Review: Super Mario Bros Wonder

One of my earliest gaming memories is sitting beside my elder brother in front of a large CRT TV screen, and watching him play Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is one of those early gaming experiences that has played a significant role in shaping my current perspective on video games. And it is probably one of the most compelling reasons to why Nintendo games have been an integral part of my life. Super Mario World has continued to be my all-time favorite Mario game. Therefore, Super Mario Bros Wonder has some big shoes to fill.

Plot

Mario and his friends have been invited to a party in the Flower Kingdom, a kingdom ruled by Prince Florian. But words of the party must have gotten out because Bowser comes in, crashing the party and steals one of the kingdom’s most cherished treasures, the Wonder Flower.

Bowser merges himself with the kingdom’s castle and becomes a giant, evil, floating castle that wreaks havoc across the land. Now it is up to Mario, his friends, to save the kingdom.

Gameplay

In true Nintendo fashion, this game is based upon a gimmick: The Wonder Flower.

The Wonder Flowers are magic flowers that are located somewhere on nearly every level of the game. Some Wonder Flowers are very well hidden, while some of them are crucial to progress through the level and in order to complete it. When collecting a Wonder Flower, the scenery of the game level transforms, sometimes forcing a new gameplay mechanic on the player. If you can complete the event, you are rewarded with a Wonder Seed: the game’s key item that is needed in order to progress further in the game.

The effect of the Wonder Flower can do some whacky stuff to the gameplay. For example: In the very first level of the game, the effect of the flower will turn the clear blue sky to a midnight color, and the warp pipes come to life and start crawling like giant larvas across the level.

On the game’s second level, Piranha Plants burst out in a musical dance, and you must avoid them while progressing through the rest of the level.

On another level, your character will transform into a giant floating balloon, and you will have to float your way up to space. The effects of the Wonder Flower are unpredictable, with each level effect varying greatly from one another and only a few instances of repetition.

The previous 2D Mario game was released on the Wii U console, which was 11 years ago. The only original 2D Mario game released since then was Mario Run, which was exclusively for mobile devices. This 11-year gap indicates that Nintendo might have lost confidence in the series and needed something innovative and unique to revive its popularity. The Wonder Flowers are Nintendo’s way of infusing this new life and adding a fresh perspective to the 2D Mario series.

Did it work?

Well… sort of.

If you would take the Wonder Flowers out of the game, it would just feel like a typical 2D Mario game. This is pretty obvious if you decide to run through the level and not look for them.

But even if you do look for the flowers, it is still a typical 2D Mario at its core, and that is fine. The Wonder Flowers just adds that little extra fairy dust to the game to make it more enjoyable, but it does not revolutionize the series by any means.

Something that is revolutionary, though… or maybe not… are the talking flowers. The talking flowers are scattered throughout the kingdom and communicate with the player through short, voiced dialogues. While the flowers can provide hints to the player, they are mostly intended for comedic purposes.

The Talking Flowers are a new addition to the Mario series, and they are characters that you may either love or hate. However, regardless of how one feels about them, it is likely that Nintendo will bring them back in future Mario games. Personally, I find the Talking Flowers to be a great addition to the series, as they add more life to an otherwise empty and lifeless world. They help fill in small gaps throughout the game and make the overall experience more engaging and enjoyable.

I don’t believe there has ever been this much voice acting in a mainline Mario game before, and this game proves that future iterations can benefit from it.

Badges are collectible abilities that you can activate before starting a level. You can only have one badge active at a time, so you should choose wisely to what you think fits best for that particular level. The problem is, though, you don’t really need them. Most of the badges make you jump a little further or stay longer in the air, so you should absolutely always make use of them at levels where you need to jump higher or for longer. But I made around 80% through the whole game with the power-up badge, giving me a power-up mushroom at the start of every level. So, that extra jump length is pretty much not even needed. Personally, I think the abilities should have been associated with a specific character instead, making every character even more unique.

Challenge

One of the most important things to me about 2D platformers is the challenge that it provides. There should not be anything wrong with seeing the game over screen a few times, as long as it does not make you agitated and want to put the game down.

