Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023)

finally came back to this game to not only beat it, but also 100% it! Really fun experience and convinced me that NSMB did not actually kill 2D Mario.

I normally don't 100% a game but I actually wanted to with this one. The final-final test badge marathon was a lot of fun...... but the spring badge portion of that level can go to hell!!! That portion easily ate over 100 lives in a level that was otherwise difficult, but totally fair.

Really enjoying the online features! I've left it set to "online" now so that I can always see real time ghosts of other players.

Coming back to life via other players "stands" or flying your ghost into another player is a neat feature, and guiding other players when they're stuck and visa versa adds a nice community feeling to the game which I'm appreciating

I'm reaching levels now where I'm starting to feel the challenge and I'm getting SMW vibes which is nice!

Really stuck on one of the wall jumping challenges, it's kinda clumsy to use the sprint and jump buttons with the right joystick directly below it sort of getting in your way. On the SNES controller I used to have the sprint and jump combo down to a T, kinda struggling here. Also can't decide if I prefer movement with the joystick or D-pad. Used to be decent with the d-pad but I'm really feeling how slidy / floaty mario is in this game and making a lot of mistakes with the movement.

Had a little play of this and realised it's my first side scrolling mario game since Super Mario World for the SNES. Since then I've played the original NES games, but in terms of new releases SMW is as far as I got.

So many years of improvements and changes to get my head around since the SNES days. DS, Wii, Wii U, 3DS etc all have likely added significant changes during their iterations to get to this point and I'd like to give them a play at some point too.

It's certainly very different but familiar in places. The sounds and music aren't hitting the same spots for me, and funnily my favourite moment so far has been the small challenge level where you run along musical keys and hit coins whilst one of the original soundtracks from the SNES game plays, nice little moment.

The difficulty and level length feels very different too. I'm not someone who craves punishing games at all, but this feels a lot easier than the older titles. There's been some sections where I've been confused as to how to reach somewhere but nothing major. Hoping the difficulty increases as I go. Enjoyed the first boss level, even if it was a bit simple. As soon as I saw a hammer bro it brought back memories of the original games.

Really eager to see what else the game has to offer, hoping to see some familiar level environments and enemies so that my nostalgia meter can go ding ding ding

I enjoyed this quite a bit more than the NSMB titles, which is as cold a take as it gets. As everyone and their grandmother has already pointed out for a decade, the Mario formula needed a drastic shake-up. Apparently Nintendo felt the same way, so what they came up with was Mario on acid. It's honestly a bit shocking how they incorporated visuals here that many people would associate with drugs, in a MARIO game. But I'm all here for it.

I just wish they would have gone even further. Playing the final (regular) level really opened my eyes to what this game could be if they applied some of what's found there to more of the game. That level was a real trip.

I really wish I could have been a japanese fly on the wall when someone on the Mario team suggested "let's make Mario... but on acid!!"

Finished playing Mario Wonder. I'll probably go through some of the levels again for remaining collectibles. My main takeaways so far:

• Definitely the easiest Mario game I've ever played through. Not to brag, but I didn't even get hurt by the final boss, let alone lose a life. =P From what I understand there are "special world" stages to find which provide some challenge, so I'll have to check those out.
• I despise the talking flowers. Yeah, I turned off the voices as soon as I could. But they still talked non-stop with their dialogue bubbles on-screen. They only say boring things that aren't interesting, or tell you what you need to do so you don't have to figure anything out.
• The wonders are a blessing and a curse. If you like tried-and-true Mario 2D platforming, well, that's only half the game this time. The other half is dedicated to simple WarioWare-esque scenarios (figure out what the gimmick is, then navigate through the level with it in play for about a minute). On one hand the wonders provide some variety that's amusing or clever at times, but on the other hand the actual tasks are usually quite basic and straightforward.
• I wish the game had a style to it more different from the "New" series, but at least the animations for all the characters are cute and funny now.
• I'm indifferent on the elephant power-up. The Bubble Bobble power-up is a neat concept, but the game doesn't feel designed for it much. I liked the drill power-up for exploration purposes, though I kept wanting it to work more like the spike wisp in Sonic Colors.
• The badges are nice for replayability and experimentation. They also make an easy game even easier. There are a few stages that require specific badges, and are designed with those abilities in mind. I would've preferred more of that. I could imagine enjoying a version of this game where, say, all of the World 2 stages were designed with the floating cap in mind, and all the World 7 stages were designed with the vine hook in mind, etc etc.
• Timed enemy gauntlet challenges, caterpillar races, and "find the hidden things" mini-stages were nice. I think I actually enjoyed these for variety more than the wonders.
• Annoyed that Yoshi is only playable in baby mode. T__T

I bought this close to its release and have been putting some more time in it recently. Loving the playfulness, it's wild, it's out there, it's rather experimental. But somehow it really works and it has CHARM, lots of it!

I never get sweaty hands but I finished that 4 star wall jump badge level and that felt great. Nintendo really manages to deliver an almost anti-depressant sense of joy with their games. Such a blast to play and look at.