Super Mario Bros Wonder is easily the best 2D Mario title of this millennium, a game bursting with life and expression whenever it can, as well as a consistently solid time from beginning to end. Though I don’t think it quite hits how exciting the 3D titles are to play or their same arcs of progression (your goal never changes or diverges in any way from world to world outside of one that didn’t even have a boss), I enjoyed it throughout.
Every new gimmick it adds within the levels does something to make the experience feel a little bit wilder, whether via jumping hippos to elevate platforming, turning you into an enemy for a new spin on traversal, matching timing of disappearing blocks, walking on the ceiling, inflating, or playing around with time integers. Only occasionally do they shake up how you’ll actually play THROUGH the game, but in spite of some repeats they’re a consistently enjoyable spurt when they happen. I looked forward to seeing the Wonder effect for every new level as a constant incentive to go further and further into the game.
Much has been said regarding Mario Wonder’s art design and it bears repeating; this is a lovely looking game. After the fairly sterile and repeated character animations of the New series, Wonder shines by just how many little animations every character has to punctuate the many possible actions. Kicking realism out the door, they took the Mario 3 design of having the sprites cheat the camera angle for the sake of being more consistently in your face and the choice paid off. Despite the Switch’s lower end specs compared to the other systems on the market, the ART DESIGN does enough to make the game feel like it’s on something even stronger. Every character cheering whenever they make a higher jump never failed to make me smile. Although he slips a little bit when doing longer yells falling down pits, Kevin Afghani is genuinely a great new Mario and Luigi. His capturing of Martinet’s little voice quirks is incredibly on point throughout the game and I’m very happy for his career to effectively be set for life voicing THE iconic video game character for the next several decades running. The music isn’t as up there with Mario’s best soundtracks for new iconic ditties, unfortunately, but I did enjoy any stage where music was the gimmick for how the level design played around with it (where are those house stages so short tho?). Definitely one of several instances inspired by the creativity Mario Maker players have shown.
The powerup game is notable in the sense of the game’s most publicized power actually being the worst of the new ones. Mario and co looking like elephants is a wacky visual but in practice the elephant is mainly used to break sets of blocks or water very specific plants in a stage that’ll actually happen to have water in it. Feel like there was more potential this form could’ve had and honestly New Super Mario Bros Wii’s Penguin suit was a better animal based suit power. Its run could slide you on the ground to keep some momentum in addition to fulfilling the projectile purpose of an ice flower.
It’s the other two that actually change the game in a positive way. Bubble carries on the function of the bubble Yoshis from Mario U and serves as both a platforming tool and a kill option of mass destruction all at once, truly feeling like a power up. Drill, meanwhile, finally delivered on the potential of Mario holding a massive drill in Galaxy 2 by giving every stage a new sense of depth hanging on the floors and ceilings. It even serves as effective production against ceiling falling projectiles; a great help for maintaining speed flow in stages with obstacles falling from the sky. Despite thinking the elephant was missed potential, the other two pick up the slack for considering of how they add onto the core Mario experience.
Hilariously, Mario Wonder has the exact opposite problem as Sonic Superstars when it comes to boss battles. Whereas the Superstars bosses were great concepts that suffered from being incredibly cheap and drawn out and having constant waiting, the Mario Wonder bosses are very easy, comically short, have almost zero variety and feel conceptually limited despite the versatility of the stages. This is the only area where the New Soup games still have the edge over Wonder. Even the DS game played around with bigger enemies as boss fights while the Bowser Jr fights it had in between them it saw as stopgap minibosses are more like every boss here outside of the last one. The final boss plays around with the arena in fun ways but is a bit been there done that relative to a lot of other Nintendo properties over the past two and a half decades. After Mario 3D Land, World and Odyssey played around with the concept of the “ending” Bowser battle, I can’t help but feel like there was a little more to do that wasn’t fully capitalized on. The use of rhythm is nice, but there was more to play with for everything a Bowser battle could be under the stipulations of these gimmicks.
