The latest entry in the Super Mario Bros. family, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, has been out for a little over six months now. A vibrant, entertaining playthrough, it’s a nice move forward for the Mario Bros. series. But there are a few places where it falls short.
Short review
Overall rating: 4/5 stars
Pros:
- A change in story. Super Mario Bros. Wonder mixes up the story, with Bowser making off with a castle instead of Peach. It’s a nice change from previous games.
- Stunning new level designs and visuals. The introduction of the Wonder Flower transforms levels in fun new ways.
- New powers. Ever wondered what playing as Elephant Mario would be like? I hadn’t, but it’s a good time.
- Fun for the whole family. The heart of the series, multiplayer mode, stays strong with a host of playable characters.
Cons:
- Too much tutorial time. With new powers come new tutorials, and there are way too many of them spread throughout the game.
- Too short. There are less levels than any other Mario Bros. game, leading to less playtime.
Long review
Pros:
Peach is free!
In Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Mario and Co. head for the Flower Kingdom to see Prince Florian. When Bowser shows up to crash the party, Mario signs up to help set things right. In this new story, Bowser steals a Wonder Flower and becomes Prince Florian’s castle. He then takes off to cause mayhem — without absconding with Peach. It’s nice to see this change in the story format. And following a recent trend, it’s nice to see Peach getting a more active role in things.
Sights, sounds and the powers of Wonder Flowers
The visual effects artists and sound engineers at Nintendo must have logged some serious overtime on this one. Each level is vibrant and brilliant, packed with color and awe-inspiring art. With a strong emphasis on musical elements in the game, the soundtracks to each level are also a joy all by themselves.
A large part of the new setup are things called Wonder Flowers. These tricky power-ups are magic items that flip the levels on their heads and induce some eye-popping, head-spinning effects, leading to a feeling of two fascinating levels in one. It makes for fun gameplay and some solid challenges.
New power-ups
Elephant Mario? Bubble Mushrooms? Drill Flowers? These new power-ups are introduced and each is a fun new way to play. They were incorporated well into the levels, making it a fun challenge to find out how to use them. There are multiple levels where you get to pick which power you think will solve the challenges best, leading to a new level of freedom in the play.
Great multiplayer
There is a reason Super Mario Bros. Wonder won Best Family Game of the Year. Multiplayer is the Super Mario Bros. games’ bread and butter, and it’s even better than usual here. In addition to the usual crew of Mario, Luigi and the Toads, you can play as Peach, Daisy, four different colored Yoshis and Nabbit.
With all the new mechanics, there are a ton of new ways to learn to play together and succeed. (Or have fun throwing each other in the lava, as my siblings and I usually end up doing.)
Cons:
Too much tutorial time
Another new addition to Wonder are the badges, collectibles you get that give your character added abilities to be used in the levels. They can be helpful and add new depth to the levels, but there are just too many of them.
As you gather them throughout the worlds, there are tutorial levels to teach you how to use them. Unfortunately, those tutorial levels stretch almost all the way to the end of the game. This takes up space for other levels and can make some of the abilities feel obsolete, as there isn’t much opportunity to use them before you finish the game.
Too short
By the time I had beat Bowser and the credits rolled, something felt off to me. When I went to check my gameplay time on it, I saw I hadn’t even made it to 10 hours yet. And I was taking my time, exploring the levels, watching the graphics, enjoying the music.
There are fewer worlds in Wonder, only eight compared to nine in other games. There also felt like there were less levels in those worlds. Add in the overabundance of tutorial levels and, overall, the game felt too small and I got through it too fast. I wanted more.
To Wonder or not to Wonder
Overall, I felt Super Mario Bros. Wonder was a good game. It’s a solid addition to the series, it follows the formula, and it’s a really good game for the whole family to have fun with. But it was a bit too short, and there were some things that slowed it down and felt like filler.
Like most new Switch games, Wonder is currently available on the Nintendo Store for $59.99. If you love the Super Mario Bros. games, or are looking for a quality multiplayer game, then Wonder is worth your money. But if you are looking for a bigger, perfected version of Super Mario Bros., then you’ll probably want to find something different.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder trailer
You can watch the trailer for Super Mario Wonder here: