 From what I have played and seen of it, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an incredibly well-made game. I feel the need to say this up top so that I'm clear. This is not a hit piece. I am not about to tell you that Mario Wonder is bad or poorly designed, or that I have any particular criticism of the game for that matter. I mean, I would have liked it to have been a bit more of a radical departure from previous Mario titles, but I think I've said my piece on wanting Wonder Boy or Streets of Rage 4 style 2D animation in more games. That's not a Mario specific gripe. No, my problem with Super Mario Bros. Wonder is entirely self-inflicted. You see, dear viewer, I have stared too deep into the abyss. I have gone too far down the rabbit hole, stepped through the looking glass, taken the red pill, whichever your preferred Alice in Wonderland slash Matrix metaphor. In trying to better understand Mario games, I spent the summer researching how these levels are designed. Now, I can't stop seeing the secret formula which all mainline Mario games, all the way back to the original Donkey Kong, are built upon. Which is a problem for Mario Wonder in particular, because Mario Wonder, despite being one of the most inventive and imaginative 2D Mario games of this century, is also one of the most formulaic. Its entire central mechanic is built upon emphasizing the design philosophy that Shigeru Miyamoto has been using and teaching level designers for the past 40 years. Before I get into that, apologies for the footage in this video. This was meant to be a companion piece to my first impressions of Sonic Superstars, hence the thumbnail, as I played both games prior to launch at UK Gaming Convention, EGX. Unfortunately, life, work, childcare and illness got in the way of getting this video finished sooner, but that probably is a good thing as it gave me more time to ponder what I had to say and how to best communicate it. It also means that I've seen more of the game now than was possible during a 15 minute teaser session on the convention floor, although I am going to keep this video spoiler free. The nice people at the Mario booth at EGX helped me film myself playing. Their only stipulation was that I had to be in shot, which means it's time for a face reveal. Drum roll please. Ta-da! Sorry, I know I'm not the person from this channel you'd rather see do a face reveal, but Bretton Stripes prefers her anonymity. Also, while the guy on the Mario booth helpfully adjusted the camera for me when I started filming, he made the angle significantly worse. Sorry about that. At least it means I don't have any qualms about cropping myself out of this footage. Now as said, Mario Wonder is a tremendously well polished game and it's bursting with fun ideas. Like many previous Mario games, it gives me a sense that the central gimmick of any one level could have been spun off into an entire game on its own, but instead these ideas are introduced, developed and discarded all in the space of around five minutes tops. Which, well done Nintendo, there's a lot of ingenuity in here. The problem that I have while playing though is that I can't turn off my brain and stop analysing everything. I've ruined Mario Wonder for myself by thinking too hard about a game that you're really not supposed to think about. And I don't mean thinking about the lore of this world, Mario lore is clearly very deliberately as threadbare as possible so that nothing gets in the way of all of that sweet platforming action. Over the summer I had two main projects. One, building my own video game inspired by early Nintendo titles. And two, writing the English language's most detailed biography of Shigeru Miyamoto. Because apparently nobody has done that yet. I got 20,000 words into it, give or take, before I got to the Super Mario Bros slash Legend of Zelda era and had to take a break while dealing with some more pressing real life stuff. But by that point I'd already absorbed enough of Miyamoto's early life to start spotting trends in his game design that have echoed throughout his entire career. To be honest, I can't look at any Mario level the same anymore. I can't stop spotting the use of the ancient Japanese storytelling technique called Kishotenketsu. Some people watching have just said, ah I getcha and don't need any more explanation. But I suspect that for the majority of western viewers this is a lot less familiar. Apologies by the way for my pronunciation of basically everything in this video. And yes that does include the name Mario, I see you typing that snarky comment. Kishotenketsu is a four act storytelling structure that's been used in Japan since before Nintendo was founded. In modern times it's easiest to spot in four panel comedy Yonkoma or 4Koma manga, but it's also used in novels, films, and is very heavily used in video games designed or influenced by Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto first became aware of Kishotenketsu by studying comic strips. At school he founded a manga society where he would try to learn as much as he could about what I'm going to pompously refer to as sequential art. At the time he was still laboring towards the goal of becoming a professional manga artist because, well, video games hadn't been invented yet. In western storytelling we're most familiar with the three act structure, which goes all the way back to Aristotle in the ancient Greeks. The three acts are setup, confrontation, resolution. Act 1 establishes the characters, Act 2 presents them with a problem, Act 3 sees them solve the problem. Perhaps the best modern example is Star Wars, which is very strict in its adherence to the three act structure. Act 1, Tatooine, here's Luke, here are the droids, here's Princess Leia and Obi-Wan and Han Solo and Chewbacca, etc. Act 2, the Death Star, how will our heroes escape from this technological terror? How will the rebels ever defeat this evil empire? Act 3, the rebel base and the Trench Run, our heroes save the day. And then there's the wider three acts of the original Star Wars trilogy, A New Hope, here are our heroes, Empire Strikes Back, oh no, our heroes are in danger, Return of the Jedi, now it all worked out, everything's fine. Yes, that was a bluey reference. Set up, confrontation, resolution. It's so ingrained into western culture that if a story doesn't exactly follow this arc, it feels weird to us. Many East Asian countries instead favor Kishoten Ketsu or a local variation thereof, a four act structure, although exposure to other cultures has obviously made them familiar with the three act structure as well. In Kishoten Ketsu, the acts are as follows. Act 1, Ki, in this act the setting is established. Act 2, Sho, the story is developed a bit further. Act 3, Ten, now the story is somehow flipped on its head or twisted, the supposed rules of the setting