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How do I begin? First things first: Yes, the game is great. It's a great 2D Mario Game. I especially like how the power ups are entirely new, except for the Fire Flower, because that is, you know, a classic. And yet, everything feels so familiar nonetheless.
As a sidenote, however, it is praiseworthy how every single power up enhances the moveset, instead of just changing and/or overhauling it, leading to a more concise design.
And yet, everything here just feels sooo familiar. Yes, the Power Ups are new, but none of them really enhance the movement substantially or offer you any unique ways to play. The most important thing that every power up does, is allowing you to tank in one additional hit. And that's really telling.
And yes, the new Wonder Flower is a nice introduction, but I can count the instances when collecting it changes the level and the way you play it in any exciting and interesting way that immideatly catches your attention on one hand. Like the one where it changes the game to an isometric perspective, like a top down Zelda Game. That was actually really cool. Everything else just feels gimmicky. Like another reviewer noted, the.... let's call them "Wonder Passages" are akin to small Bonus Stages, that just got better integrated into the level so one wouldn't notice.
And the game is like that all the time. Gimmicky. The way some Level Goals are like "syke! This is not actually the goal, you need to try again!" are just gimmicky. You fight the same lame ass koopaling boss fights that almost all 2D Marios have, only this time it's just Bowser jr. (Yay!) and the developers just added some gimmicks to each fight, so it does not appear to be quite as stale and familiar. And yet it still does. Same goes for the different pins... badges... medals or whatever that you can equip your character with to enhance the movement options aside from the Power Ups. They are as gimmicky as the rest. They either give you one aditional, scarcely useful ability, one completely overpowered ability or one super-gimmicky ability that is basically entirely useless save for very specific levels and would actually be more distracting than practical aside from those.
So, to boil down all my feelings about this game into one tl;dr kind of statement: Super Mario Bros. Wonder is great. Yet, everything about it is familiar. This game feels not at all very different from some of the first "New" 2D Mario Games, like New Super Mario Bros. or New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Quite the contrary. And the developes use all kind of gimmicks, tricks and illusions to prevent you from noticing just that.
And that makes the entire game one big pantomime, which is, in the end, rather disappointing.
7/10.
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How do I begin? First things first: Yes, the game is great. It's a great 2D Mario Game. I especially like how the power ups are entirely new, except for the Fire Flower, because that is, you know, a classic. And yet, everything feels so familiar nonetheless.
As a sidenote, however, it is praiseworthy how every single power up enhances the moveset, instead of just changing and/or overhauling it, leading to a more concise design.
And yet, everything here just feels sooo familiar. Yes, the Power Ups are new, but none of them really enhance the movement substantially or offer you any unique ways to play. The most important thing that every power up does, is allowing you to tank in one additional hit. And that's really telling.
And yes, the new Wonder Flower is a nice introduction, but I can count the instances when collecting it changes the level and the way you play it in any exciting and interesting way that immideatly catches your attention on one hand. Like the one where it changes the game to an isometric perspective, like a top down Zelda Game. That was actually really cool. Everything else just feels gimmicky. Like another reviewer noted, the.... let's call them "Wonder Passages" are akin to small Bonus Stages, that just got better integrated into the level so one wouldn't notice.
And the game is like that all the time. Gimmicky. The way some Level Goals are like "syke! This is not actually the goal, you need to try again!" are just gimmicky. You fight the same lame ass koopaling boss fights that almost all 2D Marios have, only this time it's just Bowser jr. (Yay!) and the developers just added some gimmicks to each fight, so it does not appear to be quite as stale and familiar. And yet it still does. Same goes for the different pins... badges... medals or whatever that you can equip your character with to enhance the movement options aside from the Power Ups. They are as gimmicky as the rest. They either give you one aditional, scarcely useful ability, one completely overpowered ability or one super-gimmicky ability that is basically entirely useless save for very specific levels and would actually be more distracting than practical aside from those.
So, to boil down all my feelings about this game into one tl;dr kind of statement: Super Mario Bros. Wonder is great. Yet, everything about it is familiar. This game feels not at all very different from some of the first "New" 2D Mario Games, like New Super Mario Bros. or New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Quite the contrary. And the developes use all kind of gimmicks, tricks and illusions to prevent you from noticing just that.
And that makes the entire game one big pantomime, which is, in the end, rather disappointing.
7/10.