A great foundation for a future masterpiece, but misses the mark in a few too many areas. The difficulty curve is uneven, lacking the smooth ramp-up in challenge that previous Mario titles, even the NSMB games, excelled in. The game reuses specific Wonder effects so much that their novelty wears off, particularly the silhouette levels. The Special World is not as difficult as it should be, barring 1 or 2 levels, and is made up of mostly repeated concepts. Worlds 1 & 4 have great uses of nonlinear progression and secret exits, but the rest feel far more linear, with Worlds 3 & 5 feeling outright unfinished. Other issues include the lack of a time attack mode, weak soundtrack and abundance of filler content (Break Time stages & Bouncy Tunes levels).

In spite of it all, I still believe this is a quality game and worth the $60. The core aspects are strong, and I have a ton of faith in the game's eventual successor. It feels incredible to control Mario in Wonder, despite similar physics to NSMBU. Every single action has an extra flourish to it that makes movement more satisfying than ever. There really are some vibrant and creative levels here, especially the ones involving music. The backgrounds, tileset and character models are such a huge improvement over the New Super Mario Bros. games, and look gorgeous even without that context. I voted for Wonder as "Best Art Direction" because I'm truly stunned at how well it came together.

Just be wary of the hype surrounding this game. Temper your expectations going into it, and you'll have a better time than I did.