Opinion: My Daughter Made Me Realise That Mario Wonder's Difficulty Options Need Work

Some of 1st party Nintendo games have tendency to be different than other 3rd party games but they forget to put the basic things and it could be messed up the games.
Some examples I found:
1. According to this article, assigning the specific characters with their difficulty level is a wrong idea, it should be given by universal difficulty level that didn't tie on character choice.
2. Making villagers moving out by themselves in older Animal Crossing games was a wrong idea as not every player want to feel the losing of their villagers after they got them so bad. Thanks to ACNH for giving the players an option to keep them or kick the villagers out as they want. Problem solved.
3. Amiibo Festival gameplay by must scanning the Amiibo figurines / cards all the time was a wrong idea as it just make the gameplay become unnecessary complicated. The using of Amiibo on Amiibo Festival should be optional, not a mandatory use so it will give option to players who cannot collect every Amiibo stuffs enjoy the game with normal gameplay without too much gimmicky.

Honestly, I don't get why Nintendo invest a lot of time creating those easy-mode characters when they could just create an option to toggle lives off. I think this is a textbook example of re-inventing the wheel.

Yeah, pretty much the same for me and I wish they would have made the difficulty options better. Like Mario Party has the star handicaps and it works great as a very basic but effective option. I thought Wonder would be a good experience with my oldest kid and it lasted all of a half hour on Christmas morning. This game is in no way friendly for multiplayer with kids. Which y'know, is funny because at her age I was playing much more difficult unfriendly NES games and trying over and over through failure. And multiplayer was having to watch as my older brother played almost all the way through Super Mario Bros before I'd get a chance to play for 60 seconds again and fail.

But as Bandit says in Pass the Parcel, this isn't the 80s!

My daughter just turned 5 last month, but we suffered a similar experience in Wonder prior to that. She also wanted to play as 'one of the girls' which made it a little more difficult.

She ultimately lost interest in Wonder, but Lets Go Pikachu has been her jam as a support character. She gets to do all the fun stuff, while i help the story move along. Its also allowed her to get more comfortable with a controller, which could have us go back to Wonder after we beat the game.

She's also played Mario Kart with a wheel accessory, and accessibility is tops for that.

I grew up playing NES games as a kid.

Most of them were brutally hard, but that didn’t make me enjoy them any less.

Mario Kart is the best game for introducing kids to video games, you can pick any character, any kart/bike combinations, and still enable the steering and acceleration assists independently for each player. Our daughter can play as Princess Peach or Cat Peach and doesn't get frustrated because she drove off a cliff over and over.

This whole article made me smile. Literally me at my home with our 3 year old daughter right now as well. Good to know I’m not the only one with a 3 year old girl that has definite Princess Peach demands. 😂

@BoFiS @Divide_and_Wander Right! The Mario Kart steering assist keeps them from falling off ledges.

A very good point. Young kids are going to want to play other characters, not just the ones designated for easy mode. 😊

@8bit-Man THIS! Exactly my thoughts, let’s compare it to SMB3, Wonder still much easier than it. I was 4/5 when I started playing NES.

@DwaynesGames kids these days want everything, or maybe always wanted, but nowadays instead of taking as a lesson the parents complain for their little Timmy Tommy

I agree wholeheartedly. Why limit easy mode to a dumb character like Nabbit? Not that I hate the guy or anything lol. But kids don't know or care about Nabbit's relevance in Mario Bros U.

@8bit-Man - As did I, but she has zero interest in even trying games that look like that. She likes video games, but I'm looking to wait a little longer before the 'git gud' days of gaming for her. 🤣

Games like Little Kitty, Big City and Lil Gator game have been great for her to get used to 3d world games too.

My 10 year old and 7 year old have struggled with difficulty levels in certain games. They stick to 50-100CC in Mario Kart, and pretty much refuse to play online modes in games against other players like in Smash. We tried playing Wonder as a family but ended up playing it separately, because we are all at different levels of coordination and it was frustrating to keep leaving the kiddos "behind".

That said, there are plenty of options for kids who want a laid back time – Minecraft has a creative mode where monsters don't attack. My daughter loves Cat Quest and can probably beat it in her sleep at this point. They also recently discovered Stardew Valley, Dreamlight Valley, and we all love playing the low-difficulty indie co-op game Ages of Mages together.

