After a painful 11 years, we finally have a brand new 2D side scroller Mario game.
The reputation of 2D Mario games has been poor ever since the “New Super Mario Bros.” games were released. These games were common,releasing every couple of years,and most of them played, looked, and sounded exactly the same. When the first trailer was released, expectations for Wonder were nothing but hopeful. It was so refreshing to see a new style in this series that fans were confident Wonder would be good.
Fortunately, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is likely the best 2D Mario game ever produced, and one of the greatest platformers of all time.
First impressions are key, and Wonder more than delivers. The art style, the animations, all of the little details that you can spot in just the opening sequence and first couple levels are nothing less than incredible. Mario and his friends have never been more expressive, and their movements are filled with such charm and joy that doing anything in this game is a treat to look at.
Speaking of Mario’s friends, Wonder has the largest cast of any mainline Mario game. Mario and Luigi are playable of course, and their princess counterparts Peach and Daisy, but the characters more than double from there. Toadette, Yellow Toad, Blue Toad, 4 variations of Yoshis and Nabbit also join the fun. While 12 characters is surely a lot, it is a bit disappointing how variety is lacking the further you look at the list. Blue Toad and Yellow Toad are color swaps even down to their names, and 4 different colored Yoshis aren’t exactly unique. On top of that, the Yoshis and Nabbit essentially function as an easy mode, they can’t be hurt by regular enemies and can’t pick up power-ups. This is one of the game’s few downsides, sure, but it’s hard to ignore that even without the color swaps included this is the biggest character selection of any Mario platformer.
So the game looks good and you can play as your favorite character, but is it fun to play as them? Well in short, this is the best feeling and smoothest any Mario game has ever been to date. In length, every input feels responsive and Mario does exactly what I want him to do every time I press a button. In my entire time with the game there was never a single problem I had with the controls. Platforming has never felt more rewarding than in Wonder and it’s so good that I can’t help but replay levels over and over, even after fully completing the game.
If Mario hasn’t proved himself as the titan of platformers yet, let’s discuss the level design and locations in Wonder. Each of Wonder’s 8 areas is completely different from the last, and hardly shows any resemblance to Mario locations in other games, aside from a premise or two. The overworld is fun to explore with so many secrets to find and you will definitely be rewarded for looking for them. Each level is lovingly crafted and there are only a few that are similar, which is a given when you have 131 unique levels. Each level is different with the Wonder Flower mechanic, which allowed the game designers to do almost anything they wanted. You’ll ride on a pack of rhinos, walk on walls, transform into a goomba, and so many more surprises. I can’t think of a single level in this game that I disliked, aside from a couple of minigames that weren’t on par with the main game.
Although the levels are near perfection, the boss fights are not. Each one feels almost copy and pasted, and the final boss was, to be frank, very disappointing. Some worlds don’t even have a boss fight at the end, instead having a small level that explains the story of how you reach your goal more than providing gameplay. Additionally, multiplayer in Wonder could use some work. The local co-op is perfectly fine, and the way online works with people around the world is innovative, but if you want to play with your friends around the world you can forget it. The only mode Wonder offers to friends playing online is a race mode, where you race ghosts of each player on a single level each time. Why Nintendo didn’t just opt to port the co-op mode to online I don’t understand.
These shortcomings may feel like a lot, but don’t let them fool you. Even with these issues Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a creative masterpiece that is worth both your time and money.