are distorted or inverted. Finally, Act 4, Ketsu. The original two acts and the third act come together and the tension is resolved. This format of storytelling is used throughout manga, not just in four panel comics but also in serialized manga, both in individual chapters and in larger story arcs. It is everywhere in Japanese comics and it's from here that Miyamoto first discovered it. When he designed Donkey Kong, Miyamoto deliberately built the game around four distinct game scenes, much to the chagrin of the programmers who are actually doing all the hard work. They complained that this meant doing four times as much work as any other game of the era. Although even this was a compromise as Miyamoto had been wanting all four levels to scroll up the screen, he was told that this was not possible and from reading accounts from the programmers it seems like there was a lot of Miyamoto throwing out ridiculous ideas and then being told actually no the hardware can't do that. While some games feature the Kishoten Ketsu formula more prominently than others, it's there in basically all of Miyamoto's work and in every Mario game that he has had a direct hand in overseeing. Here's a quote from Super Mario 3D world director Koishi Hayashida about how basically everyone who works on Mario games gets taught to use this structure. Quote, well this is something that Mr. Miyamoto talks about. He drew comics as a kid and so he would always talk about how you have to think about what is that denouement going to be, what is that third step, that 10 twist that really surprises people. That's something that has always been very close to our philosophy of level design is trying to think about surprise. End quote. There are some Mario games that were a little bit further outside of Miyamoto's control and don't emphasise this as much, but as this is such a large part of Japanese storytelling even if Nintendo developers don't use it deliberately it's still kind of there, just how the three act structure just kind of ends up in western storytelling whether or not by conscious choice. Super Mario Wonder though pushes Kishoten Ketsu to the forefront unlike any other previous Mario game thanks to the central gimmick of the Wonder Flower. In theory you could skip the Wonder Flower and play a far less interesting game but this is clearly not the intended experience. In practice the Wonder Flower is the 10 twist incarnate. Grab this power up now for instant Japanese storytelling as the world is sometimes literally flipped on its head. In my time with the game having spent so much time trying to spot Kishoten Ketsu in other Mario levels I can't stop spotting it in Wonder. I keep breaking down each and every level to this basic formula and I can't see the wood for the trees. I remember taking a film theory class at university and the first thing the lecturer did was warn us that the class would ruin movies for us. She wasn't wrong, Bretton Stripes often complains that I am no fun to watch films with because I can't stop picking them apart. Now apparently I do the same thing with Mario games, particularly Mario Wonder. So here's an early example watch out for very minor spoilers. The level starts and I've been accosted by Rhinos, bash bash bash they go knocking through everything in their path. This is explored further as I face multiple Rhinos at the same time and realise that I can use them to clear a path to coins that I want. Then I grab the magic flower that makes everything go all wibbly and suddenly the sky is pulsing and everything is turned on its head. Now there are hundreds of Rhinos and I'm racing them and everything's very trippy and then the whole thing comes together as I ride them to the end of the level. It's perfect Kishoten Ketsu and having seen it I just can't unsee it. And now I have passed on this cursed knowledge to you as well. You're welcome. You've got options though. You can either rude the day you watch this video, which is fair I think most people rude the day they first hear my voice, or you can use Kishoten Ketsu to further appreciate the genius of Mario Wonder's level design. How a single, relatively simple structure is used repeatedly throughout this and all other Mario games to create a satisfying engaging arc to your gaming experience. Platforming puzzles are introduced, developed, twisted and conquered over and over again. This is not a formula that ever grows stale, just as the western three act structure never grows stale. Play enough of these levels and even if you're not consciously aware of it, this format begins to grow comfortable and familiar. It lights up your brain the same way that a song grows more enjoyable with every re-listen. People say that Shigeru Miyamoto doesn't like stories in games and his commitment to narrative is certainly up for debate, but when it comes to taking players on a deliberate journey, Mario games consistently use a storytelling formula that predates the discovery of electricity. So to reiterate, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is, in my opinion, an excellent, very polished game, that it manages to surprise the player at all while sticking so closely to the familiar Mario formula is truly impressive. Of course, it should also be noted that, having played and or watched an excessive amount of Mario Maker levels on YouTube, it might just be that I can't get surprised by new Mario games at all anymore. The shock value is kind of gone now that the community has really let rip on this particular platforming franchise. And while I'm hedging my bets here, I should also point out that Mario Odyssey felt like a far more inventive and unexpected game, and if I had the choice, I'd really like more of that, please, Nintendo. Also, have I mentioned Wonder Boy the Dragon's Trap? As someone whose favourite Mario art style is Paper Mario, I'd really love to see a platformer go in the 2D hand-drawn direction. Apparently, the moral of the story is that there's no experience so fun that my brain can't ruin it for me. Or perhaps the moral of the story is that some things are more enjoyable if you don't try to understand them. Now, on the subject of games that are comforting because of their familiarity, while Mario Wonder and Sonic Superstars failed to grab me at EGX, there was one game at the show that I felt was really something special. And yep, it's a game I've played before. Although, in fairness, playing the Persona 3 Reload demo, having only previously played Persona 3 Portable, is practically a new experience. Like, actually playing a game that I've only previously had someone describe to me. To that end, watch out for another video coming in the near future in which I make the case that, based on my experience playing the demo, Persona 3 Reload might just be the best Persona game ever. And that is saying something. See you soon.