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Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the best 2D Mario game in decades—and it also has dancing piranha plants

7K View2023-10-25

Super Mario Bros.™ Wonder

9.2

ActionPlatformer

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Not long after I started Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I was treated to an impromptu musical number. The mountains in the background bounced in time with the music. Piranha plants sang in perfect harmony. Some of them even jumped out of their pipes so that they could shake what their mama gave them.

It’s the kind of showstopping scene that some games might save for a later act, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t need to hold anything back. More than anything else, it’s a game of surprises, and every level has secrets to discover. Sometimes, the camera would suddenly shift perspective, turning a standard platforming level into a top-down action game. Other times, I’d find myself transformed into a strange new creature, like a slow-moving snail or a humanoid balloon. Wonder doesn’t stray too far from the classic Mario formula, but it constantly finds ways to subvert expectations and do something entirely new.

It’s a game bursting with spectacle, but it’s also filled with small, delightful details. Whether I was playing as Mario, Daisy, Toadette, or anyone else in Wonder’s cast, characters had visible reactions to everything happening around them. I could see the strain on their faces when they were pushing something heavy or their absolute glee when grabbing a power-up. When characters had the elephant power-up, I could see them struggling to squish their temporarily-giant bodies through a warp pipe. Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t let up on the magic for an instant; it’s always firing on all cylinders.

Weird and wonderful new power-ups

Speaking of power-ups, Super Mario Bros. Wonder has a few welcome additions to the standard Mario arsenal. There are some tried-and-true items here, like the Fire Flower and Super Star, but it’s the three brand-new power-ups that really take center stage. The first one I encountered was the Elephant Fruit, a tasty elephant-shaped fruit snack that turned me into a massive powerhouse. With its powers, I could smash through bricks, smack around enemies, and even spray water from my trunk.

Then I came across the Bubble Flower, which gave me the ability to blow bubbles. I didn’t think much of it at first, but I quickly discovered it was far more potent than it seemed. Not only could I use bubbles to take out all kinds of enemies—including Dry Bones—but my bubbles could also function as makeshift platforms. Jumping from bubble to bubble made it easy to get to areas that were normally hard to reach. If I was fast enough, I could even use my bubbles to skip past part of a level.

Last but not least was the Drill Mushroom, which gave me a shiny drill bit hat. This power-up allowed me to drill my way through the ground above or below me. When an enemy was approaching, I burrowed myself into the floor and waited for them to come closer. The second they walked above me, I sprung out of my hiding place and drilled straight through them. It was like something out of a horror movie, but presented in the cutest, most whimsical way imaginable.

A game as difficult—or as easy—as you want it to be

Power-ups let me tackle levels in new and exciting ways, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder offers a level of flexibility that goes far beyond that. There are no traditional difficulty settings, but, thanks to the new badge system, I could quickly adjust my experience whenever I was struggling. Badges are essentially permanent power-ups, and I could equip a new badge every time I started a level or lost a life.

If there was a high platform I couldn’t seem to reach, I could equip the Grappling Vine badge and swing my way to the top. When I was playing water levels, the Dolphin Kick badge gave me a nice boost of speed. If I was struggling to find a Wonder Flower or another special item, the Sensor Badge could help me track it down. My personal favorite was the Safety Badge, which let me bounce my way out of a pit or lava the first time I fell in.

These items had a huge impact on my experience, especially when I had a decent collection of badges at my disposal. Even when I was having a hard time with a level, I felt like I had control over my experience. I could tailor the difficulty of the game to my personal preferences, and if one badge didn’t get me through a level, I could always try out another.

Badges are the main form of difficulty adjustment in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, but I could also make the game easier by changing my character. Five of the game’s playable characters—the four Yoshis and Nabbit—don’t take any damage from enemies. While I wish that at least one of the Yoshis played normally, I love that this option exists. It’s the perfect way to play through the game with younger family members that are still learning Mario basics.

Two to four players are better than one

For the most part, I played through Super Mario Bros. Wonder solo, but it really feels like it was designed to share with someone else. All of the wrinkles in local co-op that were evident in the New Super Mario Bros. line of games have been ironed out, resulting in a smooth, wildly entertaining experience. You can still hitch a ride on the nearest Yoshi, but players don’t bounce off each other anymore, making it easy to avoid accidental deaths. If a player dies anyway, other players have a chance to revive them before they’re gone for good.

Even more fascinating is the online multiplayer, which feels like it takes a page out of the Dark Souls playbook. Once I entered online mode, I could see the shadowy figures of other players all around me. We couldn’t interact with each other directly, but we could drop cardboard standees for other players to find. Not only were these standees a great way to point out hidden items and nearby hazards, but a well-placed standee could potentially revive players that were about to lose a life.

Practically perfect in every way

Super Mario Bros. Wonder gets so much right that its few shortcomings feel a little bit jarring. The game doesn’t make any major missteps, but there are times when it falls short of the impossibly high standards it sets for itself.

Every character has unique animations, but unless you’re playing as Nabbit or a Yoshi, switching your character is really just swapping out a skin. There’s no floating jump for Princess Peach or extra-high jump for Luigi. This isn’t a huge deal, but I do wish that characters were slightly more distinct.

And while the final battle in Super Mario Bros. Wonder might be the best boss fight in the series, the other boss battles are a bit of a chore. I fought Bowser Jr. several times throughout the game, and while these showdowns are visually interesting, they’re basically identical. I’d jump on his head, he’d change forms, I’d bop him on the head two more times, and the battle would be over. There’s tons of variety across every level of the game, so the repetitive nature of these boss fights really stands out.

Like playing Mario for the first time

I still vividly remember the first time I went through a warp pipe in the original Super Mario Bros., and the awe I felt when it transported me to an entirely new world. Somehow, decades later, the Mario series is still managing to give me that same sense of...well, wonder. I’ve been lukewarm on recent 2D Mario titles, like New Super Mario Bros. U, but Nintendo has brought back the feeling of awe that made me fall in love with their games.

Wonder manages to combine the smooth, addictive gameplay of 2D Mario with the experimentation and excitement I normally associate with 3D Mario titles. 2D Mario games haven’t impressed me for a long time, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder is on par with the classics. If you’ve ever enjoyed a Mario game, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

SCORE: 5 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• Nostalgia. Wonder takes more risks than the average 2D Mario title, and its willingness to step outside the standard Mario template has brought back so many happy memories of games past. The Mario games I grew up with were always doing something new and surprising, and for all its differences, Wonder feels the same way. It’s a cliche thing to say, especially about a Mario game, but it really made me feel like a kid again.

• Busby Berkeley musicals. Aside from the goombas and piranha plants, Wonder’s over-the-top musical numbers feel like they came straight out of an old Hollywood movie. There are no synchronized swimming routines—that I’ve discovered, anyway—but there’s an opera-singing King Boo, disco-dancing ninjis, and some surprisingly coordinated koopas. If the Mario gang ever needs to cook up an elaborate dance number to save the day, I think they’ll be just fine.

• Doing things your way. One of the best things about Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the flexibility it offers. Aside from a few Wonder Seed challenges, there are no time limits to worry about, and levels can be tackled in any order. I could play the game at my own pace, and that made it much harder to put down.

• Searching for secrets. It only took around fifteen hours to beat Super Mario Bros. Wonder, but there are still so many surprises for me to discover. There are tons of levels I haven’t even found, let alone played through. I have tons of badges left to unlock, more Warp Flowers to find, and cardboard standees to collect. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it can keep you busy for a very long time.

💬 Have you been playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder? What's your favorite Mario game? Share your thoughts in the comments!