Super Mario Bros. Wonder Review

I got to give Mario Bros. Wonder a lot of credit, the game is easily the most innovating 2D Mario in such a long time, where the New Super Mario Bros games just feel like cash grabs where it felt like Nintendo just wanted to make 2D Marios so they can make a quick buck, Wonder feels like the game where Nintendo actually tried but even then, I feel like the game could be a lot more, I would be much harsher on the game if it didn't feel so innovating but there are things about it that I hope Nintendo improves in later games when they follow up on this.

I'll start with the good, like I said before this is easily the most innovating 2D Mario in a long while. You got new power ups like the Elephant Form, the Drill, and the Bubble Form, you got the Badges which allows you to either glad, do charge jumps, or rhythm jumps to name a few.

Then there is the enemies which has a surprising amount of new ones like the Hoppycat which doesn't move unless you start hopping, Tall Mushroom enemies which you need to really time your jumps in order to take down, the spiky slider where you can avoid and use as a makeshift platform, and the Condort to name a few, all of this is just innovations I am honestly surprised Nintendo is capable of doing for a 2D Mario, it's why I'm soft on the game as I am. It felt like a lot of heart was put into the game. It's why for the next few paragraphs I will be more negative but I do enjoy the game but this coming from someone who wants the game to be better and improve for a sequel.

The my first issue is the fact that Nintendo has yet to remove the limited continues in the Mario franchise, modern platformers like the recent 2D Rayman games manage to still remain challenging without limiting your continues yet Nintendo is still adamament about a system they themselves dropped previously in Mario Odyssey, so the fact that Wonder uses this system just feels jarring.

As a result, and you can call you can call me someone with no "skill" but thanks to this now that I know that a character like Nabbit and Yoshi can't take damage means I'm going to default to them whenever the game gets hard, luckily I can just use Nabbit, but at the same time, I think an ideal solution would be to remove the lives system and just have the playable characters be Mario and Luigi, the challenge remains but I don't need to play as characters that reduces 50% of the challenge, it doesn't make the game brainlessly easy since pits and some enviromental hazards can kill you but isn't the point of the 1ups to take more damage and the power ups is supposed to make me use them on enemies? Nabbit nullfies this. I don't play games to 100% them so self imposed restrictions don't work on me, so as a result it makes using the temptation of using Nabbit too great. It's not like Funkey Kong in DK Tropical Freeze where the same rules still apply but he has more HP and a glide mechanic, Nabbit and Yoshi changes the dynamic of Wonder with 1 ups and power ups.

This leads to my next issue, 1-3 star stages are too short and the challenge of them is to find the hidden Wonder Seeds. You can skip much of the games' content if you get two Wonder Seeds per stage meaning that I will rarely engage in the 4 star challenge levels. As a result, combine that Nabbit and Yoshi takes no damage by enemies, and how short the levels are most of the time, it can lead to many victories through the levels to be pretty hollow.

Next issue is the lack of boss fights, most of the worlds have them but some worlds don't and some of them require them you to find hidden exits to progress through the game, this is mandatory and when these parts pop up, it can feel jarring since before, you can just rush to the end of the stage and get to the end with no issue but now, you need to suddenly find the true exit to cap off the world or some of the levels. Whole thing felt like they could've just made Kamek the boss of those worlds instead of coming up with these fake out level endings, he is in the game so why not fight him when not fighting Bowser Jr.?

Final issue, the Badges, this is a great idea on paper since it expands Mario's moveset but most of these are generally just optional which is a shame since there are levels dedicated to teaching you how to use these badges but then in the actual levels, you can just skip them and never use them again, for example, there is a grappling hook badge, but outside of the tutorial area where you need to use it, the Badge is never really needed for the rest of the game after getting it. So Wonder in a sense teaches a new mechanic but has what it teaches you to be optional, all this could be avoided if every level had certain badges be mandatory to complete.

Overall, while I have been harsh on Wonder, it's still a "good" game worth checking out, worth it at that Nintendo rarely if ever goes down more than 30% full price? No, but still worth looking it but there are a lot of issues that prevent it from being great.