Everyone loves Elephant Mario and it’s (mostly) wholesome

June 22, 2023 6:29 AM

Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct was jam-packed with pleasant surprises, from a Super Mario RPG remake to the return of Detective Pikachu. Another standout announcement was a new Mario game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which looks like a fun and trippy take on the usual 2D platformer formula. The trailer showed Mario and the gang going on adventures, and at the end of the trailer, Nintendo gave us a sneak peek at a new, goofy-looking fruit that turns Mario into an elephant. Elephant Mario is still recognizably Mario. He’s bipedal, bright-eyed, and keeps his usual mustache, cap, and overalls. (His shoes, however, are gone; presumably, they don’t fit his new elephant feet.) [...] Nintendo didn’t reveal any details about Hollow Knight: Silksong, Metroid Prime 4, or post-release content for Tears of the Kingdom. [via: Polygon]
posted by Fizz (32 comments total)

My daughters watched the trailer for Wonder this morning and were visibly shaking with excitement.
posted by saladin at 6:35 AM on June 22, 2023 [5 favorites]

I want to love this game. Moar Mario! Hopefully I can overcome my aversion to the talking flowers and excessively shaded graphics.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:36 AM on June 22, 2023

Elephant-Mario is awesome!!!
posted by Fizz at 6:37 AM on June 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

It went Rule 34 really quickly in furry twitter.
posted by hippybear at 6:42 AM on June 22, 2023 [9 favorites]

Really just going all-in on BDG's thesis that Mario is a war criminal.

Looks fun as hell, but when the enemies are pink Koopas enjoying a day of roller skating, or Goombas literally sleeping, I can't help but think that Mario's there to wreck their day rather than doing anything good.

In all seriousness, I'm definitely looking forward to this one. It's been a while since we got a new 2D Mario.
posted by explosion at 7:05 AM on June 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Re: Super Mario RPG:
It's about damn time they re-released it in some form. I've been hoping it would show up in one of their virtual consoles since for as long as they've been doing the virtual console thing, but I'll take a remake.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:38 AM on June 22, 2023 [6 favorites]

definitely thought we'd hear something about Metroid Prime 4, and at this point I think it's probably going to be on the Switch's successor console. At this point, I don't really expect Silksong news, they said it was a year from release last year, they were showing playable versions four years ago, and it's pretty clear they overscoped.
posted by Merus at 7:44 AM on June 22, 2023

I'm fine with Silksong being delayed. If it takes another year, then it'll take another year. I'd rather they get it right and have the platforming be just as precise and technical as the first.

I'm still only like 1/3 into Hollow Knight anyways, so just means I have more time to go back and explore, though if I'm being honest, I don't think I have the ability or skillset for the path of pain, so maybe its best I just wait until the new one shows up.
posted by Fizz at 7:55 AM on June 22, 2023

No link to the new Wario Ware... Tragic
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:05 AM on June 22, 2023

I've been hoping it would show up in one of their virtual consoles since for as long as they've been doing the virtual console thing, but I'll take a remake.

It was released for Virtual Console on Wii U.
posted by JHarris at 8:10 AM on June 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

(And Wii too, now that I think of it! In fact, I think I own it on that platform.)
posted by JHarris at 8:11 AM on June 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've always thought Gino would be a fantastic Smash Bros character. Maybe now it will happen!
posted by oulipian at 8:17 AM on June 22, 2023

I never had the Wii U, but dang -- don't know how I missed it on the Wii!
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:19 AM on June 22, 2023

No link to the new Wario Ware... Tragic

Here's a roundup of every trailer/game announcement.
posted by Fizz at 8:34 AM on June 22, 2023

I know nothing about Mythforce, but damn, I love the way it looks. I'm not a huge fan of combat-heavy games but I want this one to be good.
posted by DingoMutt at 9:17 AM on June 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

With this, a new Wario, Baby Steps and the Richard Ayoade Fable, I'm looking forward to video games for the first time in years. Surreal situations combined with a halting sense of humor? Yes, please.
posted by eschatfische at 9:23 AM on June 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

I play and enjoy Souls games. I cannot handle 2D platform games like Hollow Knight. I am terrible at them.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:41 AM on June 22, 2023

definitely thought we'd hear something about Metroid Prime 4, and at this point I think it's probably going to be on the Switch's successor console
People keep saying the Switch successor is right around the corner, but there have been zero leaks on it so I’m not so sure it’s all that close. Nintendo seems oddly happy with the Switch at the moment.
posted by jmauro at 10:01 AM on June 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

I know nothing about Mythforce, but damn, I love the way it looks.

