Following up the hype train that was the debut of an animated film and theme park opening up in the US, Nintendo announced that Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a brand side-scrolling Mario game will launch on the Nintendo Switch this fall. The game’s launch marks the triumphant return of a fully-fledged 2D Mario since New Super Mario Bros U in 2012. The game can be pre-ordered now on the Nintendo eShop.
The gameplay shown in the trailer revealed some never-before-seen mechanics, no doubt employed to deviate away from the “New” style of Mario games the developers have been pushing out since the first game launched with the title in 2006. The new posterchild power-up introduced was the Wonder Flower, which seems to have wildly varying effects when picked up. From turning pipe alive to instantly morphing Mario into an elephant, the power of the Wonder Flower seems to boldly push the limits of what consists of a Mario game.
Mario is also joined by Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, and Daisy in their new adventure. Interestingly, it seems that multiple players can pick the same characters, as a tiny snippet of the trailer showed off four Yoshi in action.
Nintendo is calling this the first brand-new sidescrolling Mario game in over ten years. The last two traditional 2D Mario games were New Super Mario Bros. 2 on 3DS and New Super Mario Bros. U on Wii U. In the time since, we’ve seen two Mario Makers, Super Mario Run, and a Deluxe port of Mario U.