Just a wonderful time.

Traditionally 2D mario games have been struggling ever since the "New" games came into fruition. They're not bad, just bland. Wonder took a much needed break to create a truly animated and creative Mario.

This game is brimming with ideas, it feels like they had even more that they couldn't even use. I wish the bosses had more variety, and that there were more in general, because bosses in this formula could be so much more than just Bowser Jr.

I also really love the badge challenges! There's so much potential with those, they're super short, however.

Easily the best 2D Mario since World. After Mario Maker, it seemed like it was going to be an impossible task to create a new entry that felt worthwhile. But this game did it through charm and delight. The visual redesign, wonder flowers, and even the talking flowers succeed in providing an experience you can't get from the infinite Mario Maker courses available. And the somewhat-in-the-background, online co-op that seemed a bit gimmicky in the trailers actually added a lot of enjoyment to the experience.

However, for as many good things as I have to say about it, the last feeling I had for it after reaching 100% was a bit of disappointment. I think this game could have eclipsed SMB3 and World if there was a little more challenge. I think those two games do a very good job of scaling the difficulty as you progress. And World, in particular, also provides significant challenges that are not required to complete the game, but feel rewarding when you do. Whereas this game only had two courses that felt like real tests. And the final approach to Bowser's Castle feels very underwhelming compared to SMB3 and World.

Even though I'm playing this fresh off the heals of RE4 Remake and that may have had an impact on how I perceived this in comparison, I did enjoy this game quite a bit.

I can definitely appreciate that this game leaned more into horror than the other games in the series, and it was quite effective since a lot of this game can be pretty frightening. However, since the focus was the horror, I found the combat to just be okay for the most part, with enemies just kinda showing up to have something to shot at. As it went along the tension mostly went away and I wasn't that invested in the story anymore. I liked the horror aspect the most and that was the best part of this but I found this to not be the strongest entry in the RE series, certainly not bad though.

has a really strong and genuinely terrifying beginning, followed by a rather underwhelming latter half and a bleh ending. i didn't even mind the ship as much as others seem to, but still. jack baker is a very strong oppressive force while you're exploring the family house, and i always dreaded having to run into him again. i'm not big on how he's introduced as this free-roaming enemy mr x style right away, though. i feel like mr x works better because you have to use your layout and understanding of the map as well as your wits to keep him at bay. jack being there from the start doesn't feel like a test in that sense, but just a bit of an annoyance. mia is also an interesting character for her developments, but ethan and zoe and the death game guy i just found kind of uninteresting. ethan in particular is just a fairly bland blank slate.

graphically, the game looks an absolute treat in both how beautiful it can be and how disgusting it can be. the animations for the characters are a sight to behold, too. the decision you're forced to make halfway through the game was an extremely obvious one, i thought, which kind of removed any jeopardy it might have had. also, in a series renowned for impressive and awesome boss fights, none of the ones in this game i found to be that good either. just ok. the final boss was a particularly large letdown. all of them i found kind of frustrating and unfun to deal with.

while RE7 has some pretty standout flaws on the whole, it's still a good game, with one of the strongest atmospheres in any RE game and it's probably the overall scariest one - plenty of moments caught me off guard and made me shit, and the dread certain areas evoke is incredible.

A fun adventure but doesn't have any strong points. I felt that most of what this game attempts, other Dragon Quests pulled off better.

The game looks pretty great for the series first 3d entry, but the overworld looks like shit. Travelling massive, empty wastelands in between towns with virtually nothing worth exploring got tiring very fast.

Skill trees would be interesting if some weren't blatantly stronger than others. With no way to respec it's easy to get trapped into subpar skill sets. None of the skill trees are worthless but it'd be nice if there wasn't such a large disparity in usefulness between them.

The dungeons are mostly unique and memorable but a lot of them have really annoying puzzles that are easy to solve but tedious to navigate.

The final dungeon is great but randomly making me go on a fetch quest right before the final boss sucked all the hype out of it. Horrible note to end the game on.

A breath of fresh air that Mazza SORELY needed.

The amount of creativity packed into the game's (a little disappointingly) short runtime is nothing short of delightful. You'll never quite know what's coming next, and the presentation factor with the vibrant graphics and fantastic sound design make it a treat for the senses. The uniqueness in course aesthetics and overworld theming compared to the previous games (even if they're based on old trends, like 'grassland' and 'lava') remains fresh.

The only real major disappointment is the bosses, which are both far too sparse, and are also unable to catch up with the game's own wellspring of ideas, leaving them feeling far too tame for the game, and boring in design. The design of the final boss made me roll my eyes, and if you've played other Nintendo games, you'll know exactly why.

Overall, though, this is an absolute diamond of a game, and proof that, even after all this time, when Nintendo know what they want to do with an IP, they know HOW to do it.

