Super Mario Wonder producer and director discuss the game’s difficulty

Game Informer has been lucky enough to chat with Super Mario Wonder producer Takashi Tezuka and director Shiro Mouri about the Mario’s latest 2D platforming extravaganza. One of the topics Game Informer’s Brian Shea wanted to find out about is the game’s difficulty, especially regarding post-game content. The two Nintendo employees wouldn’t answer that particular question, though they did speak about the difficulty of finding all the ability badges which gives Mario and friends special abilities. Takashi Tezuka says he wasn’t able to 100% the game, while Mouri chimed in to say that he had 100% it.

One aspect of Super Mario Bros. Wonder completionists will want to tackle is collecting every Badge. While some can be purchased through the in-game store using collectible Flower Coins, others must be outright earned. “It really is going to be quite challenging to be able to collect all of the Badges, so if you feel confident in your Mario-playing skills, I implore you to give it a shot,” Mouri says.

In response to Mouri, Tezuka chimes in, “No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get the last one.” 

“As you can see, it’s really difficult even for the developers themselves,” Mouri responded. “I got all the Badges!”

“Up until now, I have completed pretty much every single Mario game that I’ve worked on,” Tezuka, who started work on the Mario series with the first Super Mario Bros. game, says. “But for this one, I did have to have help with two courses. All the rest, I did myself.”

“There were two courses where I couldn’t complete every aspect there was to complete,” he says. “I’m just not as skilled as the other staff members. As for the most challenging stages, I’m glad it’s at the difficulty level it is because creating courses based on my skill level would surely make it feel lacking for many players.”

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