I want to start off by saying I dislike the negative hindsighting around the New Super Mario Bros games (the DS ones and that decent Wii U one) since Super Mario Wonder came out. Those DS games were just great, and I won't stand this slander, I tell ya! I'll say it again: New Super Mario Bros were serviceable and completely enjoyable Marios and WAH-gate was a storm in a teacup.
Super Mario Wonder blows them all out of the water regardless.
A delicious cake of a video game: very sweet, SOMETIMES TOO SWEET, and layered with all sorts of fillings and unexpected toppings. Even the in-game terrain reminds me of an actual cake. Look at the World Map view of W4 and tell me you wouldn't devour that continent!
So, The Mario Basics (TM) remain. Hold right and just have a good time. Jump and squish enemies beneath your (presumably) spiked, brown steel toe-capped boots. I killed a dragon by landing on its head (several times!) so those boots must be insane.
The Wonder effects, which in some cases you have to actually hunt for - and I enjoyed the fact that you could go through a level without actually running into one if you weren't being somewhat fastidious - are a fantastic addition to the series, and one of those gimmicks (and yes, they are gimmicks in most cases, but gimmicks that DO change up the gameplay in fresh ways) that will be difficult to do without in future Mario games.
I think I will add my voice to the gentle chorus of complaints regarding the somewhat SAFE nature of some of these WONDER effects.
Think about this: Nintendo sat on that Eternal Darkness "sanity effect" patent (TM!) for so many years, and this would have been the perfect place to bring it back! Imagine picking up a Wonder flower and having your TV go blue-screen-of-death for a few seconds, or having your Switch slowly "delete" your save files and games, or having Mario's limbs slowly sever themselves, one by one, from his body, until only his head remains, which also promptly PULPS itself like a rotten pumpkin, before the screen flashes jarringly-white back to normal with the accompanying:
"THIS-A CAN'T BE A-HAPPENNING! WAAAAA!"
You know it's good!
The levels of this game are delectable and have a clear theme or gameplay quirk clearly explained at the top of the level. Nintendo continue to be the masters of teaching you new things astonishingly quickly; imagine if they were real TEACHERS in our schools with that same level of innovation. To be able to communicate so much without even a TUTORIAL POP UP (are you listening at the back there, Activision?), or even a chatty flower or BILLBOARD to over-explain to you is a craft in itself.
Why did I deduct a point from this marvel? Simply put, the game lacks true challenge. Yes, I know about the masochistic FINAL FINAL level and the Special World (some of which is still a teeny bit easy), but I barely felt ANY progression in difficulty between W2-W6. Even the game itself throws its hands up about midway, going "Alright, off you pop. You can go to W4-6 in any order you want. Go wild!"
Because the levels' difficulty doesn't really scale after roughly halfway. And this DID affect my enjoyment of the game. My interaction with the levels became fleeting. Enjoyable, but wispy. I struggle to recall the layouts of most of them. By contrast, I could spin you a yarn about MOST levels from Super Mario World or Mario 3 - those games, after a while, gaze at you dispassionately, imperiously, watching you lose life after life until you LEARN YOUR PLACE, MORTAL!
Perhaps I will mellow on this difficulty point upon replays. Maybe I thought the same of Super Mario World the first time I played (on ye olde GBA version!). As with everything, I will keep an open mind. After all, making any definitive statement is mostly pointless when such a thing as time exists in this universe.
And on that weirdly pretentiously poignant note, I declare Mario Wonder to be: ONE OF THE GAMES OF THE YEAR the likes of which the world has never seen the likes of which.
Super Mario Wonder blows them all out of the water regardless.
A delicious cake of a video game: very sweet, SOMETIMES TOO SWEET, and layered with all sorts of fillings and unexpected toppings. Even the in-game terrain reminds me of an actual cake. Look at the World Map view of W4 and tell me you wouldn't devour that continent!
So, The Mario Basics (TM) remain. Hold right and just have a good time. Jump and squish enemies beneath your (presumably) spiked, brown steel toe-capped boots. I killed a dragon by landing on its head (several times!) so those boots must be insane.
The Wonder effects, which in some cases you have to actually hunt for - and I enjoyed the fact that you could go through a level without actually running into one if you weren't being somewhat fastidious - are a fantastic addition to the series, and one of those gimmicks (and yes, they are gimmicks in most cases, but gimmicks that DO change up the gameplay in fresh ways) that will be difficult to do without in future Mario games.
I think I will add my voice to the gentle chorus of complaints regarding the somewhat SAFE nature of some of these WONDER effects.
Think about this: Nintendo sat on that Eternal Darkness "sanity effect" patent (TM!) for so many years, and this would have been the perfect place to bring it back! Imagine picking up a Wonder flower and having your TV go blue-screen-of-death for a few seconds, or having your Switch slowly "delete" your save files and games, or having Mario's limbs slowly sever themselves, one by one, from his body, until only his head remains, which also promptly PULPS itself like a rotten pumpkin, before the screen flashes jarringly-white back to normal with the accompanying:
"THIS-A CAN'T BE A-HAPPENNING! WAAAAA!"
You know it's good!
The levels of this game are delectable and have a clear theme or gameplay quirk clearly explained at the top of the level. Nintendo continue to be the masters of teaching you new things astonishingly quickly; imagine if they were real TEACHERS in our schools with that same level of innovation. To be able to communicate so much without even a TUTORIAL POP UP (are you listening at the back there, Activision?), or even a chatty flower or BILLBOARD to over-explain to you is a craft in itself.
Why did I deduct a point from this marvel? Simply put, the game lacks true challenge. Yes, I know about the masochistic FINAL FINAL level and the Special World (some of which is still a teeny bit easy), but I barely felt ANY progression in difficulty between W2-W6. Even the game itself throws its hands up about midway, going "Alright, off you pop. You can go to W4-6 in any order you want. Go wild!"
Because the levels' difficulty doesn't really scale after roughly halfway. And this DID affect my enjoyment of the game. My interaction with the levels became fleeting. Enjoyable, but wispy. I struggle to recall the layouts of most of them. By contrast, I could spin you a yarn about MOST levels from Super Mario World or Mario 3 - those games, after a while, gaze at you dispassionately, imperiously, watching you lose life after life until you LEARN YOUR PLACE, MORTAL!
Perhaps I will mellow on this difficulty point upon replays. Maybe I thought the same of Super Mario World the first time I played (on ye olde GBA version!). As with everything, I will keep an open mind. After all, making any definitive statement is mostly pointless when such a thing as time exists in this universe.
And on that weirdly pretentiously poignant note, I declare Mario Wonder to be: ONE OF THE GAMES OF THE YEAR the likes of which the world has never seen the likes of which.