Mario Wonder is probably the most stylish and creative Mario game to date.
The game oozes with charm from its bright colors, adorable animations, and creative stage gimmicks. There are however some setbacks that take away some points from my personal experience.
The Wonder-mechanic is obviously the game's biggest draw, but I feel like the overall level design suffers somewhat because of it.
The stages themselves are usually not that interesting until you reach the Wonder Flower and the crazy stuff start to happen.
The bosses are surprisingly few and far between, and none are particularly good. Although, I do prefer having fewer bosses if it means that we get more stages. Bosses have never been particularly amazing in Mario games, so having less of them is more or less a non-issue.
It seems evident that the game tries to make itself more accessible to younger, or less experienced players, which is fine, but as a veteran player, I couldn't help but crave more of a challenge. There were a couple of stages that were challenging, but most 5-star stages felt like a walk in the park. This includes a large chunk of Special World stages, which was a bit disappointing, since the bonus world is usually where the tough stages can be found. Furthermore, I wish the game had more secret exits and hidden stuff to find overall. It would've been awesome to find entrances to the Special World through secret exits à la Super Mario World. Instead most of these entrances are found behind a somewhat tougher stage placed in each world. A couple of other entrances simply require you to enter the final "stage" of a world which houses the Royal Seed a second time.
Final negative thing before I move on to the positives; the music leaves a bit to be desired. They do the Super Mario World thing where there's a leitmotif present in most songs, which makes them feel extremely repetitive towards the end. The fact that there aren't that many songs present in the soundtrack doesn't help either.
Despite all of that, I had a ton of fun with Wonder. The game may not have excellent level design, but it excels with its memorable moments. Most of the Wonder Flowers bring something new and unexpected to the table, for example by introducing mechanics that flips the concept of the entire stage on its head.
I also want to give praise to the voice acting and overall sound design. This is our first Mario-game post Mario 64 without Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario and Luigi. I figured I'd have a hard time adjusting, but Kevin Afghani manages to do an excellent job as a replacement. There are some lines that feel a bit off, but some others manages to sound spot-on.
Meanwhile the sound design brings a unique flavor to the game by giving all sound effects a more acoustic feel. The characters also have unique jumping sounds now, which I think is cute.
In conclusion, Super Mario Bros. Wonder leaves a bit to be desired for me as a veteran fan in terms of difficulty and level design. However, it more than makes up for it with its aesthetics and overall charm which makes this entry the most interesting Mario's ever been in 2D since Super Mario World probably. Highly recommended.
The game oozes with charm from its bright colors, adorable animations, and creative stage gimmicks. There are however some setbacks that take away some points from my personal experience.
The Wonder-mechanic is obviously the game's biggest draw, but I feel like the overall level design suffers somewhat because of it.
The stages themselves are usually not that interesting until you reach the Wonder Flower and the crazy stuff start to happen.
The bosses are surprisingly few and far between, and none are particularly good. Although, I do prefer having fewer bosses if it means that we get more stages. Bosses have never been particularly amazing in Mario games, so having less of them is more or less a non-issue.
It seems evident that the game tries to make itself more accessible to younger, or less experienced players, which is fine, but as a veteran player, I couldn't help but crave more of a challenge. There were a couple of stages that were challenging, but most 5-star stages felt like a walk in the park. This includes a large chunk of Special World stages, which was a bit disappointing, since the bonus world is usually where the tough stages can be found. Furthermore, I wish the game had more secret exits and hidden stuff to find overall. It would've been awesome to find entrances to the Special World through secret exits à la Super Mario World. Instead most of these entrances are found behind a somewhat tougher stage placed in each world. A couple of other entrances simply require you to enter the final "stage" of a world which houses the Royal Seed a second time.
Final negative thing before I move on to the positives; the music leaves a bit to be desired. They do the Super Mario World thing where there's a leitmotif present in most songs, which makes them feel extremely repetitive towards the end. The fact that there aren't that many songs present in the soundtrack doesn't help either.
Despite all of that, I had a ton of fun with Wonder. The game may not have excellent level design, but it excels with its memorable moments. Most of the Wonder Flowers bring something new and unexpected to the table, for example by introducing mechanics that flips the concept of the entire stage on its head.
I also want to give praise to the voice acting and overall sound design. This is our first Mario-game post Mario 64 without Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario and Luigi. I figured I'd have a hard time adjusting, but Kevin Afghani manages to do an excellent job as a replacement. There are some lines that feel a bit off, but some others manages to sound spot-on.
Meanwhile the sound design brings a unique flavor to the game by giving all sound effects a more acoustic feel. The characters also have unique jumping sounds now, which I think is cute.
In conclusion, Super Mario Bros. Wonder leaves a bit to be desired for me as a veteran fan in terms of difficulty and level design. However, it more than makes up for it with its aesthetics and overall charm which makes this entry the most interesting Mario's ever been in 2D since Super Mario World probably. Highly recommended.