Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023)

Spanish: Hay varias cosas que me gustaron y otras no tanto. Me gustó el acabado visual y algunos potenciadores. Que Mario se convierta en un elefante o que sea un taladro y se entierre en la tierra es una novedad. Las insignias que te dan atributos también es interesante, aunque en el juego terminé usando un par de ellas nada más. Lo que no me gustó fue que la trama no fue la clásica historia donde hay que rescatar a Peach, que puede ser repetitiva pero siempre gusta, y más ahora que en la película Bowser buscaba conquistar a la princesa. La dificultad del juego también fue otra de las cosas que no men convencieron y coincido con mi esposa en que New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe es más desafiante. El único nivel que fue realmente difícil es el último, donde te ponen a jugar con todas las insignias.

English: There were several things I liked and others not so much. I liked the visual finish and some power-ups. The fact that Mario turns into an elephant or becomes a drill that burrows into the ground is a novelty. The badges that give you attributes are also interesting, although in the game, I ended up using just a couple of them. What I didn't like was that the plot wasn't the classic story where you have to rescue Peach. It might be repetitive but it's always enjoyable, especially now that in the movie, Bowser was trying to conquer the princess. The difficulty of the game was another aspect that didn't convince me, and I agree with my wife that New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is more challenging. The only really difficult level is the last one, where you have to play with all the badges."

I've been really wanting to put my feelings into words about this game and honestly with a big chunk of Nintendo, without coming across too negative or making anyone feel like I'm trying to invalidate them, to see if anyone can relate to my experience.

In a nutshell:
I had high hopes going into this game, and disappointment coming out after 100%ing it, followed up by confusion from its unanimous praise (and even some of its criticisms) -- it's a similar twilight zone feeling I got from the unanimous praise of Mario Odyssey and BotW.

For Mario Wonder, it's simply too short and mindless for my liking, especially for all the potential it brings. It seems to opt to always keep me stimulated with immediate gratification baby sensory appeal, music, and wacky events happening (not unlike every level on the front page of Mario Maker) and it assumes that I'll be satisfied with the variety of gameplay options it throws at me with its badges -- rather than committing to a substantial dive into its mechanics that I can lose myself in. It feels like Mario's epitome of spectacle over substance. I get that was a strong focus after the blandness of the NSMB era, but I'm sensing an over-correction here, as I wish there was a better balance between that and actual content. As it is now, I 100%'d this game in 12 hours and have moved on forgetting most of its elements except the persistent ones of which many were personally grating to me (talking flowers, the badge challenge music, the jump sound effect, elephant mario, the onslaught of character yelps and woohoos) so I have no reason or desire to return to it. This game feels like a collection of corporate decisions to cheaply pander to children all in a similar vein as how Illumination makes their movies... go figure.

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In NOT a nutshell:
It's complicated. I grew up with a SNES and NES, playing SMB1–3 and SMW probably most often (along with the DKC trilogy), and I'm sure if I had this game at the time it would've been an absolute favorite. So there you go, you could chalk it up to me just being helplessly nostalgic for older graphics, crustier music and sounds, older design philosophies. and a limited choice of entertainment leaving me to replay the games I liked -- and now unable to appreciate any new installment of a franchise I grew up with. I think that's a valid generalization, but I also think it's a valid glimpse into what kinds of specific aspects I value in games nowadays, and I can't help but want to try articulating them.

I think I have a low tolerance for games designed with "constant player freedom" as a focus to finding your own fun or depth, especially when designers prioritize this as a game's big appeal. I see this design philosophy in Mario Odyssey, BotW 1+2, and Mario Wonder. As I said before, Mario Wonder seems to prefer to keep you stimulated, leaving much of its unique content (enemies, level mechanics, badge challenges) short-lived, and as such the whole game is a fast-paced barrage of the easiest forms of every unique mechanic in the game. The game's answer to this appears to be replaying a level with a challenge badge.

Having the freedom to make a game hard or fun for myself at any time does not scratch the same itch as playing through a hand-crafted experience designed with a specific journey in mind of gradual increasing complexity. Think Celeste, Super Meat Boy, Portal 2, Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past, Ori and the Blind Forest -- to me, these games aren't fun for their freedom. They're fun because they each give you a unique set of sequences to work through and engage yourself in under constraints, developing your senses of the game along with that specific journey.

