Before I start out my review, I want to admit something here. That being that I’ve never played a proper 2D Mario before Wonder. As it would imply, that means that I don’t have the frame of reference that would come from playing past 2D Marios. That’s definitely on me, I’ll admit. I was planning to play at least the first Super Mario Bros before I got around to Wonder, but that never happened. I spent a lot of time before and during my classes playing Wonder, since most of the time, I had nothing to do. For a good frame of reference, I started Wonder back in October, around when the game released, and I just beat it the day as I type this (December 4th). The game is not long by any means, it just took me a long time to beat it. But god was it an absolute blast to play through this game, honestly it made me excited to go to classes because that meant I could play more Wonder.
Now, since I’ve played Wonder, I can’t really compare the movement of these games to older titles. I wish I could, it’s an interesting idea to examine, but since I lack the knowledge, I simply can’t. But what I can say is that the game’s movement is amazing. The level of momentum found while running feels really nice, though at the same time I do struggle with it. That’s a skill issue on my part though, not a fault of the game.
Now obviously since it’s one of Mario Wonder’s biggest selling points, I makes complete sense to examine The Wonder Effects. I’m pretty confident that I experienced all of the Wonder Effects that the game has to offer, aside from a super-secret bonus level, I cleared every level in the game, and obtained every Wonder Seed. With that in mind, I absolutely adore the Wonder Effects. It gives so many levels unique identities that they wouldn’t have otherwise. But at the same time, there’s moments where it’s absolutely great to see certain Wonder Effects return. I was worried that one of my personal favorite Wonder Effects, the one found in Piranha Plants on Parade would never return again, but in certain levels, similar wonder effects appear. Finding the Wonder Flowers is usually easy, though I noticed at times I had to play a couple levels over multiple times in order to find the actual Wonder Flower.
Also I want to take a moment here to talk about the Special World. And by that, I just to acknowledge how tough it was for me. Oddly enough, not every level was all that difficult, some were noticeably harder, some noticeably easier. In one special case, I found that the Special World version of a stage was actually easier than the normal version of a stage, I think that was particularly World 2’s Special World Stage. I really like how there’s unique entrances to each Special World Stage throughout the worlds of Mario Wonder, as that helped motivate me to try and find even more in each world than I would otherwise. I will say on that topic though, I do wish there was a bit more of a direction in finding the Special World Stage Entrances for Worlds 3 and 5, as the game doesn’t really clue you in to going back to certain levels once you finish a world. And I’ll say, while from what I hear it’s not the hardest level in the game, “The Final Test Wonder Gauntlet” was such a difficult level, though it was fun seeing everything that occurred in it.
Another absolute fun aspect of the game comes from the Badges. While you can wear only 1 Badge at a time, badges can really impact the difficulty of a level in certain ways. Some only just help, either by giving you a mushroom at the start of the level, or adding question blocks to help you. Others change or grant you new movement options, which are the most fun. I also like the ones that make me ask “why would I use this?” but also make for fun challenges, the first one I think of in this regard is the badge that makes you completely invisible. For the majority of the game, I used the Wall Kick Badge because I just found it absolutely useful, though I switched to the Grappling Vine once it became available. What’s great as well is that while I did use one for the majority of the game, I did actually need to switch around badges to help in the levels I was in, which isn’t something that happens to me in most games. I also adore that there’s levels in the game built as sort of tutorials to teach you how to use each badge, and then later on, advanced versions of those tutorials, to see how well you’ve mastered them. Not only are they great levels in their own right, but they’re excellent ways of teaching the player how to use each badge properly.
One thing I’d say I was nervous about going into Mario Wonder was the online. I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t a similar Online Multi-Player to the ones I saw in the New Super Mario games, but the more I played of it, the more I grew to really like it. It’s honestly really fun to play with people all across the globe, only slightly interacting with them, and helping them when they need it. I will say though, oftentimes I found the online multi-player to make certain difficult levels far easier than they would otherwise be. It definitely carried me through a good number of levels, though honestly most of those levels wouldn’t have been too difficult. It was mainly the Special World Stages where I had the most difficult. I also adore that there’s certain levels that somewhat necessitate the use of Online Multi-Player, though it’s also nice that you’re realistically able to beat most of them without it. Those levels were absolutely great to play, though I did a couple offline.
I will say the one general negative I hold with Mario Wonder was the boss variety, or well, the general lack thereof. I would say there’s 4 major bosses throughout the game, and 3 mini-bosses. Of those, the 3 mini-bosses are all the same with slight alterations to how you get to the weak point, and 3 of the 4 bosses are the same, with different wonder effects that impact the environment. While I absolutely adore the final boss and that whole stage is one of my highlights for the entire game, the other bosses felt too similar, and I was wishing for something more. While the changes were noticeable, they didn’t feel too distinct enough.
