Super Mario Bros Wonder is the perfect antidote to New Super Mario Bros fatigue
Nintendo invited me, on behalf of Mirror Gaming, to a preview event where I got to play some of the early levels of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and it's the most exciting 2D Mario has been in a long time.
Truth be told, I've never been the biggest 2D Super Mario fan. I've played them all and think the majority are great, but compared to how inventive and exciting the 3D entries like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, and especially Super Mario Odyssey are, the 2D entries have felt a little tame by comparison.
This was only escalated by the New Super Mario Bros. series, which were the last batch of 2D Mario games (released from 2006 to 2012). While all of the New Super Mario Bros. titles were solid entries in the franchise – with each performing well critically and commercially – they felt decidedly safer than their 3D counterparts thanks to shared mechanics and art style across the titles.
Levels had a tendency to blend together with only a few standouts from each. Especially when compared to contemporaries like Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends, and even Nintendo’s own Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, which was released around the same time and was filled with memorable and varied level designs.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder marks the return of 2D Mario for the first time in 11 years and immediately you can feel how Nintendo has taken the criticism of the New Super Mario Bros series to heart.
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The most immediately striking thing about Super Mario Bros. Wonder is how vibrant it is. The colours pop off the screen, the art style looks ripped straight from Mario concept art, the music is bouncy, and it runs smoothly even when played in two-player multiplayer. And I can’t praise the game’s animation enough; in the New Super Mario Bros. games the characters remain very stoic, outside of the Koopa’s iconic dance when a ‘bah bah’ hits in the soundtrack.
However, everything in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is gorgeously animated, the different facial expressions from the main cast as you jump, run and duck are all so emotive compared to previous entries. This extends to the enemies both old and new who all have their own quirks and interactions; such as the Goombas giving you the dirty look of someone standing next to a puddle after a car drives through it when you spray them with water.
Badge of honour
Not only has Nintendo tackled the New Super Mario Bros. criticism on the art style front, but levels and gameplay feel far more memorable thanks to the brand new Wonder Seed and Badge mechanics.
Wonder Seeds are this title's big gimmick; you'll find a Wonder Flower in most levels which will cause something to happen within the level. This can be as simple as Pipes beginning to move, to a full-blown stampede, or having your characters turned into Goombas. You'll be stuck with these changes until you find the corresponding Wonder Seed, at which point things go back to normal.
Even without drastic changes to the setting, these give levels their own identities and force you to keep on your toes. While I wasn't privy to later levels of the game that are undoubtedly harder, the Wonder Seeds had the potential to turn a stage from a cakewalk to terrifying in an instant (with that Goomba one being particularly intense).
Meanwhile, Badges are almost like a perk system, allowing you to equip one at the start of each stage to give you a buff. Some of these are simple, such as a parachute to slow your descent, while others change up mechanics, including the return of the charge jump from Super Mario Bros. 2 or an upgraded wall jump (the Super Mario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Direct showed off a grappling hook that sadly wasn't present in this build). Only one badge is equippable per level, but sadly this also extends to multiplayer, where only one badge can be equipped for the whole team, rather than mixing and matching.
From what I played it doesn't seem like any levels require specific badges, however, there are badge-specific challenges that work similarly to Kirby and The Forgotten Land's power-up challenges. Time will tell how in-depth these powers will get, but it's the biggest change up for the 2D Mario gameplay since wall jumping was introduced. Super Mario Bros. Wonder feels like a perfect reintroduction to 2D Mario after the 11-year hiatus from the short amount of time we played.
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