best games: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, and of course, Super Mario Bros. Wonder. We got to play it. So can you.
Keen-eyed gamers will notice that we’re still nearly a month away from the game’s 20 October 2023 release date. Nintendo brought the goods early, and they’re giving everyone who’s able to hold a controller a go. You’ll be limited to twenty minutes, which is more than enough time to conquer the first level or two. But don’t let us convince you. Pick up a ticket to Comic Con Africa here, head on over to Hall 5, and get going.
Gimme Mario, please
If you’d rather not spend R200 just to play a game that’s being released in a month, just take our word that this game is good. Like, really good. True, we’ve only spent 40 short minutes (being media has its benefits) with one of Nintendo’s most hyped Mario games since Odyssey hit the Switch in 2017, meaning we didn’t find every secret or use every mechanic available, of which there are plenty.
Your first big decision comes in the form of choosing who you’d like to play as. It might not seem like a big decision, but it is. You’re given the usual selection of characters you’d expect from a Mario game; Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Daisy, Yellow Toad, Blue Toad, and Toadette – all of which let you play the game normally and can be changed at any time before kicking off a level.
Choose from the list of colourful Yoshi’s or Nabbit and you’ll be playing a very different Mario game. One that’ll stop the player from taking any damage, with the caveat that they won’t be transforming with any power-ups, either. Believe us, you’re going to want in on that action.
Welcome to the Flower Kingdom, Elephant Mario
Super Mario Bros. Wonder kicks off just like every other Mario side-scroller. By throwing you into the thick of things. There’s no handholding in Wonder. Nintendo expects players picking up the controller to be familiar with Mario games of yore, leaving you to figure out the rest for yourself.
That’s… fine by us. Wonder is intuitive fun at its best with newcomers getting to grips with the controls easily, and old hands make quick work of the game’s first level; Welcome to the Flower Kingdom. Let’s, uh, just pretend that’s what we did.
The main goal of Wonder appears to be collecting the numerous (and aptly named) Wonder seeds scattered all around the place. You’ll be awarded one for beating a level, with more tucked away in the game’s many hidden rooms. These will be needed to unlock new levels down the line.
Wonder seeds aren’t all you’ll be hunting for. Wonder arrives with the Mario standard of hunting for coins and some other little currency, ‘Flower Coins’. These can be spent at the Poplin shop later in the game on power-ups such as coin magnets, and 1-up Mushrooms.
To reach the game’s plenty of hidden rooms, you’ll need the help of ‘Badges’, powers that can be equipped before or during a game to change your character’s powers. One will turn your cap into a parachute, another will let you jump around with less gravity to hamper you – you get the idea. These unlock through completing trials and levels as you play through the game.
And for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Elephant Mario. He’s real, he’s in the first level, and he’s awesome. We, uh, won’t say much more here.