All in all, I absolutely loved my time with Super Mario Bros Wonder. It may not be the best choice as a “first-entry” to 2D Mario games, since it’s the newest release, and there’s a large history of games behind it, it’s still an absolutely amazing game. I can definitely see myself coming back to the game in the future, I think it’d be fun if I tried to get all of the flower coins in each level, since I didn’t try too hard to get all of them. I really hope we get to see another Wonder-like game in the future, the Wonder Effects in each level felt so fun, and I really want more of it.
Now, since I’ve played Wonder, I can’t really compare the movement of these games to older titles. I wish I could, it’s an interesting idea to examine, but since I lack the knowledge, I simply can’t. But what I can say is that the game’s movement is amazing. The level of momentum found while running feels really nice, though at the same time I do struggle with it. That’s a skill issue on my part though, not a fault of the game.
Now obviously since it’s one of Mario Wonder’s biggest selling points, I makes complete sense to examine The Wonder Effects. I’m pretty confident that I experienced all of the Wonder Effects that the game has to offer, aside from a super-secret bonus level, I cleared every level in the game, and obtained every Wonder Seed. With that in mind, I absolutely adore the Wonder Effects. It gives so many levels unique identities that they wouldn’t have otherwise. But at the same time, there’s moments where it’s absolutely great to see certain Wonder Effects return. I was worried that one of my personal favorite Wonder Effects, the one found in Piranha Plants on Parade would never return again, but in certain levels, similar wonder effects appear. Finding the Wonder Flowers is usually easy, though I noticed at times I had to play a couple levels over multiple times in order to find the actual Wonder Flower.
Also I want to take a moment here to talk about the Special World. And by that, I just to acknowledge how tough it was for me. Oddly enough, not every level was all that difficult, some were noticeably harder, some noticeably easier. In one special case, I found that the Special World version of a stage was actually easier than the normal version of a stage, I think that was particularly World 2’s Special World Stage. I really like how there’s unique entrances to each Special World Stage throughout the worlds of Mario Wonder, as that helped motivate me to try and find even more in each world than I would otherwise. I will say on that topic though, I do wish there was a bit more of a direction in finding the Special World Stage Entrances for Worlds 3 and 5, as the game doesn’t really clue you in to going back to certain levels once you finish a world. And I’ll say, while from what I hear it’s not the hardest level in the game, “The Final Test Wonder Gauntlet” was such a difficult level, though it was fun seeing everything that occurred in it.
Another absolute fun aspect of the game comes from the Badges. While you can wear only 1 Badge at a time, badges can really impact the difficulty of a level in certain ways. Some only just help, either by giving you a mushroom at the start of the level, or adding question blocks to help you. Others change or grant you new movement options, which are the most fun. I also like the ones that make me ask “why would I use this?” but also make for fun challenges, the first one I think of in this regard is the badge that makes you completely invisible. For the majority of the game, I used the Wall Kick Badge because I just found it absolutely useful, though I switched to the Grappling Vine once it became available. What’s great as well is that while I did use one for the majority of the game, I did actually need to switch around badges to help in the levels I was in, which isn’t something that happens to me in most games. I also adore that there’s levels in the game built as sort of tutorials to teach you how to use each badge, and then later on, advanced versions of those tutorials, to see how well you’ve mastered them. Not only are they great levels in their own right, but they’re excellent ways of teaching the player how to use each badge properly.
One thing I’d say I was nervous about going into Mario Wonder was the online. I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t a similar Online Multi-Player to the ones I saw in the New Super Mario games, but the more I played of it, the more I grew to really like it. It’s honestly really fun to play with people all across the globe, only slightly interacting with them, and helping them when they need it. I will say though, oftentimes I found the online multi-player to make certain difficult levels far easier than they would otherwise be. It definitely carried me through a good number of levels, though honestly most of those levels wouldn’t have been too difficult. It was mainly the Special World Stages where I had the most difficult. I also adore that there’s certain levels that somewhat necessitate the use of Online Multi-Player, though it’s also nice that you’re realistically able to beat most of them without it. Those levels were absolutely great to play, though I did a couple offline.
I will say the one general negative I hold with Mario Wonder was the boss variety, or well, the general lack thereof. I would say there’s 4 major bosses throughout the game, and 3 mini-bosses. Of those, the 3 mini-bosses are all the same with slight alterations to how you get to the weak point, and 3 of the 4 bosses are the same, with different wonder effects that impact the environment. While I absolutely adore the final boss and that whole stage is one of my highlights for the entire game, the other bosses felt too similar, and I was wishing for something more. While the changes were noticeable, they didn’t feel too distinct enough.
All in all, I absolutely loved my time with Super Mario Bros Wonder. It may not be the best choice as a “first-entry” to 2D Mario games, since it’s the newest release, and there’s a large history of games behind it, it’s still an absolutely amazing game. I can definitely see myself coming back to the game in the future, I think it’d be fun if I tried to get all of the flower coins in each level, since I didn’t try too hard to get all of them. I really hope we get to see another Wonder-like game in the future, the Wonder Effects in each level felt so fun, and I really want more of it.