The Badge system is interesting, in theory. I can imagine a combination of badges could come together in local multiplayer but in Single Player, most of these you will never use and feel more like downgrades once you have a really good one since you can only select one. For what reason would I ever willingly use the invisibility (intentionally), the hidden block power, or the Dolphin Kick outside of very specific stages where Mario is underwater to warrant it? After achieving the Boosted Spin Jump which made getting flagpoles a cinch for nearly every stage in the game, it felt like I had little reason to try anything else besides the sensor if I needed it. It’s a shame too bc I would’ve loved to see how some of these could function in more levels, particularly the grapple vine power, but there was just never a better advantage to take than that boosted midair jump. Thankfully the final challenge, while having slightly too much input drilling felt like it had appropriate advantage of all these powers, and the reward obtained from clearing it is a fun and memorable quirk that reminds me of the Paper Mario game badges.
Outside of the occasional 5-Star stage in the Special World that definitely makes things trickier, it left something to be desired challenge-wise even compared to other mainline Marios. Most players, even kids, likely won’t see a Game Over screen, and while I don’t mind on paper given most Mario games target all ages, but it’s notable here SPECIFICALLY bc of how many safety nets the game has in place. A badge that effectively bounces you off any kind of liquid death is obtainable not too far into the adventure, but you also have four Yoshis and a Nabbit to never take any kind of damage while also likely not being touched by more experienced players, and multiplayer turned into a strand-like system where standees can be placed to revive any player from a death. Said multiplayer is incredibly helpful for the Secret Park stages but is mostly a constant safety net anywhere else. The heart system is a cute way to show a sense of collaboration, so I appreciate that.
Super Mario Bros Wonder is the best 2D Mario since the early 90s, a great game that looks gorgeous and does a lot to keep its level surprises fresh. Maybe it lacks that personal edge and movement expression/progression of some of Mario’s 3D outings, and maybe it could’ve pushed challenge a little harder specifically considering all of the safety nets the game provides for you but I’m thoroughly satisfied with Wonder as what I hope to be the swan song for Mario’s storied Switch game career. It does tell me that the next 3D outing on Switch 2 has the position to be a true game changer in how we even PERCEIVE Mario games, but Mario Wonder served as an effective encapsulation of the Mario experience plateau capped with enough character and flavor to have a feel that could truly only belong to it.
Every new gimmick it adds within the levels does something to make the experience feel a little bit wilder, whether via jumping hippos to elevate platforming, turning you into an enemy for a new spin on traversal, matching timing of disappearing blocks, walking on the ceiling, inflating, or playing around with time integers. Only occasionally do they shake up how you’ll actually play THROUGH the game, but in spite of some repeats they’re a consistently enjoyable spurt when they happen. I looked forward to seeing the Wonder effect for every new level as a constant incentive to go further and further into the game.
Much has been said regarding Mario Wonder’s art design and it bears repeating; this is a lovely looking game. After the fairly sterile and repeated character animations of the New series, Wonder shines by just how many little animations every character has to punctuate the many possible actions. Kicking realism out the door, they took the Mario 3 design of having the sprites cheat the camera angle for the sake of being more consistently in your face and the choice paid off. Despite the Switch’s lower end specs compared to the other systems on the market, the ART DESIGN does enough to make the game feel like it’s on something even stronger. Every character cheering whenever they make a higher jump never failed to make me smile. Although he slips a little bit when doing longer yells falling down pits, Kevin Afghani is genuinely a great new Mario and Luigi. His capturing of Martinet’s little voice quirks is incredibly on point throughout the game and I’m very happy for his career to effectively be set for life voicing THE iconic video game character for the next several decades running. The music isn’t as up there with Mario’s best soundtracks for new iconic ditties, unfortunately, but I did enjoy any stage where music was the gimmick for how the level design played around with it (where are those house stages so short tho?). Definitely one of several instances inspired by the creativity Mario Maker players have shown.
The powerup game is notable in the sense of the game’s most publicized power actually being the worst of the new ones. Mario and co looking like elephants is a wacky visual but in practice the elephant is mainly used to break sets of blocks or water very specific plants in a stage that’ll actually happen to have water in it. Feel like there was more potential this form could’ve had and honestly New Super Mario Bros Wii’s Penguin suit was a better animal based suit power. Its run could slide you on the ground to keep some momentum in addition to fulfilling the projectile purpose of an ice flower.
