The development team at Nintendo had abundant ideas, numbering in the thousands, for the newest Super Mario Bros. Wonder iteration which incorporated intriguing features like world-shifting Wonder Flowers. However, sound director Koji Kondo's unique yet extraordinary pitch for an "eight-heads-tall, life-sized, live-action Mario" was one of the many ideas that didn't make the final cut.

This unusual concept for Mario was unveiled during an 'Ask the Developer' interview aired by Nintendo where the team shared insights on Mario's latest adventure and the process of conceptualizing the Wonder effects. Initially, they followed the approach of generating various gaming ideas on sticky notes which resulted in more than 2,000 innovative proposals. Subsequently, once the Wonder Flowers were designed, they revisited these notes for inspiration on different Wonder Effects, implementing several suggestions they came across.

Kondo's proposal, though unimplemented, did live up to its unique claim as Kondo elaborated, "I presented the concept of an eight-heads-tall, life-sized, live-action Mario humming to the background tunes as he traverses the game. When he leaps, he mutters to himself, 'Boing!' But this idea didn't ever see the light of day...I was eager to lead the charge towards such extreme creativity."

Although Kondo's vision of a gigantic Mario wasn't drastically dissimilar to Mario's typical size-changing abilities, what truly made it distinct was the concept of Mario creating all his music and sound effects. Considering the recent replacement of Mario's long-standing voiceover, Charles Martinet, with Kevin Afghani, it would have been amusing to see Afghani performing all these sounds had Kondo's idea been actualized.

The interview was a precursor to the launch of Super Mario Bros. Wonder later this week. An early preview of the game—devoid of spoilers—was released last week. However, chatter about the game is rife due to leaks in various online platforms. Rebekah Valentine, a senior reporter at IGN, welcomes any intriguing insights at rvalentine@ign.com.