When a game relies strongly on freedom in place of what could've been a largely hand-crafted experience, I usually grow bored quickly and move on to something else. What I appreciate about overcoming challenging experiences is actually working my brain around how to get past it with everything at my disposal and the game acknowledging me for doing exactly that. Self-imposed difficulty is only that, self-imposed; and I can simply overcome it by just not applying it. In summary, I have fun being efficient within the constraints of a game; so I appreciate games that focus strongly on player-skill development under constraints throughout a journey of increasing complexity. This is what I feel Mario and Zelda have been before, but have since taken inspiration from a looser sandbox design with a basic spectacle and shallow focus on its legacy, which I feel heavily misrepresents (and frankly misunderstands) what made them so engaging before.

I don't enjoy running around a map to collect moons scattered across with no rhyme or reason. I enjoy going through a handcrafted journey requiring me to figure out the nuances of a world and challenge my senses and intuition to be rewarded a single Star by the end of it all. I don't enjoy running around a map to find Koroks and materials with no clear rhyme or reason, and an under-baked sense of purpose. I enjoy going through a handcrafted journey that immerses me in a story development of characters and lore; and an array of dungeons each meticulously designed for me to find, figure out, and work through in the span of a few hours or so -- all to culminate towards its narrative and mechanical peak, with each dungeon being generally more difficult than the last.

And so, when a game suggests I find my own fun by replaying a level I already completed but with a different badge equipped, then they're telling me that they didn't want to create a host of new levels or worlds specifically designed around certain badges, to offer a journey of testing player skill and to really show off the potential of otherwise optional badges or level mechanics that were initially introduced and thrown away quickly. I know this desire for depth can be answered with more of my money a sequel, DLC, or a relatively scattered and less intrinsically meaningful experience in the form of Mario Maker 3 community levels (unless they really rework the system).

It confuses me. Even for what this game has to offer in its short run, I feel like people must want more from it. Yes for more bosses, but also for secret exits to mean something more than just a spectacle. For other characters to be treated with higher intention (like SMB2, SM3DW, or like how Yoshi was originally a power-up that could be taken across different levels with color-dependent abilities in SMW). For secrets to not be telegraphed so obviously. For worlds to be skipped through super unapparent secrets. Or again, for there to simply be more content to lose ourselves in what Nintendo made here. But if what we got is what 99% of the player-base want from a $60 purchase, then I suppose I should really move on. :p

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the newest Mario game for the Nintendo Switch. This iteration moves the franchise back to 2D sidescrolling comparable back to the series roots. It's a bit shorter than the last few 2D Mario games, but the most fun I've had in a long time. The big catch this time around are the Wonder Seeds. These are items you can pick up that will have various effects to the level, anything from shifting your perspective, to completely changing up who you are currently playing as. I found these Wonder Seeds surprising and impressive early on, but even more so when you realize every individual level has a Wonder Seed to mix up the level! It feels like the developers were just given free reign to make the game however they wanted, without studio interference. The different effects, animations just ooze originality and passion.

A few worlds were a little disappointing with a lackluster boss at the end, or even no boss, which I found odd. It didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game though. Similar to all recent Mario games, it's relatively easy until you aim for the 100%. Going for this, you will eventually unlock a few additional levels which really ramp up the difficulty. The final level ended up taking me a few hours to complete, and well over 100 lives.

While a bit shorter, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a really fun time that you can tell the devs enjoyed making. If you have any interest at all in Mario or side scrolling platformers, absolutely pick this one up!

Last week I was singing praises for this game, but now that I'm in the lava world... Eh. Don't get me wrong, it's still an excellent platformer with a lot of great ideas, but I'm starting to see the cracks.

Half the world's don't have bosses, for one. And the bosses that have been there have been kinda lame, especially compared to the excellent bosses of 3D World. The game has secret exits and stuff, but only a couple, and certainly not on the scale of World. The elephant power-up was featured heavily in the marketing, but it's kinda useless. Same with the bubbles.

The big gripe for me right now is that I'm having to farm purple coins to proceed. And that is fucking annoying. The lava world is full of progress gates requiring purple coins to proceed. If, like me, you spent them on the expensive badge at the store in the same level, you now have to go back and farm. In a Mario game.

