As I grew up with Mario 3 and Mario World and both remain two of my favorite games of all time I fear I am nearing the time of falling into the boomer "this isn't the "insert thing here" I grew up with" stance. Cause Mario Wonder isn't the Mario I grew up with that Mario is gone. For good and for bad, there are absolutely brilliant stretches of levels here but there's also a lot of badge and extra levels that add a bit of bloat and ultimately don't stack up to the best levels. But I can't believe how many of the new enemies are fantastic, the hit rate is pretty crazy honestly, Condarts, Outmaways, Maw-Maws, Missile Megs, Seeker Bullet Bills, Armads, and Konks are all new enemies I really enjoyed both mechanically and design wise. I just wish it pushed those new enemies, as well as new powerups, and level mechanics I really enjoyed even farther iteratively than it does. I would love to see Nintendo follow up on this really quickly Galaxy 2 style, really push even further what they have here.

Ultimately my highest praise and harshest criticism is one phrase I said probably a dozen times over the course of playing thru Wonder: I can't wait to see what we can do with this enemy/block/mechanic/theme in Mario Maker 3.