With Super Mario Bros. Wonder releasing nearer to the end of this week, Nintendo has made Super Mario Bros. Wonder the latest game to get the “Ask the Developer” interview treatment. Across the interview’s multiple instalments, we got to hear from the likes of Takashi Tezuka and other developers all involved in Mario’s latest 2D outing.
During the interview, we heard from the devs behind Super Mario Bros. Wonder, as Shiro Mouri spoke about Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s “casual connection”:
Shiro Mouri on Wonder’s “Casual Connection”:
Shiro Mouri: From the initial concept, we wanted to develop a Mario game that’s also fun to play online. However, while playing online with people from around the world can be fun, we believe there are also some challenges. For example, in competitive games, more-skilled players can have multiple wins and feel satisfied, while newcomers give up early because they keep losing. In co-op games, those who aren’t skilled at games can drag the team down. Also, there’s a very small percentage of players who behave inappropriately and cause trouble. I’ve always wanted to create fun online gameplay, free from those sorts of worries. That’s how we landed on the key phrase “a casual connection”.
Basically, you can enjoy the game as if you’re playing solo. You don’t have to be on standby while you’re matched up with other players; matching takes place automatically behind the scenes during single player, so there’s no waiting around. If someone in the world is playing the same course as you at the same time, you can connect and play online together. And so, we came up with ideas to form this casual connection with players worldwide. We call other online players “live player shadows”, and if you greet them, they might greet you back, give you an extra item if they have one, or even help you when you make a mistake. But they can’t attack or disturb you. We wanted to create gameplay where only things that benefit the player can happen, and that resulted in the current design.
Because you can connect with players around the world, we thought it’d be good to have lots of characters to choose from. This is one of the reasons why we decided to have the 12-character lineup from the initial stage of development. Even the world map is designed with the idea that players from all over the world keep popping up and wander around together freely.
For the full interview, why not click here to check out Ask the Developer Vol. 11, Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Chapter 4.
Ask the Developer | Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Participating Developers)
- Takashi Tezuka | Executive Officer Senior Officer, Entertainment Planning & Development Division
- Shiro Mouri | Entertainment Planning & Development Department Production Group No. 10
- Koichi Hayashida | Entertainment Planning & Development Department Production Group No. 10
- Masanobu Sato | Entertainment Planning & Development Department Production Group No. 10
- Koji Kondo | Senior Officer, Entertainment Planning & Development Department