The vibe I'm getting over all is that this game goes hard on style, but is kinda lacking in substance. I have seen people complain the difficulty is too easy, and while I do agree to some extent, I don't think the problem is difficulty, more that you kinda start to see the parlour tricks for what they are.

Where Mario World pretty well requires learning the mechanics and mastering them, Mario Wonder kinda throws a million little things at you and hopes they stick. With all the movement tech gated behind badges, that level of depth is essentially cut into a bunch of little pieces instead of being perfected.

Wonder is much better than the NSMB games, for sure, but it's not impressing me anymore.

Game #39/200 Sometimes you just can't beat the classics.....and sometimes you can? I played Wonder about 3 months after beating Super Mario World, so that game is still fairly fresh in my memory, and I have to say, I think I pretty clearly prefer this game. The "Wonder" mechanic won me over, as it did something I've never seen in a video game before, which is transform the level in a split second to something completely different. Many times an entirely new mechanic would be introduced or something else visually interesting and new would happen, such as with the camera or some character animation, and that would captivate me. The gorgeous visuals are super colorful, creative, fun, and varied, and really capture the spirit of Super Mario World even if their art styles are rather different. Collecting Wonder Seeds was a lot of fun and the game keeps track very nicely for completists, so it's very convenient to select levels and go back to get what you need. I didn't go crazy for purple coins, flags, Wonder Seeds, etc. but I would estimate that I probably grabbed about 80% or so of everything in the game. There were some stages I missed and I opted to not attempt the final two "hardest" levels -- just not at that point in my life anymore where I'm completing every little thing. I did play one of the "hardest" levels (the "Semifinal") and beat it in about 10 or so minutes, so I just didn't feel motivated to seek out the harder levels after having such a smooth and complete experience with the other stages.

I also loved the overworld map, which contained mini side quests and little goodies. It was a pleasure navigating, beating levels, and unlocking new pathways. I had a lot of fun with the mini levels too -- the badge challenges, races, break times, etc. (not the search party levels, fuck those). This game succeeds over New Super Mario Bros 1/2, for example (only mentioning them because I also beat those games recently), because not only is the Wonder mechanic something completely new and not just a gimmick, the level design is top notch. So many times throughout the game, I remarked to myself how I had never seen a mechanic before. And I do tend to play many 2D platformers. I didn't care tremendously for the badges. I stuck with 2 or 3 of the same badges for the whole game. A whole 1/3 of them are designed for beginner players to have a huge advantage while the other 1/3 change the gameplay in weird/not fun ways (like one where you constantly bounce). The other 1/3 are just OK. Many modify your jump in some way. The idea is cool and I like how it's RPG-ish, but they need to refine this mechanic somehow in the future. Overall, the game is rather easy. I beat it in a few days with very little difficulty, but there are a few tough stages (I will mention that the final boss is a joke, but I don't think Mario games ever had that much of an emphasis on boss difficulty). And like I mentioned, I didn't play the hardest 2 stages, but I'm not fiending for that kind of gameplay either (I played Celeste this summer as well and made a lot of progress on that game's harder worlds, so I am not averse to challenging levels whatsoever).

So I do think this ranks as my favorite 2D Mario title. I could probably spend another 8 hours running back through levels to get 100% with no complaints at all if I was willing to commit the time. It's a very creative game with cool new twists on the Mario formula, which has proven to stand the test of time. In a way, considering Super Mario World is 33 years old, it's quite amazing how little the core experience of Mario is. You're essentially doing the same things and controlling him very similarly. Yet everything -- from the extremely crisp and dopamine releasing sound effects to the big, bright, varied backdrops -- creates such a new and stunning experience that you want to keep jumping in for more.

Game #33 finished for the year, Super Mario Wonder

I think I like it best of the 2D Mario titles (though I prefer 3D Mario; my favorite is Galaxy on the Wii), and there were some really creative new things in this that really reimagined what Mario gameplay could be (while still being decidedly 2D Mario).

I think the theme for Nintendo’s titles this year was “Creativity”. Zelda Tears of the Kingdom was also defined by its constant disbursement of creative new gameplay elements to the very end.

Been slooooowly chipping away at this one all week, and you know what? This might be the best Mario game, full stop.

