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| A wonderful time. |
My first intro to 2D Super Mario games as a kid was with New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS and enjoyed it a lot. Over the years though, the formula did get stale for me compared to the red plumber's 3D offerings. When I first saw the trailer of Super Mario Bros. Wonder for the Nintendo Switch, I thought "eh, another predictable 2D Mario game". That was until I finally played it and I was utterly surprised. Mario and company are back for yet another adventure, this time it's absolutely crazy! So does Super Mario Bros. Wonder a brand new experience or is it more of the same? Let's find out.
Our story beings when Mario and company are invited to the Flower Kingdom by Prince Florian, who wants to show them the surreal power of the Wonder Flower. Unfortunately, Bowser crashes the party, stealing the Wonder Flower and fusing with Florian's castle and becomes... a giant floating castle. Now, it's up to Mario, Florian, and company to journey across the kingdom, beat Bowser's minions, and restore the kingdom to its old look. And that's that, being a Mario game and all.
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| Wonder starts-off looking familiar, until it's not! |
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a 2D platformer where you control your character as you jump, obtain coins and power-ups, and reach the flag pole at the end-- the usual 2D Mario affair. A new mechanic baked into the gameplay is the Badge system, where you can equip your character with a bunch of badges that offer unique skills like wall jumping, sprinting, and sensing secrets in levels. Moreover, there's new abilities in store with the Elephant Fruit power-up turning Mario into a giant heavy elephant, Drill Mushroom power-up allowing you to dig into the ground to pass by enemies, and the Bubble Flower that lets you throw bubbles into enemies and get a free jump over them.
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| The Wonder Flower mechanic kept the gameplay fresh and unpredictable. |
Spanning six worlds, each one tasks you with finding Wonder Seeds to unlock more stages of the world and reach the boss area. Obtaining a Wonder Flower during a level will allow it to transform into something completely wild. It's basically a second, more difficult version of a level if you choose to grab the flower. The likes include slowing down time, making it rain invincibility stars, creating a rolling snowball of everything in the way, and even making the iconic green pipes come to life! One stage even has you turning into a Goomba and must avoid hungry enemies in stealth-like fashion. Naturally when you reach the end, you'll be rewarded with another Wonder Seed to open-up more levels in the world.
It sounds crazy on paper, but it was fun seeing it in action and I always made it a priority to find Wonder Seeds in levels to see what wild thing is coming next. Surprisingly, the game is a mild challenge as the platforming was tricky, with me often getting hit by enemies and losing a bunch of lives. The game's maps are packed with hidden stages and optional challenge ones that'll test your platforming skills. There's also a shop that sells you extra lives, exclusive badges, and even Wonder Seeds in exchange for gold coins and purple wonder coins.
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| Share the fun around. |
For those wanting to play with friends, they'll be glad to know that the game supports up to 4-player co-op or online play and while I played alone, it's sounds like a lot of fun. The cast include Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Daisy, Nabbit, Yoshi, Toad, and Toadette. Wonder took between 8-10 hours to beat with me tackling most of the optional challenge levels and Wonder Seeds.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a beautiful game despite the simple-looking visuals. The characters and stages alike are filled with bright and vibrant colors that'll pop-out of your screen. The purple accents also bring plenty of charm to the Wonder Flower segments. I've played the game both in docked and handheld modes and both performed great with no issues. Wonder is the first game to not feature the longtime voice of Charles Martinet as Mario and Luigi. Still, the new voices for the bros and the rest of the cast were good. The soundtrack is as you'd expect upbeat and catchy. Some of my favorite tracks were the title theme, overworld theme, badge challenge theme, and boss theme.
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| Wonder oozes style at every corner. |
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a game in its purist form. Fun, constantly fresh, and even challenging-- I haven't had this much fun in a 2D platformer in while. Oddly enough, I've had a lot of enjoyment playing it in short bursts instead of a long session. It's easily one of the best offerings on Switch and platforming fans shouldn't miss out on it.
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