10th February 2024, 6:36 AM
Quote:In Super Mario Wonder, the SECOND LEVEL has piranha plants singing a musical number. In a 2D platformer, the mechanics of how the level obstacles function, how enemies move, is done via the telegraphing power of a MUSICAL NUMBER.
oh mah gaaawwwwddd more of these :3 they gave me tingly vibes in places hard to reach, if ya get what I'm scratchin' at.
That felt like peak SMBW, though it was early on. I've only played a dozen or so levels. As far as pure game mechanics, I think I prefer moving in three-dimensions. I loved how SMW3D mingled both short levels (old school) with 3D worlds (new school, as new as Mario 64 can be, anyway). It really hit on a combination that was the best of both Worlds.
But I don't want to sit here and talk about another game. Wonder has thus far been very impressive, and a very good entry into 2D Mario series. Possibly the best one. I played a bit of NSMB I think, back in the day... that was the one where up to 4 people could play, right? And you could get trapped in a bubble if you spazzed out too much and whipped the controller around, as I am wont to do?
SMBW feels precisely like the four decades of tinkering and refinement that's made Mario Bros games great. This might sound weird, but I feel like this game is from a vision that's been perfectly realized. It's a well-crafted cartoony world where everything makes sense within its own universe. You don't bat an eye at something so absurd as Bowser gleefully integrating himself with a castle, because somehow that kind of silliness seems as baked in and indisputable as classical physics. To *not* see some kind of tomfoolery like that is like bouncing a rubber ball and watching it rocket up into outer space.
The Wonder segments are innovative, fun, and crank up all the sensory dials. The singing flowers felt god damn mesmerizing, and I'm sad it only lasted a few seconds.
Re: Mario's voice actor. I suppose I'm mixed. I didn't even notice that Martinet had been replaced, though I remember hearing of his retirement (probably from here). I feel like anything that diverges from the legacy Mario voice is going to inherently feel... I don't know... alien? But at the same time, I'm a big believer in mixing things up and not just retreading old ground.
Hoskins and Captain Lou did the voices just fine, but trying to picture them coming out of a cartoony mouth is just... weird.
I haven't, and refuse, to listen to that douchebag Pratt perform the Mario voice, on pure petty principal. I hate that actor to begin with, and the idea of a big budget Mario movie is gross, so combining the two is the same kind of revulsion I reserve for watching a performance artist eat literal dog feces. BTW, don't watch the movie Pink Flamingos.