I knew right away that Super Mario Bros. Wonder was going to be special when it was first revealed during the June Nintendo Direct. I had long felt that the New Super Mario Bros. series had been a bit stagnant, and this looked like the breath of fresh air that modern 2D Mario needed. Not since Animal Crossing: New Horizons had I allowed myself to be truly hyped for a game.
I’m not really sure what I was expecting with Super Mario Bros. Wonder outside of a solid Super Mario game. But I can confidently say every expectation has not only been shattered but completely rearranged—Super Mario Bros. Wonder is one of the best 2D Mario games ever made. Period.
I gotta say, Nintendo has really been taking the wind out of my review sails with their Directs. There really isn’t a lot that I can describe about this game that wasn’t already given away in the June 21st Direct. Taking place in the Flower Kingdom—a land not far from the Mushroom Kingdom—Mario and the ENTIRE gang are invited for a visit by Prince Florian for a good ol’ diplomatic convention. However, as usual, Bowser crashes the party—seemingly annoyed that his monarchal status wasn’t recognized—and grabs one of the Kingdom’s Wonder Flowers, which merges him with Florian’s castle.
“Super Mario Bros. Wonder is one of the best 2D Mario games ever made. Period.”
Now, as a living castle, Bowser plans to unleash his brand of Wonder across the whole land. Prince Florian teams up with Mario and the gang in order to stop the Koopa King. I like this story for a number of reasons. Firstly, I always like when Mario games use characters outside of the norm for their plot. Not simply because it shakes up the convention of “Bowser kidnaps Peach, Mario must fix,” but because it always allows for more interesting worlds and level designs.
Not only that, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s story actually feels a lot more dynamic—like something you’d get from a Paper Mario game. The residents of the Flower Kingdom are much more vocal and characterized in different ways that make them feel more involved with the world and the adventure. Prince Florian, as well, adds a lot of much-needed dialogue to the proceedings in the same way the Partners would in the more modern Paper Mario.
However, gameplay is where Super Mario Bros. Wonder really shines. You’d think it was just classic Super Mario at the same calibre of quality it’s always been at—even the boring ones like New Super Mario Bros. 2, and New Super Mario Bros. U were solidly designed. But Super Mario Bros. Wonder feels like every good idea Super Mario has ever had combined with modern game sensibilities.
Players might just expect a standard run-and-jump affair, but there’s so much more to it, both in the micro and the macro. When it comes to the nuts and bolts, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is as tightly designed as ever. It goes a bit back to basics, doing away with the triple-jump—which was a bit of a staple for modern 2D Mario, in my opinion—and levels are a bit smaller and more contained from a design perspective, but still filled with so many secrets and alternate paths that I was constantly finding things I had missed.
“Super Mario Bros. Wonder feels like every good idea Super Mario has ever had combined with modern game sensibilities.”
However, the much-talked-about Wonder Flower really brings a lot to the party. When it was first announced, I figured this would be a once-in-a-while gimmick in the same vein as Kirby’s Return to Dreamland’s Super Abilities. But I couldn’t have been more wrong—almost every level has a Wonder Flower that shakes up the level in some unique way. While Nintendo already showed some of the game’s Wonder Effects in various videos, I was constantly surprised and elated at some of the fun ways it changes up a level.
It’s really what I love most about the game. Each level is already fun, unique and tightly designed, but then it’s constantly introducing new ways to change everything and breathe new life into the game. Even though some levels reuse Wonder Effects, they always find fun ways to incorporate them into each level. I heard someone say that Nintendo took notes from Mario Maker levels to create Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and I would say they were wrong. No one playing Mario Maker made levels with this much imagination.
Even the game’s new power-ups add a lot of fun and charm to the game. Of course, there’s the much-showcased Elephant form that is pretty fun, albeit a little overpowered. The Bubble form adds some pretty unique depth to gameplay, creating jump boosts from blown bubbles and captured enemies. I honestly didn’t think I would like the Drill form very much, but it does add some interesting dimensionality to the gameplay, as you can stick to ceilings and dive into the ground.
Something that’s bothered me in the past with Nintendo’s side-scrollers was the way they’d design levels around certain power-ups rather than incorporate them naturally into each level. And while I think I’ve eased up on this a little bit, I definitely think Super Mario Bros. Wonder only kind of does this. You can see how each level has a particular power-up in mind but they’re still designed in such a way that you can tackle them however you want.
Then there are the little ways Super Mario Bros. Wonder fixes gameplay for a much more modern experience. When I was watching the reveal trailer for the game, almost immediately, I noticed there was no timer for each level, which was a very good decision—allowing players to progress through every level at their own pace and explore thoroughly. Furthermore, it takes away a lot of the arbitrary stress when playing with younger or inexperienced gamers, allowing them to take their time and find their rhythm with the platforming.
It’s something I noticed, too, while experimenting with the game’s friendlier online mode. Without the superfluous constraints of a timer, I found myself being less annoyed by players who were behind me, and instead, I was going with them at their pace—joyfully jumping in place as if to encourage them.
I think it’s kind of a worthless meme now that “Mario used to be hard,” or “No one knew the gauntlet that was New Super Mario Bros. Wii with friends,” and I’ll even admit I used to play with friends like that. But the whole vibe of Super Mario Bros. Wonder is one of silly, laidback fun and the design of the game compliments that.
I wish they would’ve also removed the archaic lives system as well, but, you know…baby steps.
“…the whole vibe of Super Mario Bros. Wonder is one of silly, laidback fun and the design of the game compliments that.”
Then there’s the Badge system, which feels to me like the culmination of good, modern design. For starters, the badges are a perfect OPTION for players who might not be the best at platformers to have a bit of an easier time. Some of these were shown off by Nintendo—the Saftey Bounce will let you jump out of a pitfall once, while the Auto Super Mushroom will give you a Mushroom at the start of each level, even after a death. But it’s not just the practicality of the badges that I love, it’s how so many of them feel unique to the individual characters without being locked into them.
What I mean by that is, in the days of old, it was always: Mario was well-rounded, Luigi could jump the highest, Peach could hover, and Toad was the fastest. But now, thanks to the badges, you can still have the benefit of those abilities without needing to be locked to a character you might not want to use. Want to be Daisy and jump like Luigi? Just equip the Floating High Jump Badge. Want to be Mario but hover like Peach? The Parachute Cap Badge will do just fine. It’s this kind of versatility and freedom that makes Super Mario Bros. Wonder so much fun to play.
And because I love all these characters, I found myself actively switching between them with each level, but if I wanted Luigi to feel like he used to, I would equip the Floating High Jump badge to him specifically. I felt like the Parachute Cap was kind of Mario’s new ability, so I would always give it to him.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was where Peach was first playable, so I’d give her the Crouching High Jump badge. But I was always switching up the badges for fun, unique experiences and then turning them off when I wanted something a little bit more “traditionally” challenging—imagine that, the option of difficulty not actually subtracting from a game’s quality or fun!
But it’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s visual design that really steals the show. When I watched that reveal trailer and saw Mario enter a pipe only for his hat to fly off and be grabbed like Looney Toons animation, I knew I was in love. Super Mario Bros. Wonder has the best visual design of any Super Mario, both 2D and 3D. The way all the characters have an almost chibi style makes them so adorable and likeable—again committing to the game’s overall conceit of lighthearted fun. Furthermore, every character is so incredibly animated.
The way characters’ legs have that anime-styled run cycle, the way they pose and express themselves in jumps, to the way Goombas will look annoyed if they get stuck in little holes. I love how Mario and the gang’s running jump pays homage to Super Mario World, and Koopas do a little shell-bump when they walk into each other. There’s just so much character and charm in every facet of this game.
Like I said at the start, setting the game outside the Mushroom Kingdom allows for much more weird and fun enemies in each level. There’s so much that it got to a point where I would see traditional characters like Bob-ombs and Bullet Bills and say, “Look at that, this game has Mario characters in it!”
While the characters and animations definitely stand out the most, the entire game utilizes a brilliant colour palette ranging from bright primaries to soft pastels that perfectly fit the style of each level. Each level’s background is stunningly detailed and adds a whimsical, almost dreamlike quality to the world. The game looks beautiful in handheld, especially on the Nintendo Switch OLED, but if you really want the game to shine, play it docked in crisp 1080p.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder shines in its audio department as well. While I think most of the soundtrack uses sampled instruments over a live orchestra, it maintains a fun and poppy sound that is wholly unique. From acapella to pipe flute to peppy piano that almost sounds like a track from Kirby’s Epic Yarn, the soundtrack is incredibly varied and always enjoyable.
What’s more, there’s so much polish to the audio in so many little ways. I really love the way most of the game’s sound effects find a perfect middle ground between the classic and modern, adding little touches like how every character’s jump sound is pitched differently—so while it sounds like the iconic Mario jump, it’s unique to them. The way going into a Ground-Pound starts a little drumroll until you hit the ground, or the way the Elephant form changes the music to bombastic trumpets adds so much charm to the game
Of course, special mention needs to be given to the new voices of Mario and Luigi. It’s been incredibly gauche (and borderline gross) seeing everyone online lamenting the loss of Charles Martinet far beyond celebrating a promising new talent. So let me be the first to say Kevin Afghani brings so much wonder and fun to the iconic brothers while maintaining his own unique take on Charles Martinet’s original interpretation of the characters. I can’t imagine how incredible it must be to get to voice these gaming giants, and already, I can’t wait to hear more.
Back in 2017, I said that Super Mario Odyssey was the best 3D Mario Nintendo had ever made—reimagining familiar concepts in such a new and creative way that it set the new standard for how to design 3D Mario. Now, Nintendo has done the same for 2D Mario, reinvigorating the iconic side-scroller while maintaining everything that made the games so incredibly fun and memorable. Since I started playing it for review, I haven’t been able to put it down, and I can see myself going back to it as regularly as I do Super Mario World or Super Mario 3.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder can be found on Amazon for $59.99 USD or $79.96 CAD
