Super Mario Bros. Miracle had me hooked from the moment I saw Mario turn into an elephant man. In this unusual new form, Mario can pound enemies with his trunk, suck up water to squirt at friends and foes, and – from a crouched position – perform an incredibly impressive push-up to launch himself into the air. Playing as Mario, as an elephant, was wonderful.
I immediately had to see Princess Peach and Toad as elephant people. Witnessing the two of them like fat pachyderms, their forms straining the seams of their bloomers and harem pants, and seeing them squeeze through chain pipes…well, it might just be Nintendo’s funniest visual gag outside of the Paper Mario series.
The Elephant Fruit is just one of the brand new power ups available in Super Mario Bros. Miracle‘s new destination, the Flower Kingdom, and they make playing a 2D side-scrolling Super Mario game feel fresh again. This unfamiliar world full of new enemies and new abilities made me feel like I was playing a direct sequel to this Super Mario World more than example Yoshi’s Island or the New Super Mario Bros. games. It’s overflowing with new ideas, including the groundbreaking Wonder Flower, while sticking to the side-scrolling core of what makes Mario great.
The powerful Wonder Flower forms the core of Super Mario Bros. Miracle‘s lineup – which fortunately isn’t about a damsel in distress, but about an entire kingdom.
Super Mario Bros. Miracle begins in dramatic fashion, with old enemy Bowser acquiring the power of a Wonder Flower and spectacularly merging his body (and Koopa Clown Car) into the castle of the Flower Kingdom. Yes, Bowser is in building in this game, and he uses his evil powers to imprison many of the kingdom’s inhabitants: flower-crowned toad-like creatures known as Poplins.
The whole Mario gang is here for the rescue mission of Prince Florian’s castle: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Toad, Toadette, several Yoshis and Nabbit. Players set off to visit new lands and use new skills as each of these characters, in teams of up to four.
Familiar powers infused with Super Mushrooms, Fire Flowers and Super Stars are present in the Flower Kingdom, but fun new abilities like the Elephant Fruit offer new ways to fight enemies. Other power-up items I used during a short hands-on session Super Mario Bros. Miracle include the Drill Mushroom, which gives characters a drill for a hat, allowing them to break apart rocks and gems or burrow into floors and ceilings; and the Bubble Flower, which allows Mario and friends to spit out bubbles that track down and absorb enemies. These bubbles also become ad hoc platforms, giving players an extra jump to bridge large gaps.
Then there are the Wonder Flowers, one of which seems to spawn in most levels, which provide the game’s most dramatic effects. It’s not really a power-up, but a tool to showcase Nintendo’s creativity. In the first trailer of Super Mario Bros. Miracle, we saw the new item in action: Mario touched the flower, and the level’s series of green pipes became wild, undulating, rushing water, one of which crawled across the screen like a huge metal inchworm. In other levels I played at a recent hands-on event in New York, Wonder Flower summoned a rampaging herd of Cattails—buffalo-like creatures wearing wrestling undershirts—or turned our characters into helpless Goombas. That Goomba transformation turned a traditional Mario level into a stealth game; me and my mushroom friends had to hide behind trees to avoid being eaten by Maw-Maws, a new breed of catfish-like creature that lives on land.
Wonder Flowers’ stage-specific gimmicks are probably worth avoiding for now, though Nintendo showed off many of them in a recent Nintendo Direct showcase. Spoiling them can ruin the thrill of discovering them on your own Super Mario Bros. Miracle will be launched in October.
MiracleThe new starring item will be appreciated by both Super Mario fans and younger players who may be new to the series. Touching it and seeing its dramatic effects is awe-inspiring. It changes the rhythm of a Super Mario Bros. level and prompts players to switch tactics on the fly. I see players enjoying games Super Mario Bros. Miracle with kids, parents or partners, retrying the levels one more time to experience the magic of a Wonder Flower effect.
Super Mario Bros. Miracle was built with multiplayer in mind. It can of course be played solo, but up to four players can enjoy it together. Not all playable characters are created equal; while heroes like Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad can enjoy the full package MiracleYoshis and Nabbit’s power-ups can’t. But those last two characters don’t take any damage either. (They can still drop dead, though.) Yoshi, who comes in four colors, can be a helpful escort instead; other players can ride on his back. Parents or partners with better Mario skills may want to choose Yoshi to help other players through difficult situations.
Beyond Yoshi, Miracle feels incredibly generous in serving players who may not be Mario experts. When characters die, they become ghostly spirits that can then be brought back to life. Previous Super Mario games placed downed characters in a bubble from which they could be rescued. Miracle streamlines that, turning them into ghosts that can move freely and be brought back to life when another player touches them. It immediately feels like a better system than how, for example New Super Mario Bros. Wii dealt with the chaos of cooperative Mario play.
Super Mario Bros. Miracle is full of other useful details. Players can acquire and equip badges that grant boosts or special abilities to anyone. For example, they give players more powerful jumps, allowing them to levitate like Luigi in it Super Mario Bros. 2, or have them use their hats as a parachute to slow their descent. Badges can also grant bonuses, such as extra coins to speed up acquiring extra lives and a Safety Bounce that nullifies hazards during the instant-kill phase, such as lava or spikes.
Cooperative play can be played locally with a full team of players, or with live “player shadows” when playing online. Nintendo calls online multiplayer a “subtle connection” with others Super Mario Bros. Miracle players in a style that almost feels Dark souls-inspired. Players can also play competitively and participate in friendly races at times after gathering in online lobbies.
After a much too short practice session with Super Mario Bros. Miracle, I walked away with a feeling of awe. The game feels energized and inspired, and caters to Mario fans, both new and old. It’s a showcase game, one that feels like a perfect goodbye to the Nintendo Switch – even though the exploration of new Mario ideas could easily have been saved for the next generation of Nintendo hardware.
Super Mario Bros. Miracle coming to Nintendo Switch on October 20. Two weeks earlier, Nintendo will release a new colorway of the Switch OLED model itself, featuring a red color scheme and clever decorative Super Mario details.