Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023)

Fun and whimsical so far, with very enjoyable mini challenges. That said, while the level design is wacky and entertaining, it feels like it’s striving for randomness where the best Mario involve more than just fun gimmicks. I hope this proves to be more than just a wacky time.

One early game nitpick: I’m seldom ever a fan of superfluous in-game currencies and Super Mario Wonder has yet to change my mind about that.

Been having a lot of fun with this but I gotta say, vertically scrolling wonder segments can really suffer in multiplayer due to the camera being focused on one player in particular. If the focus player is not particularly good or slow you end up off screen and crawling back, if they're good then poorer players don't get to play the segments as the good player takes off.

Kind of loses steam and "wonder" if you turn it into a plodding slog instead of a fun and frenetic moment. Multiplayer generally suffers for this camera choice...

Each time Nintendo releases a multi-player Mario like this it seems like they get better about creating a good co-op experience, but they still miss the mark a bit. Players no longer collide into one another like bumper cars, if you already have a power-up a new one sliding on the ground will pass thru you letting your ally take it, stored power-ups are shared with another, if a character dies they become a bubble and just need to touch another player in 5 seconds to jump back in, and they added Yoshis and Nabbit as more forgiving characters to use.

Meanwhile the camera is still locked on one character with no ability to hand off that lock-on, and the screen is limited to a single standard size Mario screen and will never zoom out to accommodate a little separation in the characters. These two things result in the group just being completely on top of one another for most of the level.

We are still having fun but man it feels like they just need a couple more iterations to make it really good for co-op.

Played through the first two worlds of Wonder, and I'm having a lovely time so far!

The movement feels identical to Bros U, but everything's vastly prettier and there's way less emphasis on platforming challenge. Instead of steadily increasing in difficulty like a Bros U level, levels in Wonder introduce a gimmick and then move laterally once it starts getting familiar. Nearly all of the Wonder Seeds have been fun twists so far, and the focus on creativity and experimentation above all else reminds me of Yoshi's Island in the best way.

Also gotta say that the Bubble Flower is way cooler than I'd imagined! It's perfectly tuned to allow you to run and bounce off your bubbles without ever slowing down, and throwing a bubble while running and then immediately spin jumping on top of it creates a nifty bubble staircase that you can use to quadruple jump super high and across huge gaps.

So how are we enjoying the co op mode?

Personally, I think it's a step down on the "New" and 3D world series. The good parts of playing co op, like the competitive stats and the ability to aid and work together by jumping on each other for example, has been stripped out. All that's left is the worst part of coop Mario; distracting each other and accidentally stealing items the other partner needs. Not too impressed.

And another thing. Some sites were reporting how it plays like a slick, 2D SNES era Mario. Er, no. It plays like a slippery "New" Mario era game. Maybe not as slippery, but hardly precision platforming here.

Got a ways to go before I really know how I feel about Wonder... but not the best first impression.

I need to properly try this outside of co op too.

Did I play at midnight last night? Yes, of course.

I am having fun! The classic Mario level design takes a step forward here in a way that I haven't seen elsewhere. The levels have an obstacle that is introduced, that obstacle exhausts the variations a designer can expect you to handle, and THEN, in Wonder, you can get a Wonder Seed and the game takes that obstacle and turns it on its head. The obstacle does something that it shouldn't be able to or you change so the obstacle is now more challenging to overcome. I love it! In the second level when the piranha plants start singing and moving to their song, I thought this game has the juice.

I'm in the second world now and the Wonder Seeds have been mostly wonderful. Maybe one has been lackluster. But so far, I would recommend it to all who have fond memories of Super Mario World.

With Wonder coming out this week, I thought I'd rank all the Mario powerups!

• Double Cherry takes the top spot for me, controlling an army of clones is a chaotic, joyful mess. Plus, it combos with other powerups and it's got cool applications in puzzles
• The Super Bell, Super Acorn, Ice Flower, and Mini Mushroom all rank high for adding neat wrinkles to Mario's moveset without being overwhelmingly powerful
• The Penguin Suit does more things than maybe any other Mario powerup, combining the functions of the Ice Flower, Blue Shell, and Frog Suit, while also letting you slide across the surface of water and move normally on ice
• I'm not a big fan of flight powerups like the Carrot that mostly exist to skip bits of level, but the more expressive ones like the Cape Feather and the Wing Cap are pretty neat