PAX Australia 2023: Hands on with Super Mario Bros Wonder

I am old enough to remember when Super Mario World released, it took the platforming that I knew from a Mario game and added in so many new elements. The New series of games that started on the Nintendo DS tried to achieve that same success, but with varying levels of it, but finally we are here with a new 2D Mario game, the first new one in more than a decade. With some hands on time at PAX Australia 2023, I came away feeling quite wonderful.

The Nintendo rep who walked me through the demo explained that while the layout of levels was similar to what players will see when the game is released, the demo was modified to bring some content from later in the game towards the start. The first level was the same, with the elephant fruit being available almost right away and let me tell you, this pachyderm power up was as much fun as you might have guessed. I played as Mario, because why wouldn’t I and seeing him embrace that ability was fun and cute, with perhaps a dash of wicked thrown in for good measure. When running in elephant form, Mario looks big and imposing, but when you stop and crouch, he tries to lie flat and just looks to adorable. After going down into a hole to collect one of the large purple coins, jumping back up into the pipe had Mario get a little stuck, so he did this little wiggle in order to squeeze through. Anytime that you walk through water as elephant Mario he automatically takes water into his trunk which you can then use to water flowers, spit at enemies or who knows what else, but it always leaves his trunk bulging which is fun.

Of course, it’s more than just looking fun, because when in elephant form, there are additional moves available to enjoy. One of the cooler ones is that a ground pound takes out multiple bricks/objects, but one was very Wario. In the older Wario games, before he became a microgame fiend, he would be able to dash into bricks, ahead of him and now in elephant form, Mario can do the same. Those options combined meant that I was able to do more than just run and jump, but don’t worry, as that was still possible in the larger form.

Now feels like a good time to talk about one of the other new power ups that I got to use, the drill. While there was a drill available in Super Mario Galaxy 2, this one is quite a bit different. In the level I was in there were new enemies, very similar to that of Thwomps called Konks. The difference between the two is that a Thwomp will stay in place and only drop down when you get near it, the Konks however will move back and forth, so they're slightly more dangerous. In one particular instance I had the drill power up and was about to be conked on the head, but actually making use of the power up put me into the ground and made me invulnerable to the attack from above. The drill also let me get under very small gaps, breakthrough additional rocks and crystallized structures and even occasionally drill up towards items at the top of the screen. I did have issues with this one trying just to remember how it functioned but that was because time was very limited and it was just powering through.

One of the aspects that I got to try out was the new badge system, this is something that Nintendo have talked about briefly since the game's formal debut, though we should hear more about it before launch. Badges are modifiers to the overall experience, there are three categories of badges. There’s action, boost and expert, with the only badges I got to experience were inside of the action category. The first one that I had which I wasn't aware of when I started playing was the parachute cap. At any point when in the air all I had to do was press R on the controller and Mario would grab his hat and it would then act like a parachute, this worked in both his standard and elephant forms. After doing a handful of levels I was allowed to access the wall climb jump challenge, which upon completion would reward me with the badge for it. Of course, Mario can already wall jump so it seems a bit weird to have a badge for that but this isn't to allow him to wall jump but rather lets him jump straight up a wall rather than off the wall. Traditionally when you wall jump, Mario jumps on like a 45-degree angle from whatever surface he's on towards the next one, this badge lets you jump straight up the surface of the wall and then if you wall jump a second time you then do this traditional 45-degree jump. It took some time to get my head around this different style of wall jump but it worked really well.

There were new enemies that I got to encounter, the Konks being one of them, but I also got to see Bulrushes which are the dinosaur looking stampeding enemies from the trailer and the weirdly designed but still fun Skedaddlers. As far as collectibles go there's obviously the standard Mario coin, I got to see the flower coin and the 10-flower coin. The former is designed to increase your flower coinage by a decimal point whereas the latter, the 10, is designed as a collectible in each stage. The purple coins themselves are used in the games store for what purpose I don't yet know. The other items are of course the Wonder seed which there are usually one or two in a stage plus one at the end of the stage, rewarded upon completion. These also appear to be the currency to unlock new levels and of course there's also the Wonder flower which sets things off in unique and crazy ways.

My time with the game was short as it always is at these events, but I came away very impressed. Yes, it is a new 2D Mario game, the bulk of your exploration will feel very familiar if you've ever played any of the games over the past 40 years, but there's enough new here that you will want to keep exploring. Obviously, the full game is still a few weeks away from release but I for one can't wait to start enjoying Mario once again

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is releasing on Nintendo Switch on October 20th.