Mario 3D World is my daughter's favorite Mario game. She would often hang out in her "bubble" when things got hard, and would use the white tanooki "cheat" suit if she was playing single player and couldn't get past a certain level. I would encourage her to not use the special suit, though. It's no bad thing to challenge your children – the feeling of achievement they'll receive when they beat a level "fair and square" may incentivize them to not shy away from hard things.

Indeed – I challenged my daughter to NOT use the suit on a level she was struggling with – and though it took her over 50 tries, we celebrated and she was beaming when she beat it. Now, she can do it pretty easily without so much struggle. Certain things come with age.

The kids watched me sweat and squirm through the last level of World Crown in Mario 3D World (probably played 150 times to beat – and that using Peach who can float), so it's good to show them that adults who have been gaming their whole lives still struggle with – and can ultimately conquer – difficult levels.

For your 3 year old, give it time. She'll improve, and it will be a joy to watch. There's a huge difference a few years make.

Something that's always baffled me with Wonder is that they made a point of, "We put in Daisy so that girls had more options," which, yeah, cool, definitely support that.... but there's still just Peach, Daisy, and Toadette. You couldn't stick in Rosalina or Birdo or Pauline or someone as well so there's an even four?

I totally get this. I would have loved to play as Yoshi, but the game is just too boring when you’re invincible. Each character really should’ve had an easy and hard mode

I'm pretty sure your daughter is the exact target audience for Princess Peach: Showtime!

My three year old son, watching me playing Pikmin 3 on Wii U, was able to figure out the controls and navigate the entire game by himself, bar the final boss. He absolutely adored that game, I can still hear him now, ten years later, saying ‘videos of Pikmin fwee!’ trying to find footage to watch lol

It’s all good times when they little. Difficulty of life spikes up when they’re teenagers. Trust me, I have 5 goombas

Yet another reason Im glad im physically incapable of having children

@Lizuka : Also no reason why the game couldn't accommodate 8 players simultaneously. Sure, it would be ridiculously chaotic, but that's all part of the fun!

Personally I can see where Nintendo's approach comes from. Making a character or two invincible a lot simpler and follow more intuitive visual rules for the game. Because you know if Yoshi or Nabbit are on screen they're invincible. You know if you play as Yoshi or Nabbit you don't take damage.

Introducing accessibility options as toggles and option menus introduces its own accessibility challenges. I think it's a bit backwards when the game starts demanding the less skilled player to fiddle around with extra menus before they can play, but the more skilled player can just jump straight in.

Shouldn't the accessibility modes be as easy if not easier to access than the standard play?

Maybe with parental supervision invincibility as option would make sense and could be set for a toddler by the parent. But alone I could see a great deal of frustration of a child not understanding why their character who was invincible in one play session wasn't in another if they choose the wrong option.

My brain was too smooth at age 3 to give a hoot if I was winning or losing at Super Mario. This reminds me of a Guardian Opinion Piece lol

The only aspect of this I can recognize is the weird lack of consistency with the difficulty options. Some Mario games give you an invincible character when you lose enough, while these ones give you an easier character that can still die.

I love Super Mario Bros. Wonder!

The reverse is very much true too. If you want a challenge (as much as a challenge this game can give you anyway), but your favorite character is either Yoshi or Nabbit, then you're stuck on easy mode. And you can't even use any of the game's fun power ups!!

I played the game entirely with Yoshi and had a great time regardless, but this is very, very much the biggest flaw of this game. And it's sick a stupid decision too. Locking difficulty behind characters like that will never not be a stupid decision, imho.

Why not play New Super Mario Bros Deluxe instead? Toadette changes into Peachette which is the easiest character I think. Plus you can carry your daughter over the tricky bits. Don’t think you can do that in Wonder unless I’m wrong? Can you even turn yourself into a bubble in Wonder?

Yeah my kids can’t make any progress in this game unless they play as Yoshi. But then they can’t do the power ups and turn into an elephant, which is SO cool, so they alternate between being Yoshi and being one of the other characters.

I will say if your three year old can beat a level at all they are doing better than my three year old, lol. My three year old doesn’t really get how to move and jump at the same time, lol. Even my six year old can’t really understand the run button, and the idea of using momentum to make bigger jumps.

