Another excellent side-scrolling adventure in the Mario series, Wonder finally updates and changes the godawful "New" series of games that everyone was tired of (and I personally hated). This entry continues the Mario formula of every level having a brand new, fantastically fun concept that is introduced, mastered, and then immediately dropped in favor of something else. Every level is a wild thing to try and master and it continually feels brand new every single time.
Wonder also introduced badges, a kind of "always on" power like higher jumping or the ability to touch lava or poison once per stage and not die. These are a fun addition, especially the badge challenge stages that ask you to master these powers in rapid succession. The new powers, like Elephant and Bubble, are also a lovely addition.
The signature "Wonder Flower" also randomly changes each level into it's own minigame, often with crazy challenging results or, when not that difficult, still wildly fun to play. On top of that, the Special World, with all the insanely difficult levels, is slowly dolled out through the game instead of coming ALL at once at the end. This keeps the challenge fresh, coming every once in a while instead of in bulk, and makes them a blast to conquer throughout the playtime. Some of these levels are...well, I swore at my TV a handful of times. A choice two or three are pretty rough, but I 100% the game because it's incredibly rewarding to do so.
As per usual, the bosses are a joke and a pushover. The story doesn't matter and all the characters play the exact same. The new voice actor for Mario and Luigi, however, does a very good job! Certain phrases that Luigi says don't always land, but it's just hard not to think of Charles, as he IS Mario and has been since 1996 (technically even before that!). "Woowie-zoowie" is maybe the worst thing they could have added? Don't do that anymore.
It feels great to finally play a side-scrolling Mario game again with a fresh art style, fun mechanics, and perfectly designed levels. If you're wanting to just beat the game, you'll likely find it to be a baby game for babies. However, if you go for completionism, you'll find a deeply challenging and rewarding game with a charm that's hard to ignore.
HOWEVER - one of the medals, end game items for completing certain tasks, is for literally owning all the standees, which are stupid pointless things that don't matter. That sucks and is dumb and bad. It's one of the few objectively poor choices and I'm mad I wasted so much time to get it. But you know, I needed that 100% so...
Wonder also introduced badges, a kind of "always on" power like higher jumping or the ability to touch lava or poison once per stage and not die. These are a fun addition, especially the badge challenge stages that ask you to master these powers in rapid succession. The new powers, like Elephant and Bubble, are also a lovely addition.
The signature "Wonder Flower" also randomly changes each level into it's own minigame, often with crazy challenging results or, when not that difficult, still wildly fun to play. On top of that, the Special World, with all the insanely difficult levels, is slowly dolled out through the game instead of coming ALL at once at the end. This keeps the challenge fresh, coming every once in a while instead of in bulk, and makes them a blast to conquer throughout the playtime. Some of these levels are...well, I swore at my TV a handful of times. A choice two or three are pretty rough, but I 100% the game because it's incredibly rewarding to do so.
As per usual, the bosses are a joke and a pushover. The story doesn't matter and all the characters play the exact same. The new voice actor for Mario and Luigi, however, does a very good job! Certain phrases that Luigi says don't always land, but it's just hard not to think of Charles, as he IS Mario and has been since 1996 (technically even before that!). "Woowie-zoowie" is maybe the worst thing they could have added? Don't do that anymore.
It feels great to finally play a side-scrolling Mario game again with a fresh art style, fun mechanics, and perfectly designed levels. If you're wanting to just beat the game, you'll likely find it to be a baby game for babies. However, if you go for completionism, you'll find a deeply challenging and rewarding game with a charm that's hard to ignore.
HOWEVER - one of the medals, end game items for completing certain tasks, is for literally owning all the standees, which are stupid pointless things that don't matter. That sucks and is dumb and bad. It's one of the few objectively poor choices and I'm mad I wasted so much time to get it. But you know, I needed that 100% so...