It has been quite a glorious year for Mario and Friends. The movie and games being quite successful is an understatement, because it kinda shows how big the Mario series is for their fans and how Nintendo keeps the ball running by innovating their formula with new blood and ideas.
It’s because of that, we have Super Mario Bros. Wonder shining brightly next to its already popular RPG remake sibling that came out recently. It’s that good.
So let’s grab the elephant power up and stomp on the Goombas once again. This time with passion.
Presentation
From the moment you see the box art on your copy to its first cutscene, you can tell how vibrant the design is, the colors seeping throughout all the worlds that you get to visit as the main four of Mario, Luigi, Peach and Daisy. It feels welcoming to even those who are about to play their first 2D Mario game and have them reach a sense of new wonder (forgive the pun lol).
Playing wise, it looks incredible on the Switch. 60fps without any issues is the Standard for Nintendo. And you will need all the frames because this game needs accurate platforming because when the platforming gets hard, you need those frame perfect jumps.
The music elements of Mario Wonder are also quite unique, where some level’s main goal, getting the game’s Wonder Seed, could lead you into a musical number that you have to time it to the beat at some junctions, a neat way to showcase your musical talents, eh Nintendo EPD? And that thing about the joycons making noises as you go through musical blocks are also pretty cool too.
The new voices for Mario and the crew actually sound nice so they did a pretty good job in maintaining the feel of the original voice but feels more refreshing after a decade of samey audio for not only SMBU, but even Super Mario Odyssey back in 2017.
Gameplay
The meat filling for any good Mario game is the level and boy, they do not disappoint in this one. Wonder fills their worlds with levels that extract all the challenges that you would expect from 2D platformers and even more if you can find those uber-hard levels. Its design are tightly designed, complimenting the power-ups that you’ll use over the course of the game and if you want to take a break, there’s also those searching item levels that will rack your brain in searching for the Wonder Seed.
One neat aspect that helps with the core gameplay loop being refreshing at all times is that all the main characters play the same, due to every character being able to use any power up that players have chosen during the start of any level. It makes choosing who to start and beat the world not as hard as, say Super Mario Brothers 2 where every character is different.
The game will even mention that during the end of a world boss too. It’ll show a caption saying “Mario’s/Luigi’s Party has cleared the danger”, which is a neat touch.
Though my only complaint is the return of the lives system, which does feel like an afterthought because of how easy you can earn it, along with buying it at the start of each new world. In my playthrough, I keep at 20 lives for the rest of the game, which is a good cushion for those harder levels but still there’s no risk of Game Over with this many 1UPs.
Content
One of the best things about any Mario game is that around the time you beat the game, you can take a break from the game and then come back later on and can pick up and play through it again once more. It’s that sort of good replayability that’s been the formula of these 2D Marios that have people keep coming for more.
All that said, it’s a sweet 10 hour romp from my side that includes doing the puzzles and dabbling in the hard stages for the fun of it. Beating Bowser as usual but this time being Daisy all the way through the end.
There’s also the easy mode where you can use either Nabbit or Yoshi, which is a good addition for when I handed my game to the reaims to my cousins who wanted to try Mario after watching the movie. So that inclusion gets a plus in my books.
Personal Enjoyment
Who would have thought that after all these years, a 2D Mario is still one of the most wonderful ways to experience why Nintendo is still how they are decades later. It’s freshness of making sure it doesn’t get stale with this edition and the upcoming Princess Peach games makes it sure that people will be enjoying the Mario franchise for the long-haul.
As for me, it does take me back to my early days of playing on the Game Boy and Super Mario Land, and the childlike wonder never faded away from start to finish. Like if any of my family members asked what game they should buy if they have a Nintendo Switch, I would direct them to this little Wonder.
Verdict
In a pack year filled with amazing games, Super Mario Bros Wonder stands besides all of them, being one of the best platformers of 2023, with amazing design and controls that has to be the new must-pick up for Nintendo fans, new or old.
Played on Nintendo Switch, Review copy purchased by reviewer.
Super Mario Bros Wonder
One of the best platformers of 2023, with amazing design and controls that has to be the new must-pick up for Nintendo fans, new or old.
- Presentation 9.5
- Gameplay 8
- Content 9
- Personal Enjoyment 9.5