New 2D Super Mario Bros. Wonder, RPG remake lead Nintendo Direct reveals

The stinger, the bit Nintendo knew everybody was going to remember, was Mario as an elephant. It could almost make you forget the surreal revisit to a traditional 2D Mario game the company had just finished showing you.

The trailer for Super Mario Bros. Wonder starts off in familiar territory, minus the talking flower that urges Mario "onward and upward!" Mario hops over a pipe, onto some Goombas, and dodges a Piranha Plant. Then he's bouncing off some spherical hippos, past some Goombas that are...  wearing toupees? He does some rail grinding, jumps through some waterfalls—typical Mario things.

But then he touches a blue "Wonder Flower," reflective goo starts pulsing around the corners of the screen, and a typical pipes-and-baddies level goes bizarre. Pipes rise, spout water, and worm-wiggle around. Another level is all silhouettes against an ethereally purple background, but Mario can stretch himself five times as tall. Mario becomes a spiked ball. Mario rides a sheep stampede. It ends when Mario finds a Wonder Seed, and the Mushroom Kingdom looks relatively recognizable.

Beyond the Wonder, there is seemingly local multiplayer with up to four players, with Luigi, Daisy, Princess Peach, and Toad making confirmed appearances, along with a Yoshi to ride. The whole game has a glossy look, with actively animated backgrounds. It's the first all-new sidescrolling, 2D Mario game in 10 years, according to Nintendo, and it looks like it has a lot of new things to say. It arrives October 20 and is available for preorder today.

There was even more Mario to announce. Super Mario RPG, the 1996 Square/Nintendo collaboration that exceeded expectations, is coming to Switch on November 17. It's getting a full graphical overhaul while keeping the play space and mechanics in place, perhaps akin to its Zelda: Link's Awakening work. I didn't think I had the energy to isometrically grind through a bunch of enemies again after renting the original at least three times to avoid doing anything outside. But the lure of revisiting a loving remaster of this strangely strong '90s RPG, while being able to pick it up and put it down at any time, might be too strong.

Along with all that Mario, Nintendo also showed off more of Pikmin 4, due July 21. You pluck Pikmin from the ground and use their different abilities to fight and solve puzzles, and you've got a dog with you to help, Oatchi. Nintendo made clear in the Direct that Oatchi is a good boy. There was also a brief glimpse of a game led by Princess Peach, in which she steps on a stage, twirls, changes outfits, and, well, that was it.

Most of the rest of Nintendo's Direct presentation involved ports of popular game series coming to Switch, including:

• Batman: Arkham Trilogy, which combines the Asylum, City, and Knight games from Rocksteady's acclaimed trilogy, plus all DLC, is coming in the fall.
• Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, which includes Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge titles for NES, plus Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake for MSX. From the PlayStation realm, Metal Gear Solid and the HD Collection versions of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It arrives October 24.
• Vampire Survivors, the auto-shooting roguelike phenomenon, finally makes it to Switch at some point in 2023.
• Gloomhaven, a turn-based tactical card deck RPG, based on the epic board game that demands a complete shelving reorganization to accommodate it, hits Switch on September 18.

Many more games, including Sonic Superstars, DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Detective Pikachu Returns, and more can be seen in the Direct video or, for the time being, on Nintendo's YouTube page.