2023-11-04 08:10:02
Game News This problem in Super Mario Bros. Wonder ruined my multiplayer gaming experience
Published on 04/11/2023 at 09:10
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After The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the Nintendo Switch ends its year in style with Super Mario Bros. Wonder. If the title shows that 2D still has great days ahead of it, it seems more to have been developed to be played alone than with others, to the point that multiplayer is sometimes made difficult because of a very specific element.
From the outset, let’s be clear: Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an exceptional game. While the first Super Mario Bros. was released in 1985, Nintendo teams have proven once once more that 2D platform games still have a lot to offer and that the genre has not been condemned since the advent of 3D. The title is full of good ideas at each level, with an ingenious level design and courses that are renewed each time thanks to the Prodigy Flowers.
If the title is full of qualities, following having almost finished it having gone through the entire adventure together, something obvious jumps out at me: Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t seem to have been designed for multiplayer and its camera problems prove it.
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A choice of design… astonishing
For those who have never played Super Mario Bros. Wonder in multiplayer, a little reminder of the facts. If the title allows up to three players to play, there is no Player 1 strictly speaking, that is to say a character on whom the camera will focus throughout the adventure as in Kirby and the Forgotten World for example. Here, the camera will focus on the “best player”, in other words the one who reaches the flag first and the highest or the one who remains last alive. Quite strange criteria because it means that the one who does the best will have an advantage… while on the contrary, those who have the most difficulties would really need to have the camera on them.
Things get even more complicated when two people of different skill levels start playing together. The more experienced player will tend to move quickly with great agility, something that will be more difficult for the less accustomed player who risks being left even more behind if the camera is not on him. However, since Nintendo games and especially Mario are designed for a young audience, the difference in levels can be particularly large between a parent and their child, for example. So, there is a good chance that the seasoned player will start playing the cameras to make sure that the others follow, which is really not fun. Conversely, if the camera stays on the person who is having the most difficulty, then their partners can more easily explore what is on the screen without disturbing the others.
A problem that the developers were aware of?
Where this choice of fixing the camera on the “best player” is all the more surprising is that it is quite easy to circumvent it. All it takes is for the experienced player to give up, that is to say, to turn into a ghost, or for him to jump on the flag second and lower than the other player for the crown, and therefore the camera, to return to the beginner. If these ways are quite simple to get around this problem, it remains quite tedious. And if it can be so easily circumvented, Why didn’t Nintendo simply leave the option to clearly define a Player 1 to focus on? Again, in Kirby and the Forgotten World the action focuses solely on Kirby no matter what, and this works much better than constantly changing cameras which is problematic in many cases.
Besides, an element of the game makes me say that the developers seemed to be aware of this problem : when the player who holds the crown goes too far and the other player is no longer on the screen, he then turns into a ghost and has five seconds to touch his partner to return, otherwise he loses a life. This is an effective element to avoid frustration among the player since changing into a ghost is not equivalent to losing a life. This ensures that these camera issues are not frustrating because they do not have direct consequences on the game. But isn’t this a form of admission of failure on the part of the developers? In reality, I interpret it more as Nintendo’s desire to make the experience accessible and non-punitive given that it is aimed at younger people, like all Mario games.
An experience designed for multiplayer… or not?
Beyond these camera problems specific to multiplayer, we can wonder if multiplayer was not a source of complications for the developers. Let’s be clear, Super Mario Bros. Wonder remains excellent for many, even despite this slight problem, and all this does not impact the experience to the point of ruining it. However, when you play it, there are several levels which give the feeling of not having been designed for several players.. This concerns both puzzle or limited time levels which become much too easy for two people, as well as, conversely, chases where it is difficult to both stay on the screen.
On the one hand, can we really blame the developers that the game is not perfectly calibrated for both single-player and multiplayer? It’s impossible to make a level work as well alone as with others. And sincerely, Super Mario Bros. Wonder does very well in multiplayer so that we really criticize him on that… apart from his camera problems. Why do you think Nintendo developers made this design choice? Don’t hesitate to tell us in the comments!
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