Nintendo spent more dev costs on Super Mario Bros. Wonder animations

There’s a lot to like about Super Mario Bros. Wonder, including the game’s visuals and animations. It sounds like this has been a particular area of focus for the team.

In an interview with NPR, producer Takashi Tezuka said Nintendo poured more of the development costs into the game’s animations. Funds for the company’s titles are typically focused on actual gameplay. Also mentioned is how the team wanted players “to experience something similar” to what fans saw in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Tezuka’s full words:

“Traditionally, our development costs have gone into the gameplay experience itself. Of course that’s absolutely essential. But this time we really wanted to pour some of that into the animations. … People who are coming from the Mario movie are going to see that and think ‘this is what Mario does, this is how Mario moves,’ and we wanted them to experience something similar to that.”

There are a lot of little touches in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Even subtle things such as the way Mario himself runs and jumps have been taken note of – and don’t get us started on Elephant Mario. Enemies are very expressive as well.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be out for Switch on October 20, 2023.