There's a demo on Steam for the PC version.
posted by straight at 10:09 AM on June 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Someone needs to get Shinya Takahashi a stylist and presentation coach, or he'll keep being upstaged by Koizumi. Or like, at least play up their differences Mac vs PC style.
posted by pwnguin at 10:22 AM on June 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Or -- and I know this is considered a radical step! -- they could hire, and promote a woman executive to help run the company and present.
posted by pwnguin at 12:00 PM on June 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

I don't care all that much about Mario, but Elephant Mario is *chef's kiss*.
posted by praemunire at 12:03 PM on June 22, 2023

A MARIO 2D GAME WITHOUT A TIMER ON THE "NORMAL LEVELS" WOULD BE WELL OVERDUE FOR ACESSIBILITY REASONS!

:: ahem ::

There appears to be no Timer / Clock in the gameplay footage and I am *eXcite*.
posted by Faintdreams at 1:55 PM on June 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

Mario cannot commit war crimes on goombas as they are non sentient mushrooms simply going about the motions of thinking animals as a form of background matching. Goombas mimic the sentient toadstool people to throw off their natural predator, Italian plumbers.
posted by kzin602 at 10:36 AM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Nintendo seems oddly happy with the Switch at the moment.

And why shouldn't they? Every time since the N64 they switch out a popular console for its successor, it's a dud:

N64 (fairly popular) -> Gamecube (dud) -> Wii (very popular) -> Wii U (super dud) -> Switch (huge!) -> whatever's next, I dunno, maybe the Nintendo Poo.

Nintendo's console success refuses to settle on a linear outcome! It fluctuates more wildly each release! It alternates between zooming into the stratosphere and flopping like a beached fish! It feels like whatever they make next is doomed to sell like seventeen units!
posted by JHarris at 8:57 AM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

you can push the pattern back to the SNES if you include the Virtual Boy in between that and the n64. That's probably the most dud of them all.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:53 PM on June 24, 2023

Another thought: Super Mario RPG and Link's Awakening both got or are getting the remake treatment, and they're both on the short list of Nintendo games from my childhood that I made a point of replaying many years later. If that trend holds, then I believe the original Yoshi's Island is due for a remake next.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 4:51 PM on June 24, 2023

AH, Yoshi's Island already got remade for GBA. I was playing it on the GBA Switch Online collection a couple days ago.
posted by JHarris at 10:15 PM on June 24, 2023

that was more a port than a remake, I thought?
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:01 AM on June 25, 2023

What's the difference?
posted by JHarris at 6:35 AM on June 25, 2023

The recent remakes are getting completely re-created graphics, but wasn't it the case that the line of SNES games on GBA largely kept the same assets?
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:15 PM on June 25, 2023

The remake of Super Mario 2 received substantial modifications, including a score system, an extra mushroom in each level, a lot more extra lives and new things to find. Super Mario 3 had new levels designed for it for the eReader peripheral, which are playable in the Switch Online version.

As for Yoshi's Island, in structure it's largely the same, already full to bursting with cool things to find as it is, but the game was subtly redesigned to fit the GBA's smaller screen. And Yoshi's Island really had to be remade, internally, since the GBA has a very different architecture than the SNES, and more different still from a SNES+SuperFX 2.

Of course, all of the Super Mario Advance series games had to be remade like that, but Mario 2 USA and Mario 3 had already been remade once before, for the SNES in Super Mario All-Stars. The engines of both of those games on the SNES took advantage of the relative similarity of the NES hardware to the SNES; it's thought that the SNES originally had NES backwards compatibility as a design goal, that was abandoned later during its development, but elements of it carried over to allow it to reuse some of the NES games' engines with relatively minor alterations.
posted by JHarris at 12:40 PM on June 25, 2023 [1 favorite]