I never thought I’d see the day when a 2D Mario game would win me over to this extent, but Super Mario Bros Wonder is not only a fun, immersive, inventive, and at times awe-inspiring adventure through the brand new Flower Kingdom, but it even tops Super Mario Odyssey as the best Mario platformer this gen.
The Switch has seen a creatively-rejuvenated Nintendo
release one incredible game after another, and their latest take on 2D Mario,
their first since New Super Mario Bros U in 2012, proves to be one of the best 2D
platformers of the year, if not in recent memory.
Nearly every decision made in the development of Super Mario
Bros Wonder was the right one; the plot doesn’t feature Peach getting kidnapped
yet again but instead tells a story in which she gets to be a part of saving
Flower Kingdom with all the others. Freed from the constraints of having to
take place in Mushroom Kingdom, and freed from the philosophy that 2D Mario has
to play it safe and closely mimic games from 30 years ago, Wonder from the
start feels fresh, invigorated, and genuinely unpredictable and delightful from
level to level.
Flower Kingdom is an expansive one, with something like 15
hours of playtime awaiting. Each “World” you visit features plenty of levels to
complete, along with a boss or two. The world map, a hybrid between 2D and 3D,
has sections where you can free roam in 3D from one level to the next, which opens
up all sorts of possibilities not only in terms of finding hidden secrets and
levels, but in giving off a true sense of scale, atmosphere, and immersion completely
missing from the previous several 2D Mario installments.
The levels themselves are creative, varied, well-paced, and
just the right length. The powers are fun to use and frequently entertaining. The
best new feature by far though is the Wonder Flower, which transforms each
level into a psychedelic, Alice in Wonderland-like trip, in which your goal is
to find each level’s hidden Wonder Seed. These sections are totally chaotic and
crazy, unlike anything I’ve seen in a Mario game, and many offer a good
amount of challenge to the proceedings.
Super Mario Bros Wonder offers a pretty decent amount of difficulty, with it only rarely devolving into frustration. The game maintains
the Lives system, something which other modern games of this type have been
doing away with, but it’s a good choice here and one that I still prefer over
the various alternatives to it. The levels provide just the right amount of
challenge, while still being designed to be beatable with only a limited number
of lives, creating the difficulty balance that (so far) really only the Lives system
delivers.
The visuals are gorgeous throughout, with the worlds
appearing sharp, distinctive, and very smooth. Nintendo often has a strong
command of their hardware’s strengths and limitations, and Super Mario Bros
Wonder is a great showcase for that. Character animations and facial expressions
are also a major improvement from any previous 2D Mario outing.
The only areas where things fall a little short are in terms
of World number and the bosses; the boss battles are pretty underwhelming;
though they’re generally fun, and none are frustrating to the level seen from those
in Sonic Superstars, for example, I do wish that a little more was done with
them. They lack the creativity seen in other aspects of the game and often feel like an afterthought.
Super Mario Bros Wonder also only features 6 main Worlds
(plus an additional World-ish for the Final Boss segment of the game) for a
total of 7. Though there’s still a ton of content here, along with plenty of
post-game content, it’s similar to Nintendo’s shorter games during the Wii U
era, which often also only had 6 Worlds, as opposed to the typical 8. My guess
is that the developers just didn’t have the time, as the Switch, now having
been on the market for almost 7 years, is nearing the end of its lifespan, and
Super Mario Bros Wonder likely had to release in 2023.
That said, though an 8th World would have been
nice, ultimately what’s here is more than enough to warrant a purchase. Super
Mario Bros Wonder was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2023, a game I didn’t
expect to love nearly as much as I did given my lifelong preference for 3D
Mario, and the very standard, uninspired feel that 2D Mario’s had for well over
a decade. But Wonder breaks through, delivering a creative, unpredictable, extremely
weird and very fun 2D platformer, one with a sense of freedom and innovation
that I felt even Super Mario Odyssey held back on. The Nintendo Switch continues
to be a source of some of Nintendo’s best 1st party efforts in a
very long time, and Super Mario Bros Wonder is no exception.
4/5
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