I know the series has always been a critical darling, but for me, the only real standouts had been World and 3D World. Wonder does enough with its level gimmicks, polish, and clear love from the developers to, if not challenge them, at least stand in the same echelon.

I was worried this one was just gonna be New Super Mario Bros on LSD, but thankfully that's not the case. It feels more like if someone took all the best Mario Maker levels, added new assets to make them better, and polished them to a mirror sheen.

Really pleased with this one, the first Nintendo first party game in years I've been able to say that about. If Monolith counts, it's the first since Xenoblade 2.

This has to be the most screenshotable game I've played all year. Every still is a goddamn artwork. Also I'm done being cautiously cynical, Wonder is terrific. This is absolutely up there with the classics, but it's also carving a unique space of its own in the franchise. My hat's off to Nintendo, maybe from now I'll look forward to new 2D Mario games instead of dreading them.

What works

• Endless charm
• Huge variety in the Wonder Seed effects and almost all of them are delightful
• So many clever level designs, finding secrets is very rewarding

What doesn’t

• Removing the timer really just made me question what the point was in keeping lives. Most levels aren’t difficult enough for limited lives to be a challenge, apart from a small handful (Special World) which are hard enough that sitting through Prince Whatshisname’s little speech gets a bit annoying
• Bubble Mario is a little meh, though I imagine in the right hands you can do some crazy stuff

Verdict

They really knocked it out of the park with this one. I hope the team that made it is proud of themselves, because they’ve made something fantastic here. The New Super Mario Bros series could feel a little manufactured at times, but this is full of so much creativity and goofiness, even beyond where Odyssey took things on the silly scale. It even has playable credits!

I have to say, I think this is spot on:

Mario’s latest has a ton of ideas as a result of that long period of experimentation, but it doesn’t cohere into much more than a collection of fun levels. Wonder is ambitious, but the result is a few good ideas spread way too thin.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder Might Have Had Too Many Ideas

I finished Super Mario Wonder today, and overall I'm pleased. This was a refreshing take on 2D Mario, and I'm excited to see what the future holds for the franchise in regards to 2D. The colors were vibrant, the wonder flowers were a fun experience, and the levels were well designed. I do have a few gripes with the game, but at the end of the day I do believe Super Mario Wonder is a solid game.

My gripes with the game aren't major, nonetheless they are gripes. First off, the game feels a tab bit short. I 100% this game, and my switch recorded my time as "20 hours or more." I'm inclined to believe that this time is closer to the 20 hour mark. I did play through the game relatively fast, but even then it felt like the game was short. The third world (waterfall world) felt very short compared to other levels in the game. I'm not sure why this is. The levels aren't the most complex or challenging, but the visual presentation and wonder flower gimmick was fun to experience throughout each level. I do think this is one of the more easier Mario games, but that shouldn't be taken as a negative. I like the way the world map is designed, and I really enjoyed how the petal isles connected all the different worlds; I saw it to serve as a sort of hub for the game. I would've enjoyed some more challenging platforming from time to time is all. There are definitely harder levels within the game, mainly in the secret world, but taken as a whole I'd say the game was pretty easy. I won't even mention the boss fights because they were trivial. Even the final boss fight was too easy. I liked the gimmick for the final boss fight, and the visuals/music, but from a gameplay stance the fight was easy. The final final test where you have to prove your skill with all the action badges was an insane challenge. It took me a couple hours to get through it, and that final invisibility section was unbridled hell. I did feel a sense of accomplishment once I finally got through the level, but man that level was tough from beginning to end. I enjoyed 100%ing the game, and most of the medals rewarded to the player's profile make sense. I did not enjoy grinding out flower coins to purchase every standee however. There were multiple times throughout my playthrough where I reached the max 999 limit for flower coins, but never spent them. I was really only spending these coins when I needed a wonder seed or extra lives. At no point in the game does it tell you that you need to purchase every standee for 100% completion. I didn't realize this until near the end of the game, so I had to grind out flower coins for a couple hours to purchase every standee. Not the most grindy task I've ever done in a game, but it would've been a hell of a lot easier if I had known I needed standees for 100% completion.

