Super Mario Bros. Wonderis the most imaginative 2D Mario game ever made. Its direction marks a necessary change after a decade of ‘New’ games that recycled the same old characters and levels with little room for experimentation. AfterOdysseychanged the world of 3D Mario, it’s hard to believe its 2D counterpart took almost six years to catch up. But now it finally has. Well, almost. Wonder doesn’t take the established formula quite far enough to be considered an evolution. It has more imagination, more charm, and more flavour, but always relies on fundamentals that need to be uprooted for the series to grow.
For every Wonder Flower that transforms an ordinary level into an explosion of edible-addled mayhem, there is a bland return to the overworld or a stage where the only collectibles are a trio of purple coins you may spend on extra lives and badges that just aren’t that interesting. Almost every fibre of Wonder’s being is eager to surprise us with cutesy visual touches and mechanical tweaks, but when all of these moments rely on a static bedrock, it’s a game that feels hard to fall in love with. Its sense of wonder is fleeting and bittersweet.
But how much can 2D Mario evolve without leaving behind the blueprint that makes these games what they are? Do we reach a point where flagpoles and overworlds and stages are replaced by something we haven’t seen before? IsNintendoaware of these constraints and knows it can’t quite abandon the house it has built without turning 2D Mario into 2.5D?
That seems to be the case, otherwise it feels like Wonder would have done more with its initially limitless imagination instead of boiling down to a surprisingly formulaic final product. These shackles should be discarded alongside decades of conventions, because a game like Mario deserves to spread its wings without worrying it will alienate legions of fans.
Nintendo knows how to take a risk with a franchise like this and have it pay off. It happened to Zelda, and the exact same thing happened with Mario already in Odyssey. Instead of doling out Galaxy 3 with its usual selection of levels and biomes, the masterful platformer threw us into a multitude of different worlds where puzzles, battles, and collectibles all felt refreshing and new, like we were playing a game like this for the first time.
The end result was one of the best platformers ever made. Wonder is nowhere near as fearless. Nintendo wants to push the boat out, and has done so in its visuals and stage design, but none of that can shine when it’s trapped in a gameplay formula that refuses to change.
Every stage is now populated with a Wonder Flower that could feasibly transform the world around you into anything, but it always concludes with the collection of a Wonder Seed that you pick up before trotting nicely to the awaiting flagpole. You grab some coins, beat a boss, and save the Flower Kingdom, before being unleashed onto an endgame that barely exists. It’s fine, but it could be so much more.
Odyssey had a bigger impact on my love of Mario than I expected, because it helped to show how much stronger the series could be if it was willing to let go more often. To do utterly wild shit beyond getting high and transforming into an elephant. Those things seem awesome at first glance, but as you find out Wonder has little else in its arsenal to offer, how restrained it is becomes clear.
Maybe a sequel will blow the doors off, letting go of archaic traditions in favour of chasing new ideas that could push Wonder in similar ways to Odyssey? We deserve that change and so does Mario, even if it means leaving things behind we’ve held dear for decades. It’ll be well worth it.
