Super Mario Bros. and Nintendo still remains as the genre’s leader even after 40 years since the release of the first Mario game. Read on to learn more about why they remain at the top of their game, and how Wonder becomes their latest masterpiece.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder Prove that Nintendo Leads the Pack
Keeping the Wonder Alive
Super Mario Bros. Wonder blew everyone’s minds with its release, proving that even 40 years later, Nintendo remains the industry and genre leader in platforming. And more than Nintendo, Mario, our beloved red plumber, still has the magic (and the wonder!) to dazzle longtime fans and newcomers alike.
With the release of over 20 2D and 3D Mario games over the past four decades, the newest game still manages to bring innovations while never losing what makes Mario, Mario. After the release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, we’re probably right to wonder: how does Nintendo keep the iconic mustachio guy fresh without losing his identity?
It may all come down to three things: simplicity, innovation, and legacy.
Simplicity and Intuitiveness
Mario and Nintendo are the one of the most iconic names in gaming and media history, and aside from fresh newborn babies, it is difficult to find anyone who doesn’t know about Mario. But, for the rare few who are unfamiliar with Mario, here’s the rundown: Mario is the hero and playable main character of the franchise who’s on a quest to save Princess Peach. Or the Mushroom Kingdom. Or some other person, place or… star?. He usually defeats enemies by jumping, bonking, and using his power-ups. The games usually end when Mario defeats the biggest baddie, Bowser.
The description above perfectly describes the original 1983 game, Super Mario Bros., but also perfectly captures every other game in the Mario franchise, with the big bad changing away from Bowser sometimes. The 2D games mostly play the same, your goal is to get to the end of each level before the timer ends. Enemies will approach and Mario can either jump on their heads or use his powers to bonk them.
This simplistic gameplay works to the benefit of the franchise: you can pick up any 2D Mario game and instantly know how to play it. Movement and combat somehow feels the same over the years. While the controllers may change a bit, new game mechanics might be added in, but all of the games CONTROL and FEEL the same. That slow and steady acceleration from a standing start to the speed necessary to get a good jump is amazingly consistent amongst all the mainline Mario games.
In an interview with Game Informer, Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, credits this simple, instinctive, and rewarding gameplay for the success of Mario, saying, “It's very intuitive in that when you see a hole in the ground, you know to jump over it; when there's a high place, you want to climb it.”
Miyamoto says that this sense of challenge is then rewarded by other gameplay experiences, continuing, “That feedback it creates, I think that's the kind of gameplay that Mario is, and this is probably why it can be so appealing to so many different people across both ages, but also across cultures and countries."
Innovation and Transformation
Yet Mario is wonderfully paradoxical, because on the other hand, this simple gameplay is always further complicated by new powers, enemies, stages. Continuously upgraded and innovated upon in every iteration, Mario is all about transformation, while remaining grounded as the jumping man.
As mentioned earlier, there have been at least 20 mainline 2D and 3D Mario games. Each game made sure to add something new to Mario, and the former hanafuda company has never run out of ideas. In fact, the Wonder team reports that there are about 2000 ideas that they had come up with for the new game. Not all of them made it into the game, but along with the most important innovations in the Mario franchise, it is an amazing feat.
Mario’s major moments throughout the years include the introduction of Yoshi in Super Mario World, multiplayer support on a single screen, the ability to create levels in Super Mario Maker, the 3D games’ powers like F.L.U.D.D., Cappy, or even gravity-based gameplay in Galaxt, and a really long list of power-ups Mario has obtained over the years.
Legacy
Aside from the gameplay and the innovation, what else makes Mario, Mario? His creators, obviously. The five people responsible for the first Mario game ever are still involved in the development of the latest entry in the franchise. Forty years later, the following people still lovingly work on the gaming icon. Here were their roles in the first game, and what they’re doing now:
●Shigeru Miyamoto, director and creator (now as the supervisor)
●Takashi Tezuka, assistant director (now producer!)
●Toshihiko Nakago, programmer (special level design advisor)
●Kazuaki Morita, programmer (special thanks section!)
●Koji Kondo, composer (now sound director)
With these veterans on board the team of almost every Mario game, a certain culture was developed in Nintendo: quality is the utmost priority. In a recent interview with Nintendo, Game designer Koichi Hayashida, mentioned how Takashi Tezuka, the team lead for Wonder, “told us to prioritize content over schedule.” They further detail that in order “to create something truly enjoyable”, they decided to dedicate ample time and budget to achieve their vision, “without having to worry about production schedule.”
In an era of crunch and heavy AAA game production schedules, Nintendo is a company worth emulating.
The Vision
To Tezuka, the goal was “to create moments that even modern players would find unexpected and wondrous.” In combination with the well-established gameplay and style of the Super Mario games, this seemed to be a very difficult task.
“There's the world of Mario that Tezuka-san and Kondo-san have in mind, and if you don’t have a clear understanding of their vision, it might seem like they're asking the impossible. However, there is a clear goal at the end,” says Hayashida.
The team clearly pulled it off, as Super Mario Bros. Wonder continues to gather an almost universal acclaim for its innovation and heart, with strong 93/100 scores on Metacritic, and even a 8.8 in our own review of the game. The game successfully brings 2D Super Mario into the new era, and reintroduces Mario to a younger, newer audience.
Shiro Mouri, Wonder’s game director, concludes this pretty nicely, saying, “In hindsight, ‘asking the impossible’ was exactly what we needed.”
Mario and Nintendo
Simplicity, innovation, legacy, and vision; as a long time gamer, these four elements in the Super Mario franchise make me genuinely excited for what they still have to offer. The Mario games are not exactly the easiest, nor the hardest, nor the most fun. They’re admittedly not even the best-looking games. Yet time and time again, the franchise captures everyone, every generation, on every Nintendo console.
It’s most probably the child-like wonder that the mustachioed plumber evokes. The enjoyment the game offers without the baggage or problems of requiring lore. No one gatekeeps Mario like other gamers do on their favorite games. It is pure wholesome fun that you pick up, have a blast with, put down, only to do it again, but now with your kid, niece or nephew years later. We’ll grow up (or old!), and the franchise will evolve, but it will always be the Mario that we know and love.
Sources:
Game Informer- Nintendo Talks How Mario And Zelda Have Stayed Relevant for Nearly 40 Years
Ask the Developer Vol. 11, Super Mario Bros. Wonder—Part 1
