I'm about halfway through, and I just want to say how impressed I am with this game. I think this is the best-looking Mario game I've ever played. The colors, character models, animations—everything just has so much style and flair. I love it, and it all looks fantastic. I especially love the little animation Mario does whenever he grow big with the super mushroom. This game has so much swag.

I would consider myself a fan of Mario games but usually I only play the big releases, like the 3D and 2D platformers, Mario Kart, etc. I was really excited to see that Nintendo was finally putting out a new 2D Super Mario Bros. game because the last one I played was New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and that came out checks notes 14 years ago??? And God knows they really milked that sucker for all it was worth.

Nevertheless, I was excited for Wonder, and boy, it has not disappointed so far. On top of the gorgeous visuals, the game added tons of new enemies and new equipable badges that add a good amount of replayability to these levels. But the biggest thing here is probably the introduction of Wonder Flowers. Every single level has an incredibly creative and interesting shift that happens once you collect that level's flower. Not only that, but each level's wonder flower does something different. I don't think I've seen a single level with a repeated wonder flower gimmick. It's just such a breath of fresh air from what 2D Mario typically is. There's a bunch of other great stuff that I haven't mentioned, but I mainly wanted to talk about the things that stick out to me the most about Wonder.

My critiques would be that I think the local coop isn't as fun because you don't collide with each other, can't pick each other up, can't throw them, you can't use your friends heads as a platform for a little boost, and the bosses are still pretty underwhelming and uninspired. I'm sure there's a reason for all of that not being here, but I thought it was a big reason that New Super Mario Bros. Wii was so great and was a bit disappointed that it didn't work similarly here. As far as the bosses go, it's a shame that with how creative and fun the other 98% of the game is, the bosses are still just "jump on head three times" with usually nothing interesting going on. I still have some bosses left, obviously, and maybe they'll surprise me. But so far, they have been the most boring parts of the game.

EDIT: The final boss is the only good one.

Marvel's Spider-Man (2018) is my favorite game of all time. So needless to say, I had very high expectations for the sequel and was beyond hyped. But even with my expectations as high as they were, Insomniac managed to subvert them numerous times throughout the game. I would even go so far as to say that they completely obliterated my expectations.

As far as my criticisms go, I think the last chunk of story isn't quite as strong or emotional as the first game's, but I still think it's amazing. These problems could've probably been solved with a longer runtime. Miles also isn't given much to do early on in the story. If there was anything that the first game does better, it would probably be the story.

While I do think the spider arm abilities are fun, I have always been kind of against them since they showed the initial trailer for the game. I prefer my Peter to not be tech'd out the wazoo and I've never been a fan of the spider arms in general. The gadgets in this game are also the least Spider-Man like gadgets from the first game. I was disappointed to see that they left out the likes of the impact web and web bomb but kept the concussion blast and knock-up gadget. Both things are fun to use but feel very unlike something Spider-Man typically uses, and I almost never used them in the first game because of that. Since Miles and Peter both have abilities that do the same thing as the knock-up gadget, it felt like a wasted slot. I understand that the concussion blast serves a narrative purpose later on, but they could've saved it for that point in the game and let us swap gadgets in and out like we can with the abilities. In the grand scheme of things, these are very minor issues and mostly come down to personal preference, I guess.

There are small features missing that are present in the previous games that I wish were here. Character bios, replaying podcasts, changing time of day. All aren't super important but it's a shame they aren't here this time around.

Miles' new suit is pretty bad. Insomniac needs to take that shit back to the drawing board.

Even with the small issues I have with Spider-Man 2, I'm in awe at what Insomniac managed to pull off here. To me, this game is nothing short of a masterpiece, and it may have even taken the title of "Favorite Game of All Time" from its predecessor. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is truly spectacular.

It also has one of the greatest game intros, hands down.