A few weeks back, attendees to GDC 2024 shared pictures of Nintendo’s presentation about the development of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. While those photos revealed some unused Wonder Effects from the game, we didn’t get all of the behind-the-scenes details about why Nintendo passed on those concepts or how the game’s development was shaped from tinkering around with ideas. Today on the official GDC website, the full presentation was made available and it’s a whooper of a video. We’re talking a full hour of discussion about the creation of Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Titled “2D and Tomorrow: How the Developers of ‘Super Mario Bros. Wonder’ Find New Joy in Creating Classic Side-Scrolling Adventures,” the video goes over why Nintendo felt the need to mix up the classic Mario formula and how they came upon the Wonder Effects idea. Both Takashi Tezuka (producer) and Shiro Mouri (director) discuss their inspirations and philosophies on what they felt would be needed to impress players with this latest game. Interesting stuff.
It might take a bit to make your way through the discussion, but it’s always insightful when Nintendo’s developers take the time to divulge their secrets. For a company that was previously tight-lipped on literally everything it did, it’s nice to see its employees not only talking about present games but titles from the past.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
