this game is great.

as someone who gave up on 2D mario after the new soup fatigue this game had me thoroughly suprised. there is insane amount of creativity and variety throughout each of wonder's nine-ish worlds. its crazy how much they were able to do. the music is amazing as usual and the overhaul to the graphics were well worth the wait. everything is just stellar. this really is nintendo at the top of their game. the badge system is loads of fun to play around with all of the different options they give. they struck the right balance of useful but not too strong, fun but not required. the wonder effects are extremely fun to find and play around in. it had me guessing around every corner. if you gave up on 2D Mario just like me this is the game that will restore your faith.

this might be my new favorite 2D mario game of all time, hell even 2D platformers. thank you Miyamoto very cool.

I officially 100%'d this game today! The whole time through I was actually thinking, wow this game is maybe too easy for my liking... and then right at the end in order to 100% the game it kicks you in the ass with possibly the hardest Mario level of all time! I truly loved that challenge and it really elevated the game for me. Levels like that and the Daredevil Run in Mario Galaxy 2 are some of my most memorable Mario experiences and this one was truly an all-timer! 100%'ing this game is certainly not for the faint of heart, but if you just want to finish the base game then you should have no problems whatsoever!

After over a decade of stale and dull 2D Mario games, Nintendo delivered their most ambitious and creative project yet. Wonder is exactly what the series needed, the hype I had for this game building up to its release was unmatched, and it didn't disappoint.

The main gimmick of Wonder is the wonder flower, which changes every level in the wackiest and weirdest ways you can imagine. One of the most iconic wonder effects is in one of the first levels in the game whereupon activating the wonder flower, all the piranha plants start singing and dancing in a parade, which is just so fun and instantly gives the game so much personality. I'd love to talk about all my favourite wonder effects because there are some amazing callbacks to older games which I appreciate so much, as well as insanely outlandish effects which change the way the entire level is played, but they're something that everyone should experience for the first time on their own and I wouldn't wanna spoil that experience.

Each level offers something new, but not just with wonder flowers; another really cool concept introduced in this game is the depth and layers in certain levels. Sometimes when you go through a pipe, rather than being transported underground or to a different point in the level, you'll appear in an area behind or even in front of the normal level. I found this so cool and they utilised it very well to hide secrets among the levels, I only wish the gimmick appeared more. I often found when I was playing through a level I'd notice new enemies, even when I was so far into the game that I thought I must have seen everything by now. I found there were really no enemies that actually annoyed me in this title, unlike previous ones. For example, I used to find cheep cheeps and other fish-type enemies so annoying in other 2D Mario titles due to the fact you couldn't really kill them unless you had a power-up, and slowly swimming away from them was annoying and sometimes difficult due to slow acceleration in water, but Wonder allows for you to step on the heads of those enemies even when swimming, and traversal underwater is made faster and more enjoyable through the use of badges.

In previous Mario games, each playable character would have different characteristics, For example, playing as Luigi would allow you to jump higher than normal, but his movement on the ground was more slippery. Wonder replaces that concept with badges, which I was kinda iffy on at first but it's actually so much better because it allows them to add so many more different ways to play the game due to the fact they aren't tied to certain characters. There are 3 types of badges; one which slightly alters movement, like using your cap as a parachute, being able to swim faster underwater or using a vine as a grappling hook. Another type is more utility-based, like gaining the ability to sense flower coins and wonder seeds or turning every power-up into a fire flower. The final type is more like a challenge, such as turning your character invisible throughout the level or making you jump continuously like a spring. These badges really make the game so much more fun, at first I thought a lot of them were pretty useless, and I was gonna stick to the parachute cap badge for most of the game, but I actually found myself switching between them way more than I ever expected. In the end, I was really glad they made each character play the same to make room for more badges.

The character roster is awesome. We can finally play as Daisy in a mainline Mario game! I can't believe they haven't done this sooner, I mean it feels weird to say we had playable Rosalina before playable Daisy. The roster consists of: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yellow/Blue Toad, Toadette, Green/Red/Yellow/Light-Blue Yoshi and... Nabbit. I have no idea why Nabbit was a character in NSMBU, and I have no idea why he still is in this game. The only characters who don't have the same playstyle are the Yoshi's and Nabbit, as they're easy-mode characters who can't take damage, and the Yoshi's can flutter jump. I was kind of disappointed to learn Yoshi was easy mode because I would've loved to play as the guy without having a massive advantage, but it's understandable that if Nintendo had to make any characters easy mode, that it be those ones. There are some really cool accompanying characters throughout the game too, like the talking flowers which comment on things you do in the game, sometimes hinting at secrets or reminding you to turn back if you missed a wonder flower. I honestly don't know how they managed to make these guys hilarious when they sound annoying in concept, but I'm so glad they're in the game. As I mentioned before, the enemy variety in the game is very impressive, constantly throwing new enemies at you to adapt to in each course. This is why I was so disappointed when it came to the boss fights.

