Nintendo just finished wrapping up its latest Direct Presentation with a bevy of exciting new announcements. There was a little something for players of all tastes, with the reveal of the Batman Arkham trilogy being ported to Switch as well as a deep dive in Pikmin 4 ahead of its July release. However, there were surprises as well, as the show capped off with the reveal of Super Mario Bros Wonder, a colorful new Mario game packed with energetic platforming and the series trademark sense of charm oozing out of the trailer.
Of course, no Mario game is complete without a set of exciting new power-ups and Super Mario Bros Wonder looks like it has several to spare. The reveal trailer during the Nintendo Direct Presentation showed off a ton of new mechanics and creative concepts that look like a ton of fun to play around with. However, there are two new abilities in particular that stand out more than the rest, and not for the happy-go-lucky reason that that Super Mario universe is generally known for. In fact, it's exactly the opposite.
Super Mario Bros Wonder's New Power-Ups
The two new power-ups for Mario are shown off at different points in the trailer, each bringing a new layer of challenging and fun to the gameplay. One sees Mario in a darkened environment, with only a black silhouette of his body and his bulging cartoon eyes visible. He is then confronted by a Goomba, a classic enemy for the vast history of the Super Mario Bros franchise. Being hard-wired into player's brains, the initial expectation would be for Mario to simply jump on the Goomba's head, but he instead stretches his entire torse vertically upwards into the sky similar to a Wiggler. Standing significantly taller than before, Mario then leaps into the air like a freakish Slender-Man type monster, all while still maintaining his jolly smile.
As if that's not enough, in the final moments of the trailer for Super Mario Wonder, Mario picks up an item and transforms into an anthropomorphic elephant. Mario has had animal based powers before, such as the Tanooki suit from Super Mario Bros 3. However, the main difference is that it functioned literally like a suit, with Mario still maintaining his normal form underneath. Now, his entire body has gone through a metamorphosis not far from what is seen in body horror movies like the many works of David Cronenberg.
The Nightmare Fuel Potential of Elephant and Long Mario
While these new designs are still generally tame in design, they are ripe to be pushed to their limits by the internet. Just the phrase 'Mario as an elephant' is already packed with material for memes to be spread across social media platforms like Reddit and 4chan. This isn't even mentioning the dark possibilities of 'Long Mario', which shouldn't take my imagination to think of how the internet can have a field day with creating haunting imagery to plague the depths of people's minds for days.
The internet being the internet, its become commonplace for traditionally child-friendly series to be transformed into pure nightmare fuel as an attempt at comedy. Everything from Shrek to SpongeBob to even the toddler-focused Thomas the Tank Engine franchise have been reworked into freakish new forms as a means of tarnishing these childhood favorites for the sake of a gag. Thomas the Tank Engine in particular was just spoofed with the horror game Choo-Choo Charles, in which players must evade a terrifying living train with spider legs and a ghoulish face.
Of course, this is all for fun and games and harmless at the end of the day. Super Mario Wonder will likely be another stellar installment in the long-running Super Mario Bros franchise, with all of these inevitable memes set aside. However, its unlikely that Nintendo is aware of the beast they just unleashed with its latest announcement.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches on October 20, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.