I'm not someone who loved Mario Odyssey so I'll start with saying this mostly improves on that game in a few key areas. You might think "well these are two completely different games, for one Mario Wonder is a 2D game." You're right sure but the gameplay by way of being more engaging with the goal per stage is better. In Mario Odyssey the qualifications for something being worth doing to collect a moon are below sea level. Sitting on a bench, walking in a circle, ground pounding a glowing spot - all warrant a moon. The gap between the input expected of the player versus what the game is actually capable of with Mario's movement is deeper than the grand canyon. Whereas here with Wonder most of the time (great emphasism on most) a stage's wonder seed is fulfilling and satisfying to get. Irrespective of if it lives up to that all the time it does it most of the time which works wonders especially when it isn't bloated like Mario Odyssey with its Moon's. This is the most refreshing Mario game in a long time and it's apparent they've taken time to change up the theme, setting, enemies, music, and power ups. It's also clear there's a good decade of platforming game design and work that hasn't gone unnoticed by the people who worked on this game, this game had to change from the mold started on the DS for 2D mario in "New". There's a lot of what's at play to experience here that's very reminiscent of Rayman Legends especially with the various music tracks among other elements, and it's only been a boon to Mario here. What's stuck around from Odyssey to now is the bite-sized but throwaway gameplay which I loathe. I think the last time a Mario game made full use of the abilities/power ups in a game's runtime was Galaxy 2 which was a long time ago now. Sure most of the power ups here in Wonder are good fun but they don't get time to shine the optional (but game changing) badges especially are inconsequential to how levels are designed. There's so many new and interesting techniques to use in a 2D mario game here but the amount of levels that make any great use of them is so abysmally few. Another glaring weakness is the bosses/castle stages. These can be the highlight of a mario game the 2D ones especially but here they're very lacking, bosses with Bowser Jr come and go and Airships feel too short, the final confrontation boss and castle with bowser in particular felt pretty limp to cap off the experience. With the Special world trying to pick up the pieces it didn't feel great when I started "The Final Test" only to pass without doing any studying (unlike Mario 3D World.) This is undoubtedly the best 2D mario has been in a long time now since Super Mario World. With interesting new enemies, and effects thanks to the wonder seeds even the low points can have a uniqueness that hasn't been around in the 2D games since the first incarnation of the "New" Super Mario Bros way back on the DS. I'm thankful this is decidedly less tiresome and bland than Mario Odyssey's simplistic gameplay to reward structure, but even here the movement and gameplay is held back by a constant stream of familiar and safe levels with a similarly adaptable Mario capable of much much more.