Mario Wonder’s online mode is opening my mind to tricks and secrets

theverge.com:

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s online multiplayer keeps making me think of Elden Ring.

Nintendo’s latest Super Mario game has a clever online multiplayer mode. When you connect online, you’ll see near-invisible versions of other players throughout the game’s islands and levels as they also travel the Flower Kingdom. It’s a lot like how you see the outlines of other players as you traverse the Lands Between, and in Wonder, Nintendo created some smart ways for your fellow compatriots to help you out.

While in a level, you’ll see up to three other players jumping and elephanting their way through whatever series of dastardly obstacles Nintendo has cooked up for that location. But these aren’t just Mario Kart-like specters to measure yourself against; they’re other players working through a level at the same time you are, meaning it feels like they’re discovering its challenges and surprises right alongside you.

This real-time adventuring has already helped me in more ways than I can count. Many times, I’ve watched another player figure out how to get an out-of-the-way purple flower coin that had eluded me, meaning I could follow their path to finally get the coin for myself. Once, I was stuck on a puzzle until I saw a spectral Yoshi doing the pushing animation, which helped me realize there was a pipe that I needed to move. I’ll occasionally notice Wonder showing me that a player is offscreen, which I’ve used as a clue to discover that there’s a hidden underground or sky area that I have to go find.

Your compatriots can save you if you fall down a pit or are