The difficulty options have definitely improved with the Mario series…but yeah, maybe allowing you to select a character and THEN could adjust difficulty would be better.
On the other side of the coin, I wanted to play through as Yoshi…but then it almost felt like cheating. It’d be cool to play as the easy characters on normal/hard mode as well.

@Slobbert god forbid a game doesn’t offer all characters on easy mode 🙄

Totally agree. My two daughters really want to play games now, but hardly any are suitable. Shock, horror, children don’t like it when they get punished and penalised for enemies touching them. Who would’ve thought that?

Yoshi’s Crafted World does it really well. Mellow mode lets them fly everywhere, every enemy swallowed gives extra eggs, and they can take loads of hits. They love it. Animal Crossing is another good one. While they can’t read a lot of it, they’re happy just mooching around digging, chopping, and collecting all sorts of critters.

I had similar issues with Mario Wonder. Once they got over that they couldn’t be Peach or Daisy, they were upset they couldn’t turn into an Elephant if they were Yoshi or Nabbit. Why not allow them to use the most fun power up in the game? I couldn’t believe it.

They’ve been watching me play some GameCube recently (they loved watching me play Ocarina of Time on N64 so now watching me play Wind Waker) and I think I’ve almost going the ultimate game for children. Simpson’s Road Rage! The Sunday Drive option just lets them drive around with no time limits, and they can pick up and drop off passengers as they please. The only issue is Krusty the Clown who wants to go to the lap dancing club 🤣 I just said he wanted to go dancing, which as he’s a clown, made complete sense to them! 😅

Save for like 2 or 3 levels near the end, Super Mario Wonder as a whole was way too easy and too short imo. Still a good game, but it was definitely a noticeable shift in easiness overall- even without using the special characters or ghost saves.

Most Mario games have always had a good amount of challenge and even as a child I enjoyed them regardless. Nerfing them entirely might only weaken us as a society lol.

@MSaturn my daughters are the same. They could hardly play when they were 3. And now they’re 6 and 7 but still can’t really do the run and jump button together or understand momentum etc. But it just takes practice. The more they play, the better they get. They find using the 8bitdo SN30 the best - as it’s basically a SNES pad it’s a really good size for their hands but obviously it has all the buttons and sticks so they can play any game with it.

@BoFiS My 8yo can play Mario Kart all day, every day. I plug in the beginner options and soon enough she gets competitive. Wonder lasted about 30 minutes before she deemed it too difficult. My 12yo likes Wonder just fine.

Some things are not meant for some audiences.

@Slobbert Totally agree. Parents can be really entitled, especially with the coddling of what kids experience these days.

100% this happened with my 4 year old

Had this happen with my nephew when he was four. Booted up 3D world plus Bowser's Fury. We played some 3D world and that went fine, but he wanted to try Bowser's Fury. I erased my save so we could start up a file (it's not a long game) figuring I'd progress as Mario and he'd play Bowser Jr.

He wanted to play Mario.

That kinda killed any progression in the game.

I feel your anguish. LOL.

I went through that with my kids.

But there have been some great examples of games that allowed you to play with younger gamers.

1) Mario Kart Double Dash!! Let you have 2 players per kart. One drives. The other throws items and bumps the kart to the side. So when my youngest was too young to be able to control the kart, she would be my gunner. Eventually she decided that she would be in my kart, but would play for the other team (My wife and older kid) and my youngest would then throw bombs in front of me to try to blow us up, or try to bump us off the course or bridge. LOL.

2) Skylanders Spyros Adventure and Giants. The thing with Skylanders is that you can't fall off the map. So its great for younger gamers that have difficultly moving a character around. And if your kid's character runs out of energy, they just grab another Skylander and swap it in. These were two of the first games we finished together.

3) Kirby's Epic Yarn or Yoshi's Woolly World. I can't remember which one, but it was set up so that as long as Player 1 didn't die, the game would continue on. I'm thinking it was the Yoshi game. When we started to play the game I would be Player 1 and this would keep us progressing through the game. But by the end of the game, my youngest would be Player 1 as she turned out to be a better gamer than me. LOL.