Super Mario Bros Wonder is a challenging game… sometimes.

While the game has some challenging levels, the boss fights are not as difficult as expected. Although some players may find them challenging, I personally did not die even once during any fight, including the final one. Most of the boss fights follow a similar pattern, with just one new element added to each subsequent fight to keep things interesting. I believe it would have been better if Nintendo had spent more time creating engaging and challenging boss fights rather than repeating the same pattern over and over again.

Every course in the world has a challenge ranking visualized through stars. When you approach a level within the game, an informative box will appear above the level where you can see how many stars that particular level has. The easiest levels have one star, while the most challenging ones have five stars.

The game even has a special world dedicated to five-star challenges, but most of these very hard levels are not really needed in order to progress through the game. They are more optional than necessary, which is understandable. Nintendo obviously wants to make the game accessible to a large audience, and making the game too difficult would scare some people away. But this leaves the more difficult courses only dedicated to completionists. Wouldn’t a hard mode be a better option?

The mandatory levels of the game do become increasingly challenging as the player progresses through the game, which is a good thing. However, some players have complained that the game is too difficult overall, but I disagree with this. In fact, it proves my point about that the game would have been more enjoyable for some players if it had a difficulty setting. How would this difficulty setting work? I don’t know, but I’m sure the people at Nintendo would find a way.

Oh, and… the characters Yoshi and Nabbit are invincible… so I guess there kind of is a difficulty setting in the game after all.

Design

There is a lot of different scenery in Super Mario Bros Wonder. With almost one hundred different levels in the game, almost every single one has a unique level design, background, and even game mechanics. There are some levels that feel repetitive *cough* Battleships *cough*, but that is expected from a Nintendo title. They do like their gameplay loops, after all. Yet, by introducing more enemies and mechanics through almost every level in the game, the game rarely feels like it is trying to do the exact same thing.

Mario games have never taken any big risks regarding graphics, and they have never attempted to emulate realism – a wise decision, probably. But In this installment, the colors are even more vivid and dynamic. The first level of the game features some truly memorable color schemes, with blue-tinted hills that resemble an absurd landscape painting.

The characters in the game have a distinct shiny appearance to them, while still retaining the classic look that we all know and love. Additionally, the animations are noticeably more polished and lively than ever before. Even though Mario’s traditional looks and feels are still present, it feels like Nintendo attempted to incorporate some variation this time around, and I am in full support of it.

Does it live up to its predecessors?

The 2D Mario franchise is one of the oldest of its kind. After decades of many releases, I can only credit Nintendo for keeping the series so fresh and innovative after all these years.

But does Super Mario Wonder live up to the reputation of its long list of predecessors?

Throughout the game, it revisits many classic elements such as secret exits, castles, and hidden worlds. Although some may argue that these elements are there solely for nostalgic reasons, they do serve some excellent purposes. Finding secret exits is a good way to keep completionists engaged, and the secret world provides an extra challenge for those craving more difficulty.

But even with those classic revisiting formulas and new innovative gameplay features, it is not enough to draw me in the way I want it to.

The game pretty much stays in the same loop throughout the whole game: find flowers, collect wonder seeds, and repeat. This loop did start to feel monotonous already after completing the first world. The gameplay remains the same, and there are no significant surprises thrown at you. While this may not be a big issue for some players, those who feel underwhelmed by the end of the first location will probably stay underwhelmed until they complete the game.

Although the game offers a good level of challenge, I would have preferred if there were more hidden secrets and levels that were even harder. Personally, I found the best part of the game to be locating all of the wonder tokens in the Search Party levels. Some of these tokens were incredibly well hidden, and it was one of the few times in the game where I truly felt stuck. After completing them, I felt a great sense of achievement, almost like the feeling you get after completing a shrine in Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom.

In general, 2D Mario games have always been considered casual games that can be played with a friend or when one desires to play something more lightweight yet engaging. Super Mario Bros Wonder excels in fulfilling those purposes, and it is perhaps the most outstanding among all the 2D Mario games.

Does it replace Super Mario World as my number one 2D Mario game? No, but it does a very good job trying to.