Nintendo really thought of everything with Super Mario Bros. Wonder. There is a secret related to the controllers, which can play a song using vibrations.
There is no doubt that Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an incredible video game. Mario’s latest 2D adventure, available exclusively on Switch, once again demonstrates all of Nintendo’s know-how. The Japanese firm is particularly generous in this title which goes in all directions. And this tiny detail, spotted by Hidden Gaming Details and shared on TikTok on October 22, is further proof: thus, the Switch controllers emit music when you walk on dedicated blocks.
As we can see in the very short clip corroborated by several testimonies, the effect is very subtle and has probably escaped you: to hear the melody coming out of your controller, it is better to completely lower the volume of the television. Hidden Gaming Details talks about an easter egg linked to the Pro Controller, but it also works with the Joy-Con, which has the same technologies. “ My oldest daughter said to me, ‘My controller is playing music!’, and my younger daughter and I couldn’t believe it until we listened for ourselves », Indicates sarcastro7 on Kotaku.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder makes your controller sing
This easter egg would not be impressive if the Joy-Con and the Pro Controller were equipped with a speaker (as is the case for the PS5 DualSense). To produce sound, these two accessories rely on vibration motors — which are HD. This may seem surprising, but it is simply the laws of physics: a loudspeaker is ultimately just a membrane that vibrates at a certain frequency.
“ If it can vibrate, it can make music », rightly recalls Least straight person I know on Tiktok. The rest is in the realm of programming, or how developers can take advantage of it. In the case of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a character must walk on blocks of color displaying a musical note for the magic to work. You had to think about it and, unless you have super-fine hearing, it’s difficult to perceive. Which makes the discovery even cooler.
To note that Super Mario Bros. Wonder is not the only Switch game to exploit this little-known feature. “ In a Super Mario Party game, when it’s your turn, the Joy-Con will emit some notes of the main Mario theme “, explains Koda Baldan. Same story for Kirby Star Alliesreleased in March 2018 on Nintendo Switch.
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