4) Super Mario 3D World . . . if my memory serves me correctly, I think this is similar in that as long as Player 1 doesn't die the game keeps progressing? I can't remember. It's been so long since we played this. 'probably about 9 years since we played the game together. We played the Wii U version. But this might be a way to let your daughter be Prince Peach. If it isn't the same as the above game, then maybe it was that as long as your kid's character made it through the level, you (Player 1) could finish the tasks and then you could move on. And I think Princess Peach had a hover move, so that they had a bit more protection from falling off the map.

EDIT: Oh, yeah . . . and don't forget about the Lego Games. Only 2 players. But great to play with your kid.

Yeah. Now that both my kids are better gamers than me, I don't think about this stuff now-a-days. But back when they were growing up, it was something I would look out for.

@NintendoDad thanks for the tip on Double Dash! That’s a great idea. I’ve just got my GameCube down and my girls have been watching me playing some games so will have to try this out.

I can attest that kids want to play as the main cast human characters, Marios or princesses. Also as a person who is old enough to have bought a Wii U, I would like to play as nabbit, but as a standard character.

But no matter, because SMBWonder is not a great Mario game. At least not consistently great. It’s got a very nice style but lacks a consistent fulfilling design. They tried a different level structure and I hope they don’t go back to it. But sure, keep the nice stylization.

Well when I played Super Mario Bros on NES when I was three, there was only one difficulty level: Balls-to-the-Wall. We had to die a million times over the course of years to get to the skill level where we are today! Grumble grumble...

-Shakes cane and makes another comment about "kids these days"

@GravyThief

RE: Double Dash!!

+1. Have fun.

Definitely do the thing where the person in your kart is trying to make you crash. My kid thought it was hilarious! LOL.

It could also be a way to give the fastest driver a handycap. I used to always win the race, so my wife told my youngest to keep trying to make me crash.

The other thing to try is to hold the controller in wierd ways to make it more difficult to drive.

So whoever is the best racer, make them hold the controller upside down. Or backwards. And then they have to try to figure out how to drive the kart while learning how to use the controller while holding it in a funny way. LOL.

Tell your 3 year old to “git gud scrub”

I was pretty disappointed with SMB: WONDER. I really liked the art style and feel, but it was way too easy. The harder areas are good, but I was never really excited by any of the courses until the last world. New SMB 1 and WiiU offered a far better ramp-up in difficulty. To be frank, SONIC SUPERSTARS was the better return-to-form out of the two mascot offerings in fall of 2023. SUPERSTARS nailed it and I feel bad it was overshadowed by the plumbers.

@Greenmanalishi Saying, "This is an aspect of this game that I spent money on that could be better," is not in any sense of the word entitlement. Consumers are allowed to have negative opinions on things.

@Slobbert I mean if you’re talking about us here, then that’s a clear case of survivor bias. Who knows how many people were deterred from the hobby back in the day? But on the other hand I agree that it’s not that big a deal, and there are lots of easy games, family games, etc.

Not having the easy way out in games made me realize that if I want to progress I need to overcome certain things and I believe it helped me in my problem solving skills

@Lizuka Technically the female characters are basically half of playable cast, for the male ones you only have Mario, Luigi and (two colors of)Toad, the rest are easy-mode characters. I don't know how many fans Toad has(and the iconic red one isn't even one of the options), but the male characters are a little bit disappointing in comparison to the female ones.

@MSaturn if they were deterred, maybe it wasnt for them? Video games inherently came with fun from getting skilled from a game. It was a hobby specifically for us nerds, and quite honestly it was better back then, when small passionate communities were trying to overcome problems and discussing the lore. That spark was lost somewhere along the way

I dont know maybe i feel kids are too spoiled in videogames these days...my dad bought me a SNES when I was 5 and my brother and I couldn't get past the first couple levels in Super Mario World... probably for a couple years atleast... eventually we go on to finding every single secret and beating the game multiple times, still was fun ...perhaps your daughter can just play the way she enjoys or you can show her how fun and awesome the game is playing with Yoshi that she may prefer it ...

I actually think the best way to introduce kids to Mario games is to let them play the originals. My kids started by taking turns with me on Super Mario World (they mostly replayed the first couple of levels at the time ). The originals are a blast and are the reason Mario became a household name. Now my kids (11 and 8) regularly play through all of the originals, including both versions of 2.

