Nintendo says Super Mario Bros. Wonder almost had live commentary (plus TONS of other details)

Just a few days ahead of Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s launch, Nintendo has shared an ‘Ask the Developer’ feature for the game. This feature has 4 parts in total, with the final two pieces being released today.

While the entire feature is well worth a read, we’ve gone through to pull out the juiciest details. You can see a bullet point breakdown of the more interesting notes and anecdotes from Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s development below.

• devs say they started development of this title with a ‘sense of crisis from the beginning’
• the team felt that 2D Mario games often had the reputation of being unforgiving
• conversely, the team felt 3D Mario games were made so that anyone could finish them
• the team used 3D Mario titles as inspiration for Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• the goal was to create a 2D Mario that let players complete courses in their own way
• the devs used a method in 3D Mario games where you can unlock courses with key items
• these key items are called Wonder Seeds
• you get a Wonder See for completing courses, but you can also buy them
• this allows all players no matter their skill level the ability to see the game through to the end
• the devs kept character abilities the same so fans could pick their favorite and play with ease
• to make up for the lack of character-specific abilities, the Badge system was introduced
• the game has more than 20 Badges, but the team came up with more than 50 prototypes
• the team considered placing a bar on the screen to adjust the difficulty level on the spot
• this idea was scrapped, but may be used in another Mario title
• Tezuka-san asked, “Can’t we have live commentary?” and the team spent 6 months on the idea – the devs tried adding voices to match the player’s actions, but things didn’t feel right
• commentary has different voices, including a newscaster and Tsundere personality
• during playtests, many people changed to the Tsundere voice
• the process required a lot of work to create, so the team decided to pass on the idea
• these tests paved the way for the Talking Flowers that appear in the game now
• Kondo says the sound team was able to work more closely with the other devs this time
• this led the sound team to feel more involved in the game’s creation.
• typically, the sound team joins a game during the latter half of development
• with SMBW, the sound team got involved early in the development stages
• the sound team shared gameplay ideas
• the programmers also worked together to create prototypes for sound-related areas
• Kondo always wanted to try having the entire course come alive like a musical
• this was tested with Piranha Plants coming out of their pipes in sync with the music
• the programmers had trouble with timing a level to music, as beat and meter were challenging
• these tests helped the team build a stage where the characters jump on every fourth beat.
• this also led to the Rhythm Jump Badge for use on all courses
• from the start, the team also wanted to create a Mario game that’s also fun to play online
• the devs know that online play presents issues with skill and troublemakers as well
• this led Nintendo to crafting a multiplayer experience with a ‘casual connection’
• matching takes place automatically during single player, so there’s no waiting around
• Nintendo refers to online players as “live player shadows”
• online player is also why Nintendo came up with 12 playable characters to choose from
• Kondo says the casual connection online play is the most significant innovation in the game
• some team members from 3D Mario games helped build SMBW’s map together
• SMBW has a hidden character who appears in some of the recent 3D Mario games
• Nintendo will continue to create Mario gameplay, regardless of whether it’s 2D or 3D
• Tezuka says that Mario games have a bright future ahead of them