What's annoying about not having any next-gen consoles is that, despite how many interesting new games came out last year, I didn't have the opportunity to give any of them a shot, and so the only game released in 2023 that I got to play and review was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. While that game was decent (albeit massively disappointing), I wanted to play at least one more game before the year ended, and while I missed that date by one day, I'm happy that I managed to snag a copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder either way. Even with my excitement for this game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder managed to surpass my expectations with flying colors, and I'd honestly consider it to be the best 2D Mario game since Super Mario World.

After years of oversaturating the market with mediocre 2D platformers through the New Super Mario Bros. series and even making their fans make their own levels across two separate consoles (not that there's anything wrong with that, because I really like both of the Super Mario Maker games), Nintendo finally decided to make a 2D Mario game with some soul to it, and I'd say they succeeded. Instead of being gimmicky and forgettable, the levels here in Super Mario Bros. Wonder are tightly constructed and bursting with new ideas, as each stage features wacky enemies, memorable themes, and interesting mechanics that build off of each other as the game goes along. All of this is true even before you come across each level's Wonder Flower, and once you do find it, the level morphs into something else entirely, and it only amplified just how creative the levels were, how gorgeous the new and more expressive visual style was, and how fun all of it was to play. The Wonder Flower sequences were easily my favorite moments in the game, but they were taken to completely new heights once I started going for the Special World stages, as their more demanding and even wilder level design had me grinning from ear to ear. Aside from the more conventional platforming stages, Super Mario Bros. Wonder also features different kinds of levels such as Wiggler races, Badge challenges, enemy challenges, and search parties, and these provided some decent variety while also being charming in their own right.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is one of those games whose general excellence makes me feel bad to even consider saying anything negative about it, but there were some aspects of the game that could've been better. For starters, the new Badge system was a bit mixed for me, as I rarely felt the urge to use anything outside of the Parachute Cap Badge and certain levels pretty much requiring the use of certain badges (namely the Dolphin Kick Badge, which makes swimming actually fun to control) without saying so beforehand led to me begrudgingly restarting the level just to swap badges. Among other reasons, Super Mario Bros. Wonder marked a new era in the franchise through its (comparatively) extensive use of voice acting, and while Kevin Afghani was spot on as Charles Martinet's replacement for Mario and Luigi, I thought that the game didn't really need so many Talking Flowers, even if Mick Wingert's performance as them wasn't nearly as annoying as it could've been. 2D Mario games always got the short end of the stick when it came to boss fights, but even with the implementation of the Wonder Flower, the repeated fights against Bowser Jr. still left a lot to be desired, and they weren't distinct enough from each other to be all that interesting to me. All of those flaws pale in comparison to what Super Mario Bros. Wonder got right, though, as I'd easily consider it to be my favorite 2D Mario game to date, and I can't wait to go back and get as close to completing it 100% as I can.