Each boss fight in Wonder takes place in a palace, where at the end you enter a pipe into a square room with Bowser Jr. Every single time. When I saw that there were no Koopalings in this title, I was relieved, but I'm not sure if having just 1 boss repeated every time is much better. Bowser Jr. uses wonder flowers to mix up the fight each time, which is pretty cool, but the concept still remains the same; wait for him to exit his shell and jump on him 3 times. I really miss the bosses in the original New Super Mario Bros on the DS, they were always unique and relevant to the world in which they resided, but Wonder completely lacks that, and the fact that enemy variety is so strong in every other level makes me wonder what went wrong. As well as this, the airship levels are just boring. They recycle the same wonder effect each time and there is no mini-boss fight or anything, there's just a switch you have to jump on at the end and it's extremely easy every time. This is the first of two drawbacks that stop Wonder from being a masterpiece in my opinion.

The second drawback is the post-game content. I won't go into detail for this as to avoid spoilers, but Mario games are well-known for having a lot of post-game content, but after 100%ing the game, I found Wonder was quite lacking in that regard.

Despite a couple of drawbacks, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is one of my favourite Mario games of all time and I truly believe it will pave the path for a very bright future for the 2D Mario series for the first time since 2006.

Probably the best 2D Mario game since Yoshi’s Island. Granted, the bar was in hell because “depressing” wouldn’t even begin to describe the state 2D Mario was in but still, I give props when props are due and Super Mario Bros. Wonder manages to breathe new life into a series that has been absolutely stale since 1995.

The amount of creativity on display here is impressive. Not all wonder flower gimmicks were created equal (I’d even argue the game peaks on the second level in that regard) but it was always exciting to see just what would happen when you touched one even if the result was kinda disappointing. The badge system is also pretty interesting because most of the badges are kinda useless but I don’t think I can play another 2D Mario without the parachute cap and the grappling vine badges. They completely change the pacing of the levels for the better.

The music is, sadly, quite forgettable. I can’t really remember any of the tracks aside from a couple. I also found the visuals to be a bit eh. The new character models look great and a lot of the backgrounds are full of life but the game still kinda just looks like the New Super Mario Bros. games with a slightly prettier coat of paint on it. I also find it puzzling that a game this jam-packed with creativity still manages to have terrible boss battles.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is no Tropical Freeze or Rayman Legends. Quite frankly, it’s not even DKC Returns or Rayman Origins. 2D Mario is still way behind, but Wonder has put it back on the right track. I wouldn’t say I’m excited for the future of 2D Mario just yet, but I’m at least hopeful about it now.

Playing 30XX is like watching how the sausage is made.

The sausage in question is not this game, and while I don't mean the above statement as a reference to the game being in early access, the fact that it is in early access certainly makes this feeling of sausage-making spectatorship more apparent. The specific element of the further development process that enables this is the fact that like many games playable by the public which are still being worked on, exact technical information about the level is being displayed in the corner of the screen at all times; this is likely so that if a player runs into a technical issue, the developers can see where it happened, making reproducing and fixing the problem easier. A side effect of this is that the seams between chunks of level become as apparent as they would be if the game still used classic Mega Man screen scrolls.

I want to be clear that I don't mean this as a negative criticism of the game, but as high praise. The game controls very well, it looks great, it sounds great. On a technical and artistic level its every bit as good as "the real thing".

I've been playing a lot of Mega Man lately, probably too much. While playing Mega Man 5, I had the thought that Napalm Man's stage felt a lot like Wood Man's stage from Mega Man 2. Sure enough, a few google searches show me that Napalm Man's stage is in fact laid out more or less the same way, though about 25% bigger.

Mega Man's level design is so formulaic that you could literally give a computer a formula that spits new Mega Man levels out. From aesthetic, to terrain layouts, to boss design, weapon types, every new iteration in classic Mega Man is putting only slight variation on the same handful of archetypes. With a handful of additions, which I don't doubt will materialize by the time this game sees a 1.0 release, and perhaps revisions, 30XX would be able to effectively replace any retro throwback Mega Man. Arguably the only reason 20XX didn't already do this was because some people didn't find the art-style appealing.

