One of my favorite things about the launch of a new Nintendo console is the ability to go on a new Super Mario Bros. adventure. At least, thatwasmy favorite thing. Unfortunately, theSwitch 2has followed in the footsteps of the Wii and Switch in having no new Super Mario Bros. game upon its arrival to sink our teeth into.
What’s worse, there’s no new Zelda title, either. And whileDonkey Kong Bananzais now out in the wild a month later, it’s simply not doing the trick in making me not miss a potential followup to Super Mario Odyssey. Instead, that space in my Switch 2’s heart is filled to the brim bySplit Fiction.
The co-op-only action-adventure title was released earlier this year on PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and PC. A Switch 2 port was released on launch day, and it’s now the game I’m enjoying most on the fledgling hardware.
What Is Split Fiction?
For those unaware, Split Fiction is one of those titles that can only be played in co-op mode – either couch co-op or online multiplayer – like 2018’s A Way Out or 2021’s It Takes Two.
Note: Split Fiction was developed by Hazelight Studios, who also made A Way Out and It Takes Two. The team knows its niche.
You play as one of two aspiring authors, both young women named Mio and Zoe. Thanks to some sort of corporate green scheme looking to steal their creative ideas, they end up trapped together in a constantly changing environment that is based on the various stories they’ve written over the years, alternating between fantasy and sci-fi settings. The end result is a vast and varying landscape filled with lots of top-notch action, tricky puzzles to figure out, and some fun powers to put on display.
It’s also, somehow, basically a new Super Mario Bros. game.
How is Split Fiction The New Super Mario Bros.?
To be clear, the theming and visual aesthetic of the two franchises are nothing alike. And yet, as I put my first few hours into Split Fiction with a friend over the weekend, I found myself more than once saying, ‘Wait, this is just a 3D Mario game.'
It starts with the platforming. While 3D platformers aren’t all that rare in 2025, arguably the best early example was Super Mario 64. Since then, the franchise has taken 3D platforming to new heights with the likes of Galaxy and Odyssey, having turned level runs into intricate mazes that leave little room for error.
So, too, plays Split Fiction. An early level set in one of the sci-fi worlds has Mio and Zoe dashing and jumping around in future traffic – flying cars, a constantly changing field of gravity for one of them, and plenty of useless henchmen getting in the way. Your job is to dispatch them, stay alive, and figure out the proper path through this very stressful traffic jam so you don’t fall off the edge of the map.
I’m playing as Mio, my friend as Zoe. I think I win.
This felt very similar to my early explorations in Odyssey. There’s no future traffic in Mario, but plenty of death-defying leaps, only to immediately go toe-to-toe with Goombas and Koopa Troopas. It reminded me of jumping around the many blocks and ledges of the New Donk City construction site, trying my best to not waste a life while hunting for the most exciting way to get from point A to point B.
Then there was the Thwomp situation in Split Fiction. If you’ve played the game, you may know what I’m talking about. Another sci-fi area in the game features massive pistons that you have to jump across, avoiding being crushed to death by them. Jumping from piston to piston even looks like a series of Thwomps, while you attempt to figure out the rhythm they are dropping in to avoid your untimely end. They don’t have faces, but otherwise the resemblance is uncanny.
And then, of course, there were the animal-themed power-ups. That’s right, Split Fiction did that thing Mario does so well, turning your character into an animal with magical powers. In the case of Split Fiction, your character transforms into a pig that can either fart hard enough to rocket you across the room or one with a midsection that turns into a slinky – think Slinky Dog from Toy Story – to reach once unattainable areas. This reminded me of any number of Mario animal powers, from the Tanooki suit to the dawn of Cat Mario in Odyssey.
While I don’t think Split Fiction copied the Mario formula directly, it’s a good example of how far the impact of that franchise has come to reach.
What About Donkey Kong Bananza?
I don’t dislike Donkey Kong Bananza. In fact, I have a feeling I’ll grow tolove it like so many othersalready have. After just a couple of hours, though, I’m not feeling it. While I see the draw of letting yousmash everything like the Incredible Hulk, I need more guardrails early in the game than Bananza is giving me. I’m too easily distracted to be left justsmashing up a cave looking for goldthat may or may not matter.
While games like Super Mario Odyssey offer an open-world environment, your objectives are always at the front of your mind. There’s always something to do, and the way to do it engages my brainjustright. That’s not happening with Donkey Kong Bananza yet. And while it might be developed by the Super Mario Odyssey team, I’m not sure it’ll scratch that same itch – or if it even should. Donkey Kong games and Super Mario games are not the same thing.
Thus far, thanks to his punches, ground slaps, and generally chaotic nature, playing as DK in Bananza feels like an elevated version of a Donkey Kong game. What’s not to love about that? I play Donkey Kong games for the inherent silliness of the characters, the brute force of our main man DK, jumping into barrels that blast me across the map, and, of course, hurtling toward certain doom in a mine cart. Thankfully, that’s the experience I’m having so far with it.
When it comes to putting a new Nintendo console through its paces, though, I practically always want to do that with a Super Mario Bros. game. Thankfully, though we don’t have one of those yet and don’t know when we will, Split Fiction just might cure what ails you.