I enjoyed Super Mario Wonder. It feels like a step in the right direction for the series compared to the recycled NSMB series we've been getting for the last 15 years. The game isn't perfect, but it provides a solid foundation for future titles to build off of.

Started a new playthrough with my niece, it's a big hit so far! 2d platforming hasn't really been her jam, traditionally, but Yoshi's damage immunity and hover jump have kept things from getting too frustrating, and the classic Yoshi+rider double jump adds a fun element of teamwork to the exploration.

Wish there was an option to permanently lock the camera to a particular player, though. I keep accidentally grabbing the camera's focus and making the action harder to follow for my niece.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder on väkevä uusi tuleminen 2D-Marioille. Pyörää ei ole välttämättä keksitty kokonaan uudelleen vaikka innovaatioitakin mahtuu mukaan, mutta pyörä ei kyllä ikinä ole pyörinyt näin hyvin.

Peli on pääosin hyvin perus tasoloikkaa. Valkkaat kentän kartasta, pelaat tämän läpi ja saat Wonder Seed -tähdenkorvikkeen. Wonder Seedeillä saa uusia kenttiä auki, ja alueen päädyssä olevista lopparikentistä saa Royal Seed -plöttejä, jonka avulla pääsee askeleen lähemmäksi vikaa maailmaa ja Mario-pelille shokeeraavan yllättävää pääpahisvalintaa, Bowseria. Välillä seassa on minipelikenttiä, jututettavia NPC-hahmoja, kauppiaita ja kartalta etsittäviä salaisuuksia. Toimivaa tavaraa. Ja pelin loppuvastus on tutusta vihulaisestaan huolimatta todella viihdyttävä spektaakkeli.

Uutuutena pelissä ovat kentistä löytyvät happoiset Wonder Flowerit, jotka poimiessa muuttavat joko pelattavaa hahmoa, kenttää tai kumpaakin harvinaisen yllättävillä tavoilla. Pelissä voi pelata limalöntti-mariona, nähdä vihollisten musiikkiesityksiä, joutua yllättäen vastaamaan tietovisaan tai hyppäämään fossiilista henkiin heräävän lohikäärmeen selkään. Vaikutus pelin hauskuuskertoimeen ja luovuuteen on valtava. Ja ei haittaa, että jokainen kenttä Wonder Flower-sekoituksineen on ensiluokkaisesti suunniteltu.

Pelin toinen uutuus ovat equipattavat badget, joita voi joko ostaa NPC-kauppiailta tai joita saa palkinnoksi tietyistä kentistä. Pelaaja voi laittaa hahmolleen kerrallaan yhden joko passiivisia tai aktiivisia kykyjä antavan badgen. Näitä ovat esimerkiksi SMB2-tyylinen kyykyssä ladattava superhyppy, ylöspäin suuntautuva seinähyppy, seiniin tarttuva grappling hook tai vaikka juoksunopeutta nostava "buffi". Badget tuovat mukavaa vaihtelua ja kustomoitavaa muuten tuttuun 2D-Mario-pelattavuuteen. Monesti badgen vaihtamisella oli myös ihan selkeää hyötyä kentän läpipääsyn kannalta.

Ja viimeisenä uutuutena pelissä on nettipeliominaisuudet. Mikäli pelaaja kytkee nettipelin päälle, hän näkee muita samaa kenttää tahkoavia pelaajia. Muut pelaajat voivat viestiä muutamalla emotella, antaa power-uppeja tai auttaa pysymään hengissä parillakin eri tavalla. Pelissä voi tiputtaa kenttiin Standee-nimisiä checkpointteja haluamiinsa paikkoihin. Jos pelaaja esim. putoaa rotkoon ja lähellä on toisen pelaajan jättämä Standee, hän voi kummituksena lentää tämän luo ja päästä takaisin elävien kirjoihin. Samaten, mikäli pelaaja kummituksena pääsee ihmispelaajan luo, ylösnousemus tapahtuu. Moninpeliominaisuudet ovat simppeleitä ja ihan hauskoja lisiä tuttuun formaattiin. Ne voi myös kytkeä kokonaan pois, mikäli haluaa ehdotonta omaa rauhaa.

