There are moments inSuper Mario Bros. Wonderwhere my mouth was left agape at all the creativity on display. Daisy picked up a Wonder Flower as she let out a mix of cute gasps and delighted shouts, watching as the world around her transformed into a palette of reality-bending attractions only possible in this illustrious new kingdom. I may change into a Goomba or be inflated like a balloon before floating into the air, or even become a moving blob that can stick to walls and suck up enemies with my gelatinous form. Every level can drop your jaw to the floor, but the blueprint piecing it together feels so archaic.
You arrive in the Flower Kingdom and become chummy with its citizens, only for Bowser to rock up and claim all the titular Wonder power for himself. Cue an epic adventure to save the land from ruin by moving through a number of themed worlds in search of special items and collectibles. You’ll go through each one beating bosses before taking on the biggest of bads only to call it a day. Most of it is wonderful, but it’s a shame to seeNintendoradically reinvent Mario’s aesthetic, yet remain shackled by the series’ fundamentals.
You can select from a massive roster of characters this time around. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Daisy make up the main cast, while an assortment of Yoshis and Nabbit can be selected by those who want an easier experience. But instead of controlling differently, the gameplay is instead shaken up by the addition of badges. These accessories are unlocked as you progress by purchasing them from shops or completing special stages, giving Mario the ability to run faster, jump higher, spout sticky vines from his fingertips, or even track the few hidden treasures found across each level. It’s a trade-off, but I much prefer the range of approaches offered here than just Peach being floaty and Luigi being slightly better at jumping.
Earning badges and experimenting with them is great fun, but aside from few water levels that required a faster stroke, I’d stick with the same handful of abilities which made things easier. I’m excited to see how speedrunners conjure up the perfect combo of badges, or how a group of friends playing together will cause untold chaos as they’re all pulling off the same sick move.
There’s also Standees, a new mechanic that only comes alive during online play. You’re free to purchase these cute little wooden contraptions from Poplin shops located throughout the Petal Isles where extra lives, badges, and Wonder Seeds can also be procured. You can place standees down with a press of a button, and it essentially acts as a point of revival for other players who, upon dying, will transform into a ghost. Simply float towards the nearest standee, and you won’t need to waste a life or restart from the nearest checkpoint. While it’s a cool feature, I seldom had a chance to test it, and Wonder is easy enough that throwing players a bone like this feels unnecessary. So, collecting them is moot, doubly so when I have to spend valuable purple coins I’d rather use on badges and seeds.
Aside from the mixed bag of new mechanical additions, Wonder still shines in the moment to moment gameplay. No matter who you control, transforming into an elephant to spray loads of water onto enemies or smash up blocks to your heart’s content never gets old, while this new gimmick is used sparingly enough to always impress. Fire flowers make a return, and new powers like the Bubble and Drill abilities have excellent stages themed around them. I’d never feel stumped, but it was amazing to jump into stages knowing I was always going to be surprised, or come across a new enemy that would plaster a childish grin all over my face.
A personal favourite was a grumpy looking kernel who after coming into contact with fire would burst into a piece of bouncy popcorn. Wonder’s visual and mechanical design is in excess of imagination. Nintendo took a look at this formula and wanted to make it feel whimsical for the first time in decades, and this risk has paid off even if the core platforming hasn’t changed.
Traditional stages are broken up by smaller excursions like Wiggler Races and puzzles themed around specific abilities. You will also jump into sprawling levels where your goal is to find five coins hidden throughout. How to uncover them is a mystery, and sometimes I’d spend 20 minutes trying to discover hidden blocks or piecing together a mysterious pattern to make them appear. It’s a welcome change of pace, and helps Wonder feel like a 2D Mario we have never played before.
The rhythm-based levels are also astounding, so much so that I want an entire game based around them. You’ll need to jump on the beat as the level transforms around you, music swelling and background dancers bursting from the shadows to cheer you on. Moments like this are few and far between but well worth savouring.
The talking flower who some feared wouldn’t shut his mouth isn’t as annoying as I feared either. He’ll repeat lines constantly, but after switching the audio to Japanese, he became a playful companion instead of a backseat gamer bringing me down. He’ll also coyly suggest you walked past a Wonder Flower or other obvious collectibles without being too much of a dick about it, which makes revisiting levels to scoop everything up far less frustrating. Don’t expect huge amounts of exploration though, these are still Mario levels with a beginning, middle, and end that are over in a few minutes.
Boss battles don’t take advantage of the Wonder Flowers as much as I’d like, since most of them are just Bowser Jr across a litany of similar looking castles. You’ll duke it out with some elemental powers before jumping on his head a few times and calling it a day. I saw so many opportunities for my expectations to burst forth into subversion, but Wonder would just never take things far enough. My jaw would drop only for my expression to become one of passive admiration.
This isn’t the same magic we felt withSuper Mario Odyssey, a shame because it gets so, so close all the time. Wonder Flowers in each level become a constant reminder of this game’s core ambition, and how it wants to turn traditional biomes we’ve seen time and time again into something that shifts and changes without compromise. It does that, asking you to think outside the box in ways platformers like this never do, but only to return to power-ups, an overworld, and characters who don’t push the boat out quite far enough.
The endgame hides a few new stages and some cool minigames, but you are more or less dropped onto the map and asked to scour the place for everything you missed. I’m excited about playing with friends and family to snoop out the remaining paths that alluded me, and it feels like a game of this ilk would really come alive as four friends are causing maximum chaos together. Alone, its whimsical spark is sadly only surface level, fading away much as the petals on a Wonder Flower wilt under Bowser’s influence. The magic is there, and very tangible in all the right places, Nintendo just needs to take a look at the foundations and reinvent them alongside this luscious new aesthetic. Do so, and we’d have a masterpiece.
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