Super Mario Bros. Wonder concepts, prototypes, and unused Wonder Effects revealed
Nintendo held a session at GDC 2024 today for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and it included a peek behind-the-scenes as information was shared relating to concepts, prototypes, and unused Wonder Effects. Director Shiro Mouri and producer Takashi Tezuka delivered the discussion.
One of the first things we see comes from Nintendo’s brainstorming session. Nintendo’s Koichi Hayashida has previously spoken about how everyone was allowed to submit ideas on sticky notes – the amount of ideas came in at over 2,000. Only a few of the ideas were shown at GDC, but we see things like Mario surfing, the character on a unicycle, and more.
Some of these ideas are shown even further with in-game prototypes. Surfing Mario is back again, and there are other things like the character on top of a giant Goomba’s head.
That’s not all though. One of the unused Wonder Effects highlighted at the Super Mario Bros. Wonder GDC 2024 talk involves the player turning into a giant block Mario. Throughout the level, Mario advances while avoiding getting eaten. Ultimately Nintendo scrapped the idea. Still, you can see what this is like via the clip below.
Prototype level cut from Mario Wonder: pic.twitter.com/MfxTs70HQE
— Chris Kohler says PLAY LLAMASOFT! (@kobunheat) March 20, 2024
Finally, here’s a roundup of photos taken from the session, courtesy of Digital Eclipse’s Chris Kohler:
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is currently available on Switch.