As a four-player family, we really didn't enjoy playing Super Mario Wonder together. The way the camera chooses to follow a specific player instead of showing the whole group led to a lot of frustration for everyone. Who the camera chose would change often, and whoever was selected at the end of the level was also the only player who could navigate dialog text. This was not great a thing for a 7yr old to be responsible for, and I "wonder" why lengthy story elements (Prince Florian) needed to be in this type of game in the first place .

Aside from the above, I was so disappointed in the game for many reasons. Even playing single player, it became the first mainline Mario game I don't see myself ever finishing

I think if I were to do this with my kids I'd opt to play as Yoshi and have them pick their character and they can just ride my character.

Luckily my son loves Sonic so if we ever play he just plays as Tails (whom he loves more than Sonic) and loves that he randomly flies is.

This is why you start 'em off playing Kirby games I feel.

She's persevering despite the setbacks and increased challenge. At 3 years old. She's going to be fine.

When the NES came out there was some small print on the box that said, suggested ages 6 & up. I've found this to still be a good barometer for most kids playing traditional video games. Five and above is about right, most video games have been considered a fun recreation for big kids, teenagers, and up. Sometimes too young is too young. I mean you wouldn't let a baby eat crunchy cookies because they don't have the teeth for it. It's a hard lesson but a good lesson. I have friends who have kids and as they got older they were able to play the games better so it all works out.

When I was 6...

I finished Ninja Gaiden, Ghouls and Ghosts, Shinobi, Kenseiden, Silver......

2025.... Today's 6-year-olds have a hard time playing Mario Wonder.

New times...

What upset me too was that even if they pick Yoshi, if you ride Yoshi, they are the ones in control. They should have made it that the person riding yoshi is control. I also hated the crown system. Sometimes I would die saving my kids, then the system put the crown on them so the screen would not move forward until they moved forward.

What is it with Nintendo and adding the most random characters as playable characters in Mario games? Seriously, there’s Queen Bee, Wiggler, Peter Piranha, Pauline (she seems so out of place to me) and, of course, Nabbit. A freaking criminal. As a hero character in a mainline Mario game.

Get gud scrub!

@StewdaMegaManNerd I mean, I can't speak for the Honey Queen, but Wiggler, Petey and Pauline are pretty much established Mario characters, having appeared in several mainline and spin-off titles. Nothing too random about it really.

I have had exactly the same experience with Mario Wonder. My son was three at that time and it was really hard to convince him to play as Nabbit or Yoshi.

… now I build super easy levels (for my son) with no pits and hard enemies in Super Mario maker 2. Can really recommend that!

This game was too easy anyway

@Splash_Woman Classic story! ❤️ And who knows, your six year old may try again in the future. 😊

And this is also part of the reason why games need demos. Not sure if DKC Returns HD has a demo.

In multiplayer, can't a skilled player still carry a struggling player through the more difficult parts? I remember in the NSMB games, a struggling player could hop into a bubble and float off to the side so they can let the skilled player work.

@N00BiSH Yeah, it’s just that 1) Petey was just some boss from Mario Sunshine at that point, 2) Wiggler… I guess he’s okay, but there’s a bunch of other enemies that would have made more sense, and 3) Pauline looks like some sort of gambler from Las Vegas (that was the first example that came in my head). I wish they kept her old design, though I guess it looked too much like Peach.

With many Mario games, we get a lot of replay from our kids but with wonder the difficulty curve is so great that they just gave up and have no interest in going back. That’s not very Nintendo.

I played the first couple worlds of Mario World over and over again and generally thought the bridges and after were too hard for the first few years of owning a SNES. I think we forget that maybe it’s okay to not actually finish or proceed further in the game especially if someone else is dragging her along.

(But that doesn’t make playing the bits you can manage less fun and the repetition eventually made me better.)

@StewdaMegaManNerd

1) Petey's made more appearances in spin-offs sure but he had enough of an impact thanks to his appearances as both a playable character and a boss(most notably in Smash Bros.).

2) I feel like the Wiggler thing could be applied to any playable enemy so far unless you're very specific about your replacement choices.

3) I'm not sure what you're trying to say about Pauline here? That she shouldn't be in any games because of her current design? Her design isn't even that new - it's been like that since DK '94.

I dunno man, your claim just falls short to me because you've decided to single out three Mario characters with established histories and significant appearances instead of actual random one-shots like the Sprixie Princess or Pom Pom or Baby Rosalina. Even Nabbit has made more of an impact in the wider Mario franchise(especially in the platformer titles - he was a playable extra in New Super Luigi U and his appearance in Wonder is just an extension of how he played in that title).

