Super Mario Bros. Wonder Could Test Your Skills

Super Mario Bros. Wonder difficulty and late-game challenges

As one of gaming's most popular and influential franchises, Super Mario Bros. has to cater for players with a huge range of abilities. In almost every Super Mario Bros. instalment, its core courses achieve that difficult balance through considered level design, inventive mechanics and enjoyable obstacles that most people can overcome. Traditionally, however, Nintendo reserves late-game and special courses for testing the abilities of more experienced players.

Super Mario World's Special Zone and Super Mario 3D World's Champion's Road are only two examples of Nintendo showing off game-design ideas that seldom appear in the main path. It remains unknown whether Super Mario Bros. Wonder includes a comparable post-game or late-game test, but difficulty arose during my conversations with producer Takashi Tezuka and director Shiro Mouri for this cover story.

The many courses I played during my three hands-on sessions were great fun and remained true to Mario's long-standing accessibility for people with differing skill levels. Mouri says, though, that I have seen only a tiny fraction of the game. "What you've played is just a really, very thin slice of what's in store, and there are a lot wilder, more inventive experiences in the full version," he says. "More than that would be a spoiler, so I just want to encourage you to give it a try and really experience it for yourself."

A handful of courses - particularly Bloomps of the Desert Skies and Countdown to Drop Down - are noticeably tougher than the others I played, though neither caused me more than the occasional slip-up. Nintendo nevertheless suggests that players hoping to do everything in Super Mario Bros. Wonder could have their abilities tested in certain sections.

Collecting every Super Mario Bros. Wonder Badge

Completionists will want to obtain every Badge in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Some Badges are available to buy in the in-game shop with collected Flower Coins, while others have to be earned outright. "It really is going to be quite challenging to be able to collect all of the Badges, so if you feel confident in your Mario-playing skills, I implore you to give it a shot," Mouri says.

Responding to Mouri, Tezuka adds, "No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the last one."

"As you can see, it's really difficult even for the developers themselves," Mouri responded. "I got all the Badges!"

"Up until now, I have completed pretty much every single Mario game that I've worked on," says Tezuka, who began working on the Mario series with the first Super Mario Bros. game. "But for this one, I did have to have help with two courses. All the rest, I did myself."

Tezuka eventually cleared every course, but did so "with some regrets." "There were two courses where I couldn't complete every aspect there was to complete," he says. "I'm just not as skilled as the other staff members. As for the most challenging stages, I'm glad it's at the difficulty level it is because creating courses based on my skill level would surely make it feel lacking for many players."

While the final Badge prevented Tezuka from reaching 100-percent completion, the Badges in your inventory can be used to alter your character's abilities and make particular sequences easier. Action Badges provide useful powers that can be activated whenever desired, such as higher jumps or a gliding move. Boost Badges offer passive effects, including automatically bouncing out of a pit or beginning every course with a Super Mushroom. A third category, Expert Badges, can make the experience more demanding through abilities that are difficult to control, such as compelling a character to sprint through a course or making them invisible to enemies and players alike. They are intended as gameplay benefits, but can add another layer of challenge until their effects are mastered.

"We can have Badges that, like, auto-save you if you fall down a pit, or you can have Badges that turn you invisible," Mouri says. "There are Badges that are suited for supporting novice players and also Badges that kind of provide advanced players with a little bit of handicapping as they’re playing the game. I think this really provides a lot of options and a lot of variety for all different kinds of players."

Characters and multiplayer options for every skill level

Character choice also offers a way to tailor the difficulty. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy and the Toads all control identically, whereas Nabbit and the Yoshis are aimed at less experienced players because enemies cannot damage them. That advantage is offset by their inability to use power-ups, meaning some distinctive and exploratory features may be unavailable.

"Both these characters, I think they're really good choices for people who are maybe not very good at action games, but for other folks who maybe do play [action games], their pride might not allow them to select Yoshi or Nabbit," Tezuka says. "But they are really unique characters, and we put a lot of effort into designing them. I think it would be great for people to consider playing with Yoshi and Nabbit from time to time, regardless of that earlier reluctance as a result of their own pride."

For players who find Mario's harder courses challenging, Mouri additionally suggests using Super Mario Bros. Wonder's multiplayer options, including the Standee feature, which can function as a kind of checkpoint within a course. "Even though there may be some very challenging courses, there are several ways of playing the game that will help aid you in clearing those courses," he says. "I'd like to really ask everyone to give it a shot."

Boss fights often serve as moments when games assess a player's skills. Only brief glimpses of Super Mario Bros. Wonder's battles have been shown, but Nintendo says the upcoming platformer will feature some extravagant and unusual encounters. "Right off the bat, we felt that the boss battles themselves also needed some kind of new coat of paint, "Mouri says. "When I was considering what kind of boss battle experiences would fit this title, I came to the conclusion that they would have to be using the powers of Wonder. This is stepping into spoiler territory, so I'm not able to share much, but just expect a lot of Wonder-induced attacks."

Whether these imaginative encounters will also be especially difficult is yet to be seen. At the very least, they should offer boss battles unlike any previously featured in the series. Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches for Switch on 20 October. For more information about the forthcoming game, visit our coverage hub via the banner below.