Super Mario Bros. didn’t have it. Wonder a deadline during the prototype stage

Super Mario Bros. Ultimate has been praised. Wonder is already in early hands-on previews for being one of the most refreshing games in the 2D series in a very long time, and part of the reason for that seems to be related to the fact that there was no deadline in the early stages of its design.

Speaking to Wired, game producer Takashi Tezuka mentioned how during the prototyping stage, there was no deadline, which seemed to encourage more creativity and ideas. Here’s exactly what he had to say:

Takashi Tezuka: “I wanted to stop people from saying, ‘We’re not going to meet this deadline, that’s why we haven’t — we can’t do that'”

Mario Wonder director Shiro Mori added to Tezuka’s comment, noting that the number of ideas created for Wonder effects was apparently in the thousands, hence the best ideas were refined:

Shiro Mori“We got maybe more than a thousand or 2,000 ideas.”

Cool effects have the power to completely transform courses in all kinds of unique and unexpected ways. The upcoming Switch version also has plenty of other instantly noticeable differences compared to your average 2D Mario game – like elephant power-ups and talking flowers.

This insight into Wonder’s evolution is certainly an interesting one – especially when conversations from within the games industry these days are often about studio crunch culture and new releases having to meet certain deadlines.