Stopped reading when I saw 3 years old.

I'm SO glad my parents DGAF about videogames when I was first getting into NES around 3/4 y.o. 😂 this all sounds like the opposite of fun for everyone involved.

PS - SMB was a better Mario game for a child to learn on because it's a better Mario game, fundamentally. It didn't matter that I wasnt immediately good, I felt compelled to get better and see more of this amazing game. 👍

(That's kind of a beautiful fact of life - you generally aren't immediately good at things that are worth your time.)

LEGO City Undercover. Mario Kart. Kirby. These are the game for young children.

i know theres a bigger debate on a 3yo being bad at a game or kids needing to earn their stripes for games to be a fulfilling hobby, but i think people are forgetting the original point of the headline

and yes, its dumb to have easy mode gated to specific characters when they all essentially play the same. an invincibility badge wouldve been way more customizable, and wonder's solution is more of a limitation of not wanting to program power ups to nabbit or yoshi

a 3 year old doesn't need to be able to beat any levels in order to enjoy it. she wanted to play as peach and sounds like someone else was telling her she wouldn't be able to enjoy it unless she could succeed instead of eventually learning how to get past certain parts.

@Mythra yeah basically. a 3 yo doesn't need to be good at something to like it and would have had just as much fun dying to the same goomba for an hour if the parent didn't insist she wouldn't have fun.

I remember playing the original SMB when I was like 5 or something (at 3 it was the Atari 2600 and Combat or Pac-Man), and it forced me to get good. I remember my cousin was older and could beat SMB and I thought he was AMAZING at it. I practiced and got better and eventually beat it too (using warp pipes). For me, the challenge of getting better was rewarding. I would have enjoyed just being invincible or whatever, but then it is an empty Win. I think that's why I work so hard now, because I had to work to get better. If I could just toggle a switch as a child and everything is done for me, how would I deal with difficult situations now? Kids need to fail to learn from their failures.

@Olliemar28 BOTW could use an easy mode for kids. My nieces have racked up almost 100 hours wandering around BOTW, or catching horses, with my switch user profile (where I beat ganon already, have maxed out armor, plenty of good weapons & arrows). And recently, with little instruction, my niece also has a blast riding a horse dangrously close to guardians at the castle, seeing how long she can dodge their death beams. She loves it!😆

Seems like a huge missed opportunity on Nintendo's part.

Saying that your daughter would have more fun with Celeste with some modifiers than Mario Wonder is one of the stupidest claims I have ever heard in my life.

@nervous-noodles Making a fuss because a 3 year -old child has difficulty with a game because there is no easy mode for Peach. 3 year old children should not even play computer games. Limit their screen time as much as possible or let them play educational games

@WoomyNNYes sounds like they are playing properly if they are having fun. no easy mode needed.

@Mythra 3 year olds have been playing games since the 80s, probably not going to change anytime soon

@nervous-noodles The 3 -year -old children I know from my family just play with toys or outside.

@nervous-noodles They're having fun because my save profile is like a Funky Kong(easy mode) profile, with it's OP armor, powerful weapons, and hundreds of farmed arrows. My nieces are real young, never get into the game if they start from the beginning when link is weak.

Nintendo added assists for kids in Mario Kart it, asist mode for Mario Odyssey, Nabbit in Mario Wonder, Funky Kong in Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. I'm just pointing out a similar option for BOTW could probably make man young kids new to gaming happy. We would have bought another copy of BOTW for my nieces if it had an easier character like my similar to my OP save profile.

@Mythra
ok

Yep, a toddler is going to struggle with a video game, probably even the easiest video game you could offer them. This is an age barrier, not a difficulty barrier. Try again in 3 years and try not to control the way she plays. No one likes a backseat gamer.

@Lizuka Consumers often have no idea what they are talking about.

Cute article 😊
I think including God mode in all their games could possibly attract more young players, but even without, kids find their own way to play if they’re interested enough.

My oldest first picked up a controllers to play Super Mario 3D World (Mario Super World was her name for it) on the Wii U in co-op with me, before she had much comprehension of run and jump. But I would just carry her character, and I showed her how to go in a bubble and just float along. We had fun even if we weren’t playing the game seriously at all.

