It's about what you expect from RGG's first outing in its new janky engine gameplay-wise and you do feel the content cut compared to previous entries, but the story's heavy-lifting really brings the game out and some great storybeats and surprisingly memorable characters that stick with you alongside the writing and parallels.

It is a little funny that this was suppose to be Kiryu's "final" outing in the series in retrospect, but it definitely was a good ending for its time for such a legendary character.

The writing falls off a fucking cliff towards the end and its ambition becomes a double-edge sword but ooooo does it nail basically everything else right and is a crazy good blueprint for how the rest of the series goes. The individual stories are so captivating, the combat is probably some of the most fun I've had in the franchise, the content is very rich and plentiful, and a lot of the characters make such a strong impact and impression which is a crazy feat to pull off giving there's so much going on in the story.

It's the most Yakuza game out there for better and for worse, and is such a big reason for why I love the series as a whole.

You know Nintendo's entire philosophy about making video games that make people smile while they play them?

I think Wonder manages to be the complete embodiment of that idea. So many times have I just smiled and giggled like a dumbass from whenever some big gameplay change happens from touching the Wonder Flower, to breezing through obstacles or knocking out the new, creative enemies back to back, or even when the game just becomes an outright musical. The level design and environments are at their absolute finest here, and paired with the Wonder Flowers, it becomes a completely different beast in itself. It manages to be creative and charming while still being really fun, engaging, and at times challenging, something that was starting to get lost by the time New Super Mario Bros. Wii was rolling around. Something about the toy/clay-like expressions from the characters and the story (which is easily the most I've ever seen in a 2D Mario game) that even comes full-circle in small ways throughout the journey really gives so much life to the Flower Kingdom and everything that's going on. Even the new inclusion of badges really add a lot to the movement kit and really gives you some new ways to tackle the obstacles thrown your way. The only small grip I really have is the bosses being on the weaker side, but everything else about the game exceeds so well that it's such a small issue in the grand scheme of things, although 2D Mario has never had the most balls to the wall bosses a lot of the time anyway. Obviously the music is as wonderful as ever but that goes without saying.

I really did not anticipate this being on-par with Yoshi's Island or even a GOTY candidate for myself, but Nintendo has been on an incredible run this console generation. I'm very glad to see that they're finally starting to give an equal amount of love and ideas to their 2D subseries like with their 3D outings. It's great to see so much of previous entries' DNA here and built upon, I hope this continues to be the standard for 2D Mario and onward, and it's very nice to see that Nintendo's philosophy come shining through here.