Kuten yleensä Nintendon isojen 1st party -pelien kanssa, on Super Mario Bros. Wonderin ulosanti hyvin laadukasta tavara. Peli on erittäin nätti ja äärimmäisen värikäs. Alueiden visuissa on hienoa vaihtelua, pelattavien hahmojen animaatiot ovat ilmeikkäitä ja pelistä lyötyy isot määrät uusiakin vihollishahmoja, jotka ovat designiensa puolesta omiin silmiini ihan klassikkotavaraa. Myös pelin valikot ja UI-elementit ovat kerrankin tyylikkäät ja eivät näytä Wii Sportsilta tai konsolin järjestelmäasetuksilta. Mario on liian usein hyvinkin "vaniljaa" ja kaavamaista tyylinsä puolesta, joten on erityisen virkistävää nähdä uutta virtaa. Musiikkikin pelissä on pääosin ensiluokkaista kattavalla genreskaalalla. Paikoin musiikki on kuitenkin "vain" perus-Mariota, eli ei siis huonoa, mutta muun pelin sekopäisestä luovuudesta ja karismasta irrallaan.

Uudistuksista huolimatta, peli tuntuu edelleen tutulta 2D-Mariolta – ja se ei ole suoranaisesti huono asia. Pikemminkin Super Mario Bros. Wonderissa on onnistuttu tuomaan toimivia uusia juttuja muuttamatta liikaa hyvinkin perinteisen pelin tuntumaa ja pelattavuutta. Tosin, jos etsii jotain ihan muuta kuin 2D-Mariota, ei sitä tästäkään 2D-Mariosta kannata etsiä.

Peli on niin huolella ja rakkaudella tehty, että sen parissa on jatkuvasti hauskaa ja kaikki palaset tuntuu aina olevan kohdillaan. Toivottavasti 2D-Mariot jatkavat tästä eteenpäin yhtä omaperäisinä ja yllätyksellisinä kuin tämä.

P.S. Tämä oli sadas arvosteluni täällä.

There are so many improvements to the 2D Mario formula with this game! Best part was not bumping into friends like in the New Super games. But here's what brought down this game for me:

1. The amount of content is not worth full retail price. It feels too short! Solution? They had so many great level gimmicks, using them once or twice only through the entire game. They could use each gimmick again or mix them together, giving us a few more levels!

2. It's also the easiest 2D Mario. I feel like I did with Mario Galaxy. The game is not challenging, only in a select few levels with most of those being at the very very end. Maybe those extra levels I suggested could be harder levels?

3. The final boss of each area is awful, and some areas have no final boss!! This feel extremely lazy design-wise. And when there is a boss they're repetitive not fun to play.

4. The secrets are few and they're not very secret. It seems like the only good secrets are in old video games (no, I'm not talking about impossible to figure out secrets). Mario World had hidden switches that revealed new boxes/platforms that led to new exits that led to new areas/shortcuts. Or the colour of the level told you if there was another exit that would lead you down a new path. The older games didn't have 3 special coins to find or a goal to collect. Just a fun level to beat and it is still fun to go back to.

Anyway, that's enough complaining. I did have a good time over all, I just expect more from a name like Nintendo. There are so many fantastic indie games and ROM hacks that maybe one day I'll not feel like paying money to Nintendo and instead support something else with that money.

This is like a 4.75 out of 5. It is not a perfect game, but it is pretty close to a 5/5 - it is a good and enjoyable game.

It's a 2D Mario game, so yes, you know what it is. Side-scrolling platformer with some enemies, coins, and power-ups. And this hits all of the beats. The game is a lot of fun, the power-ups are inventive and fun, the badges add a nice twist. The music is cool, playing with some beats from old games but with a lot of new stuff.

The thing that puts this really up high is all of the really subtle things that just show love. From the whacky things like roller-skating Koopa Troopas to sleeping or angry Goombas, to all of the flowers' and their dialogue, you can just see there is a lot of love and attention to detail in this game. Even things like the backgrounds and, occasionally, foreground shadows, you see they paid a lot of attention to detail and put so many little details in. And it is really brilliant because it pays off.

I am not fully done, but it feels like the platforming is not super hard to beat the game. The difficulty ramps up with some of the things you need to do to 100% it, though. Some of the hidden/secret levels are hard, and I expect the badge challenges will get much harder as well. And also finding the secrets themselves is clearly a big challenge as well.