Likewise, my youngest took the controller a few years later in BOTW (aka “The Link Game”), but all she wanted to do was run around in a safe town where there were no monsters, and dream up conversations with the NPC’s.

At that young age, you just let them goof around. A few years later on, they were making their own islands in ACNH, or creating characters in Miitopia. Lately, they don’t play much and I’m somewhat relieved they’re not as addicted to games as I was at their age! But when the right game comes along, usually on the tablet, they enjoy it. Hopefully console games will continue to appeal, too, and be a fun distraction for them when they want in the future. They’ll be inheriting several bookshelves worth of games from me, so I hope they enjoy ‘em at least a little!

My niece just turned 3 and she is totally obsessed with Princess Peach (and Bowser). She got the Peach game for her birthday and she can't stop playing it.

My daughters are older and not gamers. My youngest who is 12 will play and she plays as Yoshi. The awful thing about that is it’s almost impossible not to constantly jump on Yoshi.

Actually agree with the article. How about the option for permanent P wing or something to that effect? I wasn't a fan of limiting easy mode to certain characters myself. Heck I wanted to play as Yoshi but I would have to play easy mode to do it? Yeah, missed opportunity, Nintendo.

These three year olds need to suck it up and git gud!!!!

Okay, in all seriousness, I think the difference for those of us that grew up with difficult games of the 8-bit era is that those were all we had. They were made to be appealing, but they also were the best we had at the time. Now there are so many games from different times. I can't begrudge a kid for preferring to play in a big 3D world with a character that looks like it did in the movie, or something like that. It also highlights how tricky game design can be these days. Not every game should be accessible on difficulty, but a lot of them can be, but then how much is the right balance?

We all have to learn, you're just not to necessarily "win" the first time you play a video game. It takes practice.
I was eight when we our parents bought us a Super Nintendo with Super Mario World as our first game, and I don't think I was able to finish a single level myself when me and my sister played through it, taking probably like six months to finish. I still enjoyed it.
I remember being nine and still bawling when I lost on the final stage of Super Mario Land 2. Oh well, I just had to put the game down and try again later.

Try your kids on the first level of Super Mario Bros 3 for the NES. It has a fire spitting piranha plant, a flying goomba and at least 2 perilous jumps.

Mario has always been tough at first. Once it clicks, it's fine. I don't see any value in kids playing "easy modes". It's a completely different game that way.

damn children, not being able to play video games properly!

My six year old is a huge Mario fan, along with the typical Minecraft, TABS, Teardown, and Terraria. He's lucky enough to have parents and six siblings that love games too. None of us throw controllers or lose our minds with difficult games, and the few times the youngest has acted like that, we nipped it in the bud. Since he's been playing games for three years by now, he is getting good at them and will take on challenges with glee and planning. It's great.

@pawlslax I mean, I did beat the first Ninja Gaiden after my brother threw a blanket over my head, when I was like seven. Not that it's a big deal. But I DID do that. Besides, it shouldn't be me who says it's a big deal. It should be other people. It should be literally everybody else.
Say it's a big deal.
...wait, this article is about Trophies, right?

@pawlslax Well said. There’s some insane comments in this thread. My guess is that most of them haven’t got kids. There was a lot less entertainment options available in 1988 when they were all 3 and getting gud at SMB3 apparently!

@nervous-noodles ok

I was playing Elite up a hill backwards aged 8. Kids these days grumble, grumble.

@pawlslax For real, quite a few judgmental comments to a rather harmless opinion.

This is something that has always bothered me about games like this.

I enjoy how games like this have a way to both be hard, and a way to be easy. Personally I love playing hard games
This is because that now that I am older I enjoy a challenge. However, one may not have the same perspective, especially if they are really young. Little ones could get frustrated if it is to hard for them. This is why it's nice to have both options.

Many times I have wished to play as Nabit but never played as him because I dislike making the game easier for myself in specific. I feel there should be an easy, normal, and hard mode for people so they can pick their skill level. In "Yoshi's Wooly World" and "Yoshi's Crafted World" there are toggles to add wings to the Yoshi, allowing you to pick an easier option while also not changing the character entirely.

I always have loved Nabit as a character and always wished to see him more sinse his first appearance in New Super Mario Brothers U, and it pains me to see him on the menu as an option to play as, but doing so makes the game work differently.

