Initial Edition of Super Mario Bros Wonder Included Live Commentary

Super Mario Bros. Wonder was initially supposed to feature live commentary during gameplay, according to an Ask the Developer interview hosted by Nintendo. Game director Shiro Mouri revealed there had been discussions on adding commentary, meaning the game would react to player actions. Designer Koichi Hayashida added that they spent six months working on live commentary, introducing voices that responded to player actions. Eventually, the question arose about who would do the voiceover and something didn't feel quite right.

The default voice delivering the commentary supposedly sounded like a newsreader, and there was an option to switch the voice to a 'Tsundere' character - a Japanese term for a character that behaves distant and mean before opening up. However, many game testers quickly turned this version off. Producer Takashi Tezuka explained they eventually backed out of the idea as creating different versions for the voice would be too much work. The team then considered the idea of talking flowers in the game, which proved to be the right solution.

The interview also confirmed that the developers of Super Mario Bros. Wonder were not influenced by The Super Mario Bros. Movie released earlier this year. Super Mario Bros. Wonder releases tomorrow for Nintendo Switch and was awarded a 9.5 rating by Jacco Peek, describing it as "surprisingly creative and a worthy 2D sequel to Super Mario Odyssey."