Nintendo Is Massively (!!) Improving Super Mario Bros. Wonder For Families

Your child is not longer banished to Nabbit Jail, if they're bad at platformers.

Hey, does Nintendo read Crossplay?

Because I gotta say, the new changes announced for the Switch 2 edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder—a game hilariously titled “Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park” in full, if you can believe it—are aimed at us.

The highlights—and some of them are really exciting—are as follows:

• Assist Mode: Players do not take damage and do not lose lives after falling in a pit. Crucially, it does not matter what character you play as. Mario? Peach? You’re not longer chained to Nabbit. I think this is an important change for Nintendo.

• Rosalina Is Playable: Yes, a nod to the new movie, but despite my kids having no personal connection to the Galaxy games, they absolutely love the character.

• New Low Stakes Co-Op Mode: Luma, a companion to Rosalina but not exclusive to playing as Rosalina, is also here. It’s another riff on an idea taken from the Galaxy series. Luma floats around the screen and cannot die. She does not jump. But you can collect coins and defeat enemies floating around and help whoever else is playing. It’s a way of participating in the game with even lower stakes!!!

All of this (and more) was laid out in a video Nintendo published last week:

One question remains: Can two people play as the same character? This was a point of contention with Wonder in my house, because it meant both kids couldn’t be Peach.

It’s possible to be the same character in Mario Kart World—but not Wonder. I pulled a Nintendo executive aside at the Switch 2 unveiling and asked them to shift this policy!

So, can you play as the same character in Wonder now? I do not know. The company did not respond to my request for comment and clarification. But we can keep hoping.

These additions arrive on March 26, either as a $20 update or its own thing. (That’s steep, even for a fairly substantial update to a two-year-old video game). Pricing has not been announced the new version on its own, but the original Switch release was $60 and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Switch 2 version was, at the very least, more.

As of this writing, at least, Best Buy lists the price at $79.99.

Here’s a comparison of a few Switch 2 upgrade prices so far:

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land: $20

• Breath of the Wild: $10

• Tears of the Kingdom: $10

• Pokémon Legends: Z-A: $10

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons: $5

• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds: $10

Wonder was a revelation and a frustration back in 2024. It showcased a new and exciting path for Mario in two dimensions after years of flailing, but when I tried to play Wonder with my family, there was more controller tossing than there were cheers.

Here’s what I wrote at the time:

If you’re looking for a throughline in all of this, it’s the three-year-old. She’s the weak link. Because, uh, she’s three. The systems currently in place are robust enough for me and my seven-year-old to keep pace and enjoy the game. I will probably end up spending hours inside Wonder with her…but it’ll mean we’re doing it in secret. […] That’s not a great experience for me, or either my daughters. It’s too bad, because it’s a fixable problem, if Wonder let me modify its systems to let her find the game’s fun.

My three-year-old is now five (almost six!). My seven-year-old is now, wildly, nine. Both have far more experience with video games, controllers, and platforming. But…

My issues with the original Wonder remain.

There was no Assist Mode in the Wonder, but the game did have some flawed ways of trying to accommodate different styles of play from, for example, younger players.

Nintendo’s approach then took the form of two playable characters, Nabbit and Yoshi. With Yoshi, a second player could hop on and ride along. With Nabbit, you don’t take damage. Except, uh, you’re stuck playing Wonder as Nabbit. And can’t use power-ups, one of the core pitches behind what made Wonder unique! There is no child in the world who is sitting around thinking about how they want to play as Nabbit, which meant the choice in front of inexperienced kids trying Wonder was to forgo playing as a beloved character, like Peach or Mario, and simply play as this weird purple animal.

Nabbit felt like a punishment, not a tool. “Sorry, you’re not good enough for Mario!”

Do I think that’s what Nintendo intended? No. But is that what happened? Yes.

Now, you can be Mario or Peach or whoever and play Wonder, regardless of skill level. Regardless of whether you’re good at jumping over pits. Wonder can open a door to what makes platforming games a joy, rather than feeling like it’s excluding you.

The thing with Nintendo is that it’s hard to tell if these changes are company-wide or team-specific. It’s why being able to pick the same character in Mario Kart World but not Wonder is interesting; it shows teams at Nintendo making their own choices.

But hey, here’s hoping every Nintendo game in the future has a robust Assist Mode.

And lets everyone play as Princess Peach.

Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.

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Also:

• I never got around to playing sever secret level in Wonder, hopefully this will be the kick in the butt I’ve needed to see the rest of that game through. Game ruled.

• Please please please let us get a proper Mario announcement this year. I’m personally hoping for a mashup of Super Mario Odyssey and Bowser’s Fury.

• The new Mario movie looks pretty good? At least, that’s the vibe I’m getting from the teasers, which at least seem to be setting up a more ambitious flick.