However I will say that Nintendo has improved on game difficulty the past few years. This is because in many games there was no options to make ot easier I wish they would make it so it is easier, but still possible to get a game over. I feel that game overs and deaths can be a good way to let children learn that you need to try again to get better, and that you can learn from mistakes while doing so at a slow pace.

I like the idea of a game being both harder and easier. From things like the wings in Yoshies Wooly World to a game where obsticals do less damage. I only wish for them to implement a difficulty system rather then forcing people to rely on specific characters to make the game easier or harder, take your pick.

Had the exact same issue! Lol

I always thought mario wonder restricting certain characters to easy mode was an odd choice, but for the opposite reason... I don't have kids but I just wanna play as Yoshi on normal difficult haha

Reading this article though, it really does feel like a decision that probably felt like it made perfect sense when it was made, but then as soon as someone this problem then it feels blinding obvious, of course small kids will want to play their favourite characters and then get upset/lose interest when they have a hard time.

@N00BiSH At the end of the day, I don’t really mind that these characters are in Mario games, if anything I think it’s fun to question how these characters made the cut. Of course Pauline is the exception, but the big reason why I think she’s an odd character to include in Mario Kart/Party/Tennis is that people who aren’t as well immersed into Mario’s history aren’t going to understand her purpose. They might just think, “Why the heck is the mayor of that city in Mario Odyssey playable in freaking Mario Party?! Who is she?!” Though on that note, that may influence them to look up the history of the franchise. But I still don’t know why Nabbit’s here. Probably the same reason why VeggieTales encourages tax evasion.

@StewdaMegaManNerd I think you're seriously underestimating just how popular she became thanks to Odyssey.

Sorry, but, THREE YEARS old is WAY too damn YOUNG to start playing video games. Especially traditional stuff like this. At the age of five, you can maybe start with a simple educational game on a PC or iPad, also to learn how to use such devices. But I think it's fundamentally wrong to let three-year-old toddlers play classic video games!

Take the children out into nature, to playgrounds, to the sandpit, paint together, do arts and crafts together, read to them, have carnival with other children, and so on and so forth. But video games are taboo at this age, also in terms of children's growth.

I and almost everyone I know started playing video games at the age of 6, 7 or 8. Children's motor skills are well developed by then and that's a good age to start. But three years, sorry, no. Just no.

@N00BiSH If people like her, then that’s totally fine, I’ve just never heard anyone act like she’s one of the best characters. Not that I don’t like her, she’s cool with me. Actually, now that I think about it, Pauline’s probably more important than Daisy,(not that I’m throwing Daisy in the trash) as she was one of the first Mario characters. But still, Rosalina is definitely the best female Mario character (she actually has a backstory and it’s surprisingly sad).

@Nischenliebhaber Dude I was winning races in Mario Kart Wii when I was like 4.

@Nischenliebhaber I don't think I land in the "fundamentally wrong" camp, but otherwise completely agree.

For sure, no 3 year old will have the motor skills needed to needed for even simple games. We really do not need to start demanding that game developers spend time and budget developing difficulty settings to cater for such an audience.

That said I also agree that Nintendo's implementation of difficulty setting-like features miss the mark here.

Saying Nintendo created a Mario game for children and expecting your 3 year old to beat it is ridiculous. A 14 year old kid is still a child. Nintendo never created Mario games for small children. Heck... most kids don't stand a chance beating a Mario game. They become difficult at the end and has and should always do so.

I honestly have no idea how could anyone complain about the lack of easy options for this game when it tries it best to not ever gives you any trouble.
At this point you might as well directly put cheat in the game, is the only remaining thing.

I do admit that it's silly to lock difficult modes on characters tough.

Great article, highlights a perspective I never considered as a non parent but now it feels crazy to force specific characters on small children. Do better Nintendo!

I'm 43 and I can't imagine anyone wanting to play as Nabbit either lol. The majority of players have no clue what it even is. Yoshi is at least more recognizable but I have zero interest.

The best solution is for YOU to play as Yoshi and for THEM to play as their favorite character. This way, they can ride on you whenever they want, and ultimately they can never die as long as you don't die as Yoshi because you can always revive them. It's a win-win as long as you play co-op with them.

This is very sound. Very sound. I agree. Should just have a toggle, for that players controller.