In this week's issue of Famitsu,behind two developers Super Mario Bros Wonder Discuss the decision to remove the timer. Producer Takashi Tezuka and director Shiro Mori were involved.
The time limit has been a staple of the side-scrolling series since the original game. However, Super Mario Bros. Wonder mixed up a number of aspects of the classic formula, and omitting that was one of those changes.
In the interview, Takashi and Mori talked about how the development team considered different aspects about the Super Mario games, which even extended to the flag pole at the end of the level. Something that also needs to be considered is that some Wonder Effects have their own timer, so a global cycle timer on top of that may cause an issue.
One of the major changes to the 2D Mario rules was how aspects like time limits and scores were no longer displayed for the first time. I was surprised that the things I took for granted were gone, but changing those things was a big decision, wasn't it?
Mori: It wasn't exactly a big decision, but I think it was necessary in order to create new things and evolve. This time, it's been almost eleven years since Super Mario Bros. was created. Completely original, so we've reviewed all the rules that have been established so far.
At one point, there were comments like we should change the flagpole, so we really thought about things from scratch. With the flag pole, it remained as a convenient multiplayer objective, but things like the time limit and score, as well as other things like jumping on underwater enemies, or returning to the world map after failing a level, were a throwback to the usual structure – we'd say ” If we start from scratch, this is the way to go” and make our decisions one by one.
Tezuka: The development team includes not only employees who have been involved with Super Mario for a long time, but also many first-time employees. These people spent a fair amount of time discussing what type of Mario game they wanted as a player. Even if it's just how 2D Mario has been made so far or things that seem important, we've made changes one by one this time to see what can be changed.
Show. Although, for example, the time limit of having to clear a track in a certain time has been constant from the first Super Mario Bros. game. And I thought this game premise was a rule; After checking everything carefully were you able to review all the game elements?
Mori: correct. Regarding time limits, the cool effects of some courses have a time limit, so having two layers of timers becomes an issue. The discussion about what to do about it comes up when the question is asked “Do we even need a timer?” This issue first came up not only among new employees, but also among employees who had been around for a while – we then tried to test removing the time limit.
We asked staff to play it in this state and hear their opinions, but removing the time limit didn't make players start exploring without worrying about time; After all the purpose of the goal has not changed. I felt like there was more time to do what I wanted freely, so up until now my “purpose” was protected, and this time we figured out there was no time limit.
How do you feel about not having a classic timer in the game? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
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