Super Mario Bros. Wonder devs discuss taking out the series’ timer

In this week’s issue of Famitsu, a couple of developers behind Super Mario Bros. Wonder discussed the decision to remove the timer. Producer Takashi Tezuka and director Shiro Mouri chimed in.

The time limit has been a staple of the side-scrolling series since the very original game. However, Super Mario Bros. Wonder mixed up a number of aspects to the classic formula, and taking that out was one of those changes.

Takashi and Mouri brought up in the interview how the development team considered various aspects about Super Mario games, and that extended to even the end-of-level flag pole. Something that also needed consideration is that some Wonder Effects have a timer of their own, so a general course timer on top of that could cause an issue.

Here’s our translation in which Tezuka and Mouri go over the decision:

One of the major changes to the rules of 2D Mario was how, for the first time, aspects like time limits and scores were no longer displayed. I was surprised that things I had taken for granted were gone, but changing those things was a big decision, wasn’t it?

Mouri: It wasn’t exactly a big decision, but I think it was necessary in order to create new things and evolve. This time, it had been approximately eleven years since a completely original Super Mario Bros. game was made, so we reviewed all the rules made up until now.

At one point, there were even comments like we should change the flag pole, so we truly considered things from scratch. With the flag pole, it remained as a suitable goal for multiplayer, but stuff like the time limit and score, as well as other things like jumping on enemies underwater, or returning to the world map after failing a level, were reconsiderations to the usual structure – we’d say “if starting from zero, this is the way to go” and make our decisions one by one.

Tezuka: The development team not only has staff who have been involved with Super Mario for a long time, but a lot of first-time staff as well. Those people spent a fair amount of time debating what kind of Mario game they would want as the player. Even if it was the way of making 2D Mario until now or things that seemed important, we made changes one by one this time to see what could be changed.

I see. Although, for example, the time limit of having to clear the course in a certain time was a constant from the first Super Mario Bros. game and I thought that this game premise was a rule; after checking everything carefully you were able to reconsider all the elements of the game?

Mouri: That’s right. Regarding the time limits, some courses’ Wonder effects have a time limit so having two layers of timers became a problem. The discussion on what to do about it is when the question “Do we even need a timer?” first came up not only among new staff, but from those who have been around for a while as well – we then tried to test removing the time limit.

We asked the staff to play it in that state and hear their opinions, but removing the time limit did not cause players to start exploring without worrying about time; after all the goal’s purpose did not change. I just felt there was more time to freely do what I wanted, so until now the “goal’s purpose” was protected, and this time we concluded to have no time limit.

How do you feel about the game not having the classic timer? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Translation provided by Philip Proctor, SatsumaFS, and Simon Griffin on behalf of Nintendo Everything.