Nintendo released the latest trailer for Super Mario Bros. Wonder on August 31. The video demonstrates how players can ride Yoshi as any character – including Elephant Mario. Users couldn’t help but notice Yoshi’s pained expression and posture when the chunky Elephant Mario hops onto his back, inspiring a number of “RIP Yoshi” memes.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an upcoming 2D side-scrolling action title of the Super Mario Bros. series. In this game, Mario and the rest of the cast can transform into various forms that possess different special abilities. New power-ups include Elephant forms, Bubble forms and more. The elephant form makes the character’s body grow big and chunky, with a long trunk that can be used for attacks and sucking in water to sprinkle on flowers and grass.

In addition to Mario and Luigi, there are 12 playable characters in this title, a record for the Mario series. The game also features an offline multiplayer mode for up to four players. During multiplayer, players can jump on the back of Yoshi, who is controlled by another player, and ride him. In this way, Yoshi can even be ridden by another Yoshi, and the large Elephant Mario is not an exception either.

In the trailer, the precise moment Elephant Mario lunges himself onto poor Yoshi’s back can be seen, and Yoshi’s usual smile seems to get extinguished as he staggers forward. Perhaps to help bear the great weight, Yoshi’s stance is also much wider than when carrying another Yoshi or Toadette, and his arms are strained, palms formed into tight fists.

In an expected turn of events, this sight of Yoshi desperately lugging Elephant Mario has triggered a series of memes and parodies, most imagining the moment Elephant Mario launches himself at Yoshi meaning fatality for the poor dinosaur.

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— Nintendo Out of Context (@NinTextual) September 2, 2023

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— RandomStuffette (@RandomStuffette) September 3, 2023

In the post above, Yoshi gets fatally struck down by the impact, Smash Bros-style. No less illustrative of Yoshi’s suffering are the videos in which he is immediately escorted to heaven or has his cervical vertebrae cracked as Elephant Mario makes a landing on top of him.

Incidentally, Yoshi has been the butt of similarly cruel jokes, as using the jump when getting off of Yoshi has long been used by players to reach high places in titles such as Super Mario World and others, leading to depictions of a bunch of used and discarded Yoshis at the bottom of valleys.

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like Yoshi suffers any real disadvantages from carrying the elephant-turned characters on his back in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Yoshi doesn’t suffer a fatality nor has his spine broken, but rather even manages to jump as usual with Elephant Mario on his back. According to the official explanation, Yoshi and Nabbit are characters recommended to those not experienced with action games, as they do not take damage.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be released for the Nintendo Switch on October 20.

Written by. Amber V based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-09-05 14:48 JST)