There's a reason that there hasn't been a new 2D Mario game since Mario Maker came out. Fans have made the reason clear: if Nintendo is going to make a new 2D Mario game, they better make one a helluva lot more exciting than what they've been doing for the past 4 games, because with Mario Maker we can have a near infinite amount of classic style 2D Mario levels.

Between this and fan projects like Mega Man Maker, I'm hoping that the sheer amount of Classic/X style Mega Man content reaches a sort of critical mass whereat a greater need for new explorations in 2D action platformer mechanics manifests. Maybe now that we have so many variations for this gameplay style, the next Mega Man, or spiritual successor, or fan project, or anything else, can be something other than a decades-old template with a fresh coat of paint.

I bought 30XX following the 1.0 release. I've had heard about the game for a long time, and I originally thought it was "simply" a Megaman-inspired game, and wanted something chill to play on the TV. I was actually pleasantly surprised when I saw it was an Action Roguelike. It shows the devs put a lot of effort into this game. The art style is good, the music is great, and a lot of work was put in the animations. Unfortunately though, the fun falls short, and the gameplay in itself is just poor.

The randomly-generated levels feel uninspired and repetitive. The way the chunks are designed and assembled doesn't reward any exploration effort, especially since the Nuts (one of the in-game currency) are so rare.

The hub, where you can buy permanent upgrades and select players/game modes, feels like a glorified menu, and there are multiple tiny things that are just frustrating. Why do I have to walk up to each shop/options? Why can't I just press B to close a buy menu?

While the small fights during the levels don't really feel noticeable, the various bosses look and feel alright. They sometimes have weird patterns that you can't dodge or prevent (a bit of inspiration from the Dark Souls series wouldn't hurt in that regard). But once again the game design makes each battle a chore. Not only can't you shoot up or down, which is understandable since you get pickups that improve your arsenal and abilities, but the hitboxes are inconsistent. Sometimes janky, sometimes too precise, you can't really develop a movement flow, and you're sometimes stuck looking at an enemy dead in the eyes without being able to hit them.

So all in all, despite the fact that its art and music is great, and a lot of love has been put into it, 30XX is not a game I can recommend. It's not a good roguelike, it's not a good platformer, it just falls short of everything and doesn't have that little something that could make it a worthwhile purchase. I had to ask for a refund, for I knew I wouldn't want to bash my head against this title after a few runs.

And I mean let's be honest. For the same price, why play this when you can play Dead Cells or Spelunky? Or if you're willing to spend a little more, get Rogue Legacy 2 or Hades. You'll get much more for your money, whether it be in terms of gameplay, mechanics, items, lore, or plain and simple fun.

Fun time. Gorgeous pixel art. Amazing boss designs (and names, I will name my children Capital Punishment and Lethal Tempo).

Most underrated OST of the year right here. These tracks are so good that I've been listening to them actively since last year without even playing the game itself. Doomsday and Fires of Industry are my favourites.

I actually can't tell which ones are my bullets half the time. This becomes a real issue in bossfights. Playing as Ace is agonizingly hard and getting the true ending is not really worth it. Also no level editor for switch lowkey stinks. I hope they add it in the future.

TL;DR? It's not great by any measure, but a bad Mega Man X game with co-op is still novel. Generous 5/10.

First thing to get out the way; this is a horrible rogue-like. It's too long, repetitive in its RNG generation, and just not very well put together. 30XX attempts to combine the worlds of Mega Man X's tight platforming action with the limitless replayability of a rogue-like, and fails miserably.

LUCKILY, the included "Mega Mode" makes things a lot more tolerable. By offering up a more traditional experience of dying and retrying from the start of the level, you get a much less frustrating, tedious experience at the cost of precious difficulty. I played the whole thing in co-op, which made bosses a cakewalk and platforming sections almost unbearable due to the screen zoom out. If your buddy falls off a platform and goes back to the checkpoint, enjoy being almost impossible to see.

So the two main gimmicks are a crap shoot. It's worse in co-op and has bad level design due to the rogue-like elements. What's left is a bad Mega Man X clone with some high quality sprite work. The unlockable powers do ridiculous damage, you get OP way too quickly, and the 9th stage is an obnoxious difficulty spike. 9/10 failed runs end on the same stage, at least in my experience, because the level design is so much of a cluster fuck.

I still give the game 2 stars for novelty of being a 2 player Mega Man X game that on occasion feels rewarding, due to there being some fun power synergies between the players. It's a frustrating, boring roguelike due to the awful difficulty pacing (easy for 1 hour, hard for 20 minutes, back to easy for the last 15), but Mega Mode makes it approachable couch co-op fun in spite of its massive flaws, which I do really appreciate these days.