Thanks to all the ghosts – A Super Mario Bros. Wonder tale – Part 2

In case you missed: Part 1.

Final-final chapter – Together until the end.

This is the final-final marathon to overcome. It is the last thing separating me from the personal glory of full completion. I am proving that I have mastered all the skills. It is a long track. It is a marathon. Or a decathlon. Ten different skills that I need to prove with little to no rest. Here I go…

Parachuting. I am racing the lava in a weird way. I need to go slower, parachuting my way down while the lava slowly drops its level. It is not that hard. I land in safety ready for my next challenge which is ground jumps. Not much happens here, this is easier than I thought. I beat it in two tries. Eight more like those and I am done.

Swimming. Here I face my first problem. Wait, don´t get me wrong I faced a lot of problems in the previous courses, but I am the hero here, let´s pretend that I am nailing every single course. Anyway, here I need to swim fast against a rhythmic electric discharge all the way to the end. I’m not a great swimmer. My deaths are more painful now as I go back to parachuting. After so many deaths, I started seeing ghosts again. They might have been here all along but I wasn´t paying much attention to them. After two more tries, I overcame this deadly combination of water and electricity. Such a relief to finally reach my first checkpoint. I am fearless, I can do this.

Dashing platforms. That is easy, it is like having a break from all the tension from before. I need to time my jumps while letting these platforms push me towards the end. First try and I land in safety. I am unbeatable, I can feel it.

Wall jumping. I am having a flashback of my adventures with Yoshi. I am also racing the lava rising, and dying a lot without making much progress. I feel hopeless. And once more I notice that I am not alone. Yoshi is with me. The familiar face thought gives me hope. We go together. And again, I face death. Yoshi keeps going and suddenly they jump into the lava. What are you doing Yoshi? We go again. And again, I face death. And again, Yoshi jumps to the lava after my death. WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOSHI? Oh wait, do you want to do this together? That is so sweet! It gives me a burst of energy! I cannot let you down. We go again. And again. And again. But now I am feeling it. And we wall jump to safety ready for our next challenge.

Fire. Spinning fire to be precise. And we cannot stop jumping. Yoshi keeps smiling and rushing their way towards the end. I got caught on fire a few times. I die. Yoshi is there for me. They are unbeatable. Fire cannot get through them. They are my bodyguard, my guardian angel. Always reaching me to make sure I can progress. And like that, we reach our second checkpoint.

I am tired, not gonna lie. It feels like a long marathon. But the end might be near. I have no clue at this point how many courses there will be, but I feel like the end must be soon. I’m tired yet I run now. No stop. Even if that means we need to ride missiles in the air and time our jumps to ride a barrage. I mistimed my jump a few times. I see Yoshi progressing but suddenly making mistakes. They really want to do this together. At this point, I am sure of that. I am touched by that. I am determined not to let them down.

I focus. Time my jumps with precision. We overcome the missiles. Now we find ourselves in a familiar setting, dashing platforms. Once more feels like a resting course. The ceiling and the floor push us towards our goal. We just need to time our jumps a few times. But we got this.

Fire again. Now our tool is a grappling hook. The walls and the floor lights on fire in a rhythmic interval. We go. Fire doesn´t reach Yoshi, they are untouchable in this course. But for me fire is deadly. I bend to it a few times just to have Yoshi saving me again and again. Just like that, we reach our next challenge.

We disappear. I cannot see myself; I cannot see Yoshi. I see clouds making their way for nothing as I move forward. Wait. I am here. Yoshi smiles. They are also here. We are just invisible. I know where I am. At least I think so. Or I have an idea where I might be. We go.

Tight jumps and bouncy platforms wait for us all the way to the end. And this death is painful. We die and we go back to ride missiles. We try again and again. And whenever I die, Yoshi jumps into the abyss to follow me. We go again and again and again until we reach a safe spot.

Five balloons are what separate us from the final-final end. Yoshi goes first. I cannot see them, but I see their smile while they bounce the first balloon. They keep smiling while I believe would be they bouncing on the second balloon. And now I see Yoshi. I can see them now. They are frozen in the air. They are having a pause, and I can see them in the air. They are not moving for the next seconds. What are you doing Yoshi? What are you doing?

I think I understand. They want to be my checkpoint. If I die, they will be there. I smile with confidence. I can overcome these obstacles. I go… and I die. I reach Yoshi. I come back. I think I am bouncing the third ballo…nope, I am dead. I reached Yoshi one last time. I cannot rely on them anymore, they are dead and their clock is ticking. Yoshi has 5, now 4 seconds before they die for good.

3 seconds… I bounce in the fourth one as I see the flagpole.

2 seconds… I bounce the fifth one, that is it, I will make it.

One second…I see Yoshi ghosts swimming their way to reach me. C`MON Yoshi, you can do it.

I landed safely, a few meters away from the flagpole.

THAT IS IT! I´VE DONE IT!

Why am I not happy? I could reach the flagpole and that would be it. But Yoshi is dead…  I jump into the abyss. WHAT AM I DOING? The end feels wrong, but this feels so right. I am all the way back to riding missiles, but I am strangely happy. Yoshi seems happy to see me too. We smile and jump and sing. We are ready to start over. We will beat this marathon, but we will do it together.

In case we don´t, I just want to say thanks to all the ghosts for this Wonder(ful) journey.

 

Screenshots from Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo 2023) taken by the author.

Basic information:

Publisher: Nintendo EPD
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release date: October 20th 2023
Genre: Platform
PEGI: 3

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