Super Mario Bros. Wonder Announced for Nintendo Switch

Nintendo hosted a Nintendo Direct on Wednesday the 21st of June, closing out the showcase with a surprising reveal of the next 2D Mario game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Featuring a brighter and more cartoonish art-style, this game looks to be somewhat of a shake-up from the traditional 2D Mario formula.

Multiple characters appear to be playable, including Princess Peach, Yoshi, and also Princess Daisy, a first for the 2D series of games.

New mechanics include different transformations, such as an elephant, and the ability to grind on rails. One interesting new addition is the hallucinogenic Wonder Flower pickup, transforming the environment into a wacky fever dream, where pipes can slide around and the environment transforms in interesting ways.

“Plus, Super Mario Bros. Wonder sees the debut of Mario’s newest power-up, which allows him to transform into Elephant Mario! What other wonders could this game contain? More details will be shared at a later time, so please look forward to it,” states Nintendo’s description of the game in a post-Direct blog post.

This comes after an over 10 year hiatus of original 2D Mario side-scrollers, with the last fully original game released being New Super Mario Bros. U for the Wii U in 2012. This was re-released multiple times with additional content between 2012 and 2019.

The game is set to release on the 20th of October, 2023.