Overall a fun platformer with a lot of charm, but despite a decade passing since a traditional (NSMBU) and non-traditional (3D World) 2D Mario game launched, it hasn't innovated much and overall feels lackluster with a disappointing amount of content.
The gameplay itself was very good, but also felt similar to NSMBU in a lot of ways due to the lack of a new moveset. That isn't a bad thing though, since that NSMBU's issues were the boring presentation and less creative level designs, both of which this game fixed. The visual presentation is cleaned up and looks more bright and vibrant which is complimented by the insanely charming animations which are filled to the brim with character.
The level designs are way more creative this time around, especially with the wonder flower element thrown into the mix. However, for the few times I've replayed a level without the wonder seed, it felt extremely disappointing especially considering there's only one or two levels that have a wonder flower route and a non-wonder flower route, which is extremely disappointing as it gives less incentive to replay each level.
I'm also disappointed by the sheer amount of filler content in this game. When you look up the amount of levels in this game, there's 129 levels, which is impressive. Now, if you remove the unnecessary but cute "break time" levels, the dogshit "defeat all enemies" levels, the terrible "search party" levels, the wiggler races and the badge challenges, the number of actual levels goes down to 77, which is pretty damn close to a 1:1 ratio of full levels and dogshit filler. Comparing it to 3D World, for example, there are 93 full levels and 24 filler stages (all of which are more fun than Wonder's).
In addition, there is little incentive to replay levels. If you (SOMEHOW) missed the wonder flower, then sure, it's worth replaying. However, in my opinion, there's very few times where I was stumped on searching for it on my way to the end of the level. The only other collectable are the purple coins, which do absolutely nothing except give you 10 purple coins which you can get by normally playing the game. This makes the collectables extremely invaluable, especially since wonder seeds don't transfer from world-to-world. In 3D World you had green stars which help you unlock different levels and different endgame worlds that you had to backtrack to other levels that you missed the green stars on because they're well more well hidden or required power ups. Hell, NSMBU had a similar system with its gold coins. The only replay value in Wonder is getting the 10 (or less) alternative exits to go play the special world's levels, which they're pretty fun and well worth the replay. The only incentive to collect all wonder seeds and purple coins in each of the worlds is to unlock the Final-Final level in special world, which is a SINGLE (1) (UNO) level, which is actually pretty hard and fun from what I understand, but it is only one level.
The badge system is fun, but I feel like there's only two or three objectively good general use badges, while the others are either too niche or are inferior versions of those good general use badges.
Overall despite my complaints, I do like the game a lot. The gameplay is solid (even if it is similar to NSMBU), the animations are really fluid and full of personality, the music is pretty good and hell, I think the talking flowers are a really good addition too.
The gameplay itself was very good, but also felt similar to NSMBU in a lot of ways due to the lack of a new moveset. That isn't a bad thing though, since that NSMBU's issues were the boring presentation and less creative level designs, both of which this game fixed. The visual presentation is cleaned up and looks more bright and vibrant which is complimented by the insanely charming animations which are filled to the brim with character.
The level designs are way more creative this time around, especially with the wonder flower element thrown into the mix. However, for the few times I've replayed a level without the wonder seed, it felt extremely disappointing especially considering there's only one or two levels that have a wonder flower route and a non-wonder flower route, which is extremely disappointing as it gives less incentive to replay each level.
I'm also disappointed by the sheer amount of filler content in this game. When you look up the amount of levels in this game, there's 129 levels, which is impressive. Now, if you remove the unnecessary but cute "break time" levels, the dogshit "defeat all enemies" levels, the terrible "search party" levels, the wiggler races and the badge challenges, the number of actual levels goes down to 77, which is pretty damn close to a 1:1 ratio of full levels and dogshit filler. Comparing it to 3D World, for example, there are 93 full levels and 24 filler stages (all of which are more fun than Wonder's).
In addition, there is little incentive to replay levels. If you (SOMEHOW) missed the wonder flower, then sure, it's worth replaying. However, in my opinion, there's very few times where I was stumped on searching for it on my way to the end of the level. The only other collectable are the purple coins, which do absolutely nothing except give you 10 purple coins which you can get by normally playing the game. This makes the collectables extremely invaluable, especially since wonder seeds don't transfer from world-to-world. In 3D World you had green stars which help you unlock different levels and different endgame worlds that you had to backtrack to other levels that you missed the green stars on because they're well more well hidden or required power ups. Hell, NSMBU had a similar system with its gold coins. The only replay value in Wonder is getting the 10 (or less) alternative exits to go play the special world's levels, which they're pretty fun and well worth the replay. The only incentive to collect all wonder seeds and purple coins in each of the worlds is to unlock the Final-Final level in special world, which is a SINGLE (1) (UNO) level, which is actually pretty hard and fun from what I understand, but it is only one level.
The badge system is fun, but I feel like there's only two or three objectively good general use badges, while the others are either too niche or are inferior versions of those good general use badges.
Overall despite my complaints, I do like the game a lot. The gameplay is solid (even if it is similar to NSMBU), the animations are really fluid and full of personality, the music is pretty good and hell, I think the talking flowers are a really good addition too.