It’s the other two that actually change the game in a positive way. Bubble carries on the function of the bubble Yoshis from Mario U and serves as both a platforming tool and a kill option of mass destruction all at once, truly feeling like a power up. Drill, meanwhile, finally delivered on the potential of Mario holding a massive drill in Galaxy 2 by giving every stage a new sense of depth hanging on the floors and ceilings. It even serves as effective production against ceiling falling projectiles; a great help for maintaining speed flow in stages with obstacles falling from the sky. Despite thinking the elephant was missed potential, the other two pick up the slack for considering of how they add onto the core Mario experience.
Hilariously, Mario Wonder has the exact opposite problem as Sonic Superstars when it comes to boss battles. Whereas the Superstars bosses were great concepts that suffered from being incredibly cheap and drawn out and having constant waiting, the Mario Wonder bosses are very easy, comically short, have almost zero variety and feel conceptually limited despite the versatility of the stages. This is the only area where the New Soup games still have the edge over Wonder. Even the DS game played around with bigger enemies as boss fights while the Bowser Jr fights it had in between them it saw as stopgap minibosses are more like every boss here outside of the last one. The final boss plays around with the arena in fun ways but is a bit been there done that relative to a lot of other Nintendo properties over the past two and a half decades. After Mario 3D Land, World and Odyssey played around with the concept of the “ending” Bowser battle, I can’t help but feel like there was a little more to do that wasn’t fully capitalized on. The use of rhythm is nice, but there was more to play with for everything a Bowser battle could be under the stipulations of these gimmicks.
The Badge system is interesting, in theory. I can imagine a combination of badges could come together in local multiplayer but in Single Player, most of these you will never use and feel more like downgrades once you have a really good one since you can only select one. For what reason would I ever willingly use the invisibility (intentionally), the hidden block power, or the Dolphin Kick outside of very specific stages where Mario is underwater to warrant it? After achieving the Boosted Spin Jump which made getting flagpoles a cinch for nearly every stage in the game, it felt like I had little reason to try anything else besides the sensor if I needed it. It’s a shame too bc I would’ve loved to see how some of these could function in more levels, particularly the grapple vine power, but there was just never a better advantage to take than that boosted midair jump. Thankfully the final challenge, while having slightly too much input drilling felt like it had appropriate advantage of all these powers, and the reward obtained from clearing it is a fun and memorable quirk that reminds me of the Paper Mario game badges.
Outside of the occasional 5-Star stage in the Special World that definitely makes things trickier, it left something to be desired challenge-wise even compared to other mainline Marios. Most players, even kids, likely won’t see a Game Over screen, and while I don’t mind on paper given most Mario games target all ages, but it’s notable here SPECIFICALLY bc of how many safety nets the game has in place. A badge that effectively bounces you off any kind of liquid death is obtainable not too far into the adventure, but you also have four Yoshis and a Nabbit to never take any kind of damage while also likely not being touched by more experienced players, and multiplayer turned into a strand-like system where standees can be placed to revive any player from a death. Said multiplayer is incredibly helpful for the Secret Park stages but is mostly a constant safety net anywhere else. The heart system is a cute way to show a sense of collaboration, so I appreciate that.
Super Mario Bros Wonder is the best 2D Mario since the early 90s, a great game that looks gorgeous and does a lot to keep its level surprises fresh. Maybe it lacks that personal edge and movement expression/progression of some of Mario’s 3D outings, and maybe it could’ve pushed challenge a little harder specifically considering all of the safety nets the game provides for you but I’m thoroughly satisfied with Wonder as what I hope to be the swan song for Mario’s storied Switch game career. It does tell me that the next 3D outing on Switch 2 has the position to be a true game changer in how we even PERCEIVE Mario games, but Mario Wonder served as an effective encapsulation of the Mario experience plateau capped with enough character and flavor to have a feel that could truly only belong to it.