Super Mario Bros Wonder is a much-needed step up from the New Super Mario Bros titles. Overall, it makes some great changes and introduces many cool and lovable aspects that I hope become series staples in the future. However, as I read these reviews, I get the feeling I didn’t enjoy it as much as most people do. I can’t help but feel this game plays it a bit too safe in some areas. Wonder would’ve been mind-blowing if we got it in place of New Super Mario Bros 2. or New Super Mario Bros. U, so I’m sort of left with a feeling of “yeah this is where we should’ve been like 10 years ago.” Either way, I’m glad we made it here eventually, at the very least.

Starting with the positives, the most noticeable changes are the visual style and details. Mario’s world remains as bright and colorful as ever, but Wonder finally manages to have a style completely separate from NSMB. Even though many of the traditional environmental themes are used, they mixed up a lot of the color schemes to really freshen things up and create new visual aesthetics that will hopefully bleed into spinoffs and future entries. And of course, there are the characters, each one being super cartoony, expressive, and having a wide variety of poses, even for the smallest actions. Speaking of, I really liked the array of characters they had this time around. I sort of wish you could be Yoshi or Nabbit without it being easy mode, but it’s not the end of the world. Plus, I think it’s nice they managed to have more than one playable girl character for once. I also like all of the new enemies, lots of goofy new faces are always welcomed in my book. Some enemies are as expressive as the main characters, if not more. I remember in a snow level, a Goomba fell into a small space between 2 blocks. Rather than mindlessly walk back and forth in a 1x1 space, he just gave up, sat down, and looked straight at the camera with a miserable expression. I loved it. Wonder is just full to the brim of little details like that.

As for Mario and Luigi’s new voice actor, Kevin Afghani, I think he sounded pretty good! I’ll be happy to hear more from him in the future. As for the talking flowers, I didn’t find them as annoying as other people did, but I can see how they can get grating pretty quickly.

One of my most favorite bits was the online interaction system. I assumed I wouldn't care for it all that much, but it brings so much to the table. It’s fun to be thrown in with a group of random players as you tread new ground together and help each other out. Helping someone through a tough section and spamming the little smile icon at each other is such a nice feeling. Silently agreeing to cooperate and take turns at trying a difficult section is hilarious. Putting down a standee in one level and seeing tons of notifications that people are using it like 10 minutes later is satisfying. Plus it’s all optional too, so if you feel it makes everything too easy or if it’s too invasive, you can turn it off with no issues. Overall, it’s just a delightful little system that I had a great time with.

With Wonder Flowers, I’m a bit mixed. They’re definitely fun the first time around, but I can’t see myself replaying most of those segments if I already got the seed from them. It’s really cool that they came up with so many ideas, and even cooler that you only see a small portion of them reused only once. Though there’s just something about them that feels like a novelty that will wear off soon. Additionally, I’m also a bit mixed on the Badges. They have some fun ideas going on, but I’m literally never going to switch off of the Parachute Cap badge. The only time I will is when the game clearly expects me to use another badge to get a big purple coin.

In terms of the difficulty, it’s extremely easy the whole way through minus some of the special levels. I’m not too harsh on that though, because I assume this game is for kids first and adults second. I imagine designing modern, linear difficulty for both demographics is a nightmare. Generally, the levels are a lot shorter as well, which I assume also plays a role in the low difficulty ceiling.

In the music department, I have to say I’m a little disappointed. Mario games are usually chock full of awesome, memorable tunes. While this one had a handful of stellar tracks, the vast majority of them were fairly forgettable.

My biggest complaint with this game are the bosses. Bowser Jr. being the boss of every castle is really lame and I’d argue it’s even more boring than bringing back the Koopalings again. The airship bosses being replaced with 10 second factory sections was also a bit of a letdown. And ultimately, the final boss had a generally cool presentation, but it didn’t really feel as “grand” as previous entries. It almost feels silly to complain about this, as I feel nobody really plays Mario Bros for the bosses, but for a game that seems like it’s trying to think outside the box, they really, really missed the mark with bosses.

At the end of the day, it’s exactly what you’d expect from the next evolution of Super Mario Bros. It’s colorful, creative, and well-polished all throughout. I was hoping for it to push the boundaries a bit more, but it’s still a wonderful little game.

"Wonderful" really is the best word to describe this game. Everything about it just oozes charm and personality. Its joy is infectious and it made me feel so happy to play. My only real negative is the boss battles (aside from the final one) are extremely simple! Among the worst in any 2D Mario game. Some worlds even lack a boss. It's a shame considering how many ideas the Wonder Flower gimmick could have allowed them to work with. But aside from that, this game is amazing and among my new favorite 2D Mario games, but doesn't beat out Super Mario World unfortunately.