Super Mario Wonder is, without a doubt, a crowning achievement in the realm of platformers. It's an exhilarating journey through a vibrant and captivating world that is brought to life through level design that can only be described as a stroke of genius.
First and foremost, this game has SOUL. Something lacking in the NSMB series for years. Just take Mario himself, every single animation has insanely awesome keyframe poses, style and flair, this is probably the best Mario has looked/been animated EVER in any title. The world themes and environments are equally as amazing, gone are the drab generic theming of the previous titles and income the new vibrant assortment of wacky locations in Wonder each with their own distinct personality and ambience. The only small nitpick is that during some Wonder effects, the background enemies are very clearly flat, low fps animations, but these rare blemishes do not take away from the game's charm, as they are few and far between and are hard to really notice.
The soundtrack is brimming with amazing tracks, near every single one is a hit. The dynamic tracks that change based on location/powerup/situation also add a ton of personality to each song and level. There was one track that got a little bit on my nerves, being the transformation song that plays when you turn into a blob, it's way too short and repetitive for those lengthy sections, but aside from that one slight blunder, the rest is gold. And it was also really nice to see some returning tracks make cameos in bonus levels/wonder effects especially those with new arrangements.
The level design is truly top-notch. Every level feels like a meticulously crafted work of art, with incredible attention to detail and a sense of wonder around every corner. The collectables also form as a transformation to the whole level, giving great incentive to find them, or replay levels if you missed them. They not only enhance the gameplay but also alter the level design in unique and imaginative ways, making each level a memorable and distinct experience. My one nitpick with the wonder effects, is that often when they end there is a creative sequence of level design/platforming to get you back on track, whereas other times it simply fades to black and spits you out where you started. This inconsistency just really lacks polish in my opinion, even a simple pipe transition or something akin would be better, it just breaks immersion in a way that takes you out of the moment a bit.
The boss fights, unfortunately, fall somewhat short of the exceptional quality seen throughout the rest of the game. In contrast to the imaginative wonder effects and brilliantly designed levels, the boss battles come across as somewhat underwhelming and repetitive. They are OK, but with the concept of Wonder effects in play, they really play it safe, having you basically do the same thing over and over, some worlds skipping over having a boss entirely. The Final Boss is also rather disappointing in this regard, it's fine, but there was potential for something so much greater. I mean the tease for a final Bowser Jr Boss goes nowhere for seemingly no reason, I mean the gag was funny but I was expecting some kind of payoff, but, no, quite strange.
The difficulty of the game is expertly designed, it has levels of escalating difficulty, with a challenging special world, and a true gauntlet of tests near the very end. But alongside this, we have a cavalcade of accessibility options. But these accessibility options are not simply lazy "EASY MODE" which I tend to despise. Instead, we are granted many options and utilities as a player to have fun with, and also decrease difficulty. For example, the order in which you progress is entirely up to you, giving you many options of ranging difficulty levels to dig your teeth into, if you happen to get stuck or struggle. You also have badges, which are equippable abilities that give various fun movement options or buffs/debuffs, these are not only fun to use but function as a dynamic difficulty option, as if you struggle you can equip a better ability, but if you excel you can equip a buff, or perhaps a debuff for the fun of it, or maybe equip an ability to help you perform even more intricate manoeuvres in levels. Yet another accessibility feature is the fact that some characters function differently, taking no damage and not being able to use powerups. On the surface, this is yet another good accessibility feature bundled with a gameplay feature for more experienced players, but I feel mandating negating damage on these characters is a bit much, and removing power-ups is also just lame. I think perhaps only making Nabbit, the noob mode, with some alts, and allowing Yoshi to be a semi-noob mode, as he has a buffed moveset, but retaining damage and powerups to make him appeal to better players again.
Overall this game is truly amazing. It has some slight blemishes, but those can easily be ignored. 9/10
First and foremost, this game has SOUL. Something lacking in the NSMB series for years. Just take Mario himself, every single animation has insanely awesome keyframe poses, style and flair, this is probably the best Mario has looked/been animated EVER in any title. The world themes and environments are equally as amazing, gone are the drab generic theming of the previous titles and income the new vibrant assortment of wacky locations in Wonder each with their own distinct personality and ambience. The only small nitpick is that during some Wonder effects, the background enemies are very clearly flat, low fps animations, but these rare blemishes do not take away from the game's charm, as they are few and far between and are hard to really notice.
The soundtrack is brimming with amazing tracks, near every single one is a hit. The dynamic tracks that change based on location/powerup/situation also add a ton of personality to each song and level. There was one track that got a little bit on my nerves, being the transformation song that plays when you turn into a blob, it's way too short and repetitive for those lengthy sections, but aside from that one slight blunder, the rest is gold. And it was also really nice to see some returning tracks make cameos in bonus levels/wonder effects especially those with new arrangements.
The level design is truly top-notch. Every level feels like a meticulously crafted work of art, with incredible attention to detail and a sense of wonder around every corner. The collectables also form as a transformation to the whole level, giving great incentive to find them, or replay levels if you missed them. They not only enhance the gameplay but also alter the level design in unique and imaginative ways, making each level a memorable and distinct experience. My one nitpick with the wonder effects, is that often when they end there is a creative sequence of level design/platforming to get you back on track, whereas other times it simply fades to black and spits you out where you started. This inconsistency just really lacks polish in my opinion, even a simple pipe transition or something akin would be better, it just breaks immersion in a way that takes you out of the moment a bit.
The boss fights, unfortunately, fall somewhat short of the exceptional quality seen throughout the rest of the game. In contrast to the imaginative wonder effects and brilliantly designed levels, the boss battles come across as somewhat underwhelming and repetitive. They are OK, but with the concept of Wonder effects in play, they really play it safe, having you basically do the same thing over and over, some worlds skipping over having a boss entirely. The Final Boss is also rather disappointing in this regard, it's fine, but there was potential for something so much greater. I mean the tease for a final Bowser Jr Boss goes nowhere for seemingly no reason, I mean the gag was funny but I was expecting some kind of payoff, but, no, quite strange.
The difficulty of the game is expertly designed, it has levels of escalating difficulty, with a challenging special world, and a true gauntlet of tests near the very end. But alongside this, we have a cavalcade of accessibility options. But these accessibility options are not simply lazy "EASY MODE" which I tend to despise. Instead, we are granted many options and utilities as a player to have fun with, and also decrease difficulty. For example, the order in which you progress is entirely up to you, giving you many options of ranging difficulty levels to dig your teeth into, if you happen to get stuck or struggle. You also have badges, which are equippable abilities that give various fun movement options or buffs/debuffs, these are not only fun to use but function as a dynamic difficulty option, as if you struggle you can equip a better ability, but if you excel you can equip a buff, or perhaps a debuff for the fun of it, or maybe equip an ability to help you perform even more intricate manoeuvres in levels. Yet another accessibility feature is the fact that some characters function differently, taking no damage and not being able to use powerups. On the surface, this is yet another good accessibility feature bundled with a gameplay feature for more experienced players, but I feel mandating negating damage on these characters is a bit much, and removing power-ups is also just lame. I think perhaps only making Nabbit, the noob mode, with some alts, and allowing Yoshi to be a semi-noob mode, as he has a buffed moveset, but retaining damage and powerups to make him appeal to better players again.
Overall this game is truly amazing. It has some slight blemishes, but those can easily be ignored. 9/10