Nintendo’s iconic Super Mario franchise is riding higher than ever. Earlier this year, the second film adaptation of the series grossed over a billion dollars, breaking several box office records. In the wake of this success, Nintendo is expanding its universe with a new game titled Super Mario Bros. Wonder that draws inspiration from the recently released Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the first 2D video game in the franchise in over a decade, and is already shaping up to be a big success. It has garnered widespread acclaim, boasting a 93% rating on Metacritic, making it the third-highest-rated video game of the year.
In a recent interview with NPR, Takashi Tezuka, the producer of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, shared insights into the game’s development process. Tezuka revealed that the development team spent most of the game’s budget on the animation to make it resemble the movie’s visual style.
Tezuka told NPR, “Traditionally, our development costs have gone into the gameplay experience itself. Of course that’s absolutely essential. But this time we really wanted to pour some of that into the animations.”
He explained that they made that decision so the game could appeal to new Super Mario fans whose first contact with the franchise was the movie. He said, “People who are coming from the Mario movie are going to see that and think ‘this is what Mario does, this is how Mario moves,’ and we wanted them to experience something similar to that.”
The success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed nearly $1.4 billion, underscored its appeal to a vast audience, which included both long-time fans of the franchise alongside younger viewers. This success has reinvigorated Nintendo’s Super Mario franchise, which, despite being one of the most popular video game series globally, had experienced a decline in recent years.
The movie’s popularity implies that everything about it worked, including the animations. Also, it has sparked new interest in the video game series, especially among those introduced to the franchise through the film – which are, apparently, quite numerous.
To capitalize on this momentum, Nintendo made a strategic decision to align the game’s animations closely with those of the movie. It is certainly less risky to stick to an animation style that people have been proven to love as opposed to inventing a new one you don’t know how they will react to.
Apart from Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the franchise’s new lease on life will see a 4K re-release of the first Super Mario movie adaptation originally released in 1993. Sadly, it will also see Charles Martinet, who has voiced the iconic character since 1991, step down from the role, making way for a new voice actor.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is set to launch exclusively on the Nintendo Switch on Friday, October 20, ushering in a new era for Mario fans and newcomers alike.
