Super Mario Bros. Wonder

With a blend of new and nostalgic elements, Super Mario Bros. Wonder sets a high standard for the franchise's 2D games.
100/100133768
Platforms
Nintendo Switch
Publisher
Nintendo
Rating
3+
Genre
Action, Sidescroller, Platformer
Release date
October 20, 2023
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Gameplay/Controls
Graphics/Visuals
Sound and Music
Story and Narrative
Replayability
Performance and Tech Issues
Non-Wokeness
Rating Summary
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the latest 2D entry in the Super Mario franchise, offering a fresh take on the classic platformer genre. The game introduces innovative gameplay elements, such as a "badge" system that grants unique abilities and refined controls that harken back to the series' golden era. Multiplayer improvements and a flexible progression system add depth to the experience, making it a delightful addition to the long-running series.
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The Super Mario Brothers video game franchise, created by Shigeru Miyamoto and produced by Nintendo, made its debut in 1985 with the release of “Super Mario Bros.” for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This iconic series follows the adventures of Mario and Luigi, two Italian plumbers, as they traverse the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Peach from the clutches of the villainous Bowser. Over the years, the franchise has evolved to include numerous sequels and spin-off games as well as a billion-dollar blockbuster family film, becoming one of the most successful and enduring franchises in the history of video games, with Mario serving as a beloved mascot for Nintendo.

 

Platform Reviewed:

Nintendo Switch

Hardware Detail:

Launch model Switch

OEM Pro Controller

 

The Good:

  • Quick, reactive controls
  • Caters to multiple skill levels but is still very challenging
  • No stage timers

The Bad:

  • Talking Flowers

The Ugly:

  • Nothing

 

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a 2D side-scrolling platformer that proves the genre still has new things to show us.  Players embark solo or with up to three player companions at once across eight worlds to save the Flower Kingdom from the machinations of Bowser, the evil king of the Koopas, his wannabe supervillain son, Bowser Jr., and his host of new and returning minions.  Each thematic world has a unique terrain and region-specific level design. In addition to Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad, players can also choose to play one of two other Toad characters, four Yoshi characters, or The Nabbit.

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The story is ridiculous, which is par for the course for a Super Mario Bros. game, and it’s okay if you’ve totally forgotten it sixty seconds into the first stage.  This time, Bowser has invaded the Mushroom Kingdom’s neighbor, the Flower Kingdom, and stolen the Wonder Flower, which has transformed the houses and castles spread throughout the kingdom into sad and dreary places. However, you won’t be rescuing a princess this time. While rescuing a princess is traditional for the series, this isn’t unprecedented either. As far back as Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988/NES), Princess Peach has joined the adventure as an active player character.  

In this iteration, the  Flower Kingdom is ruled by Prince Florian, but you won’t be rescuing him either.  Instead, the royal caterpillar, who dreams of becoming a larger caterpillar someday, will accompany you on your quest to save his kingdom from Bowser’s clutches.

 

What’s New? What’s The Same? What’s Better?

Super Mario Bros. Wonder isn’t just a new coat of paint slapped on an old game. The innovation is woven into every aspect of the gameplay itself rather than just presenting a handful of new power-ups, for example. 

Although new power-ups are most definitely part of the game, most of the innovation is in the “badge” system.  As you progress through the game, you’ll find, earn, or buy badges that will grant additional mobility or some other type of advantage. That said, only one badge can be active at a time, so there’s a strategy for figuring out what the best badge is for a given situation. Need a specific power-up to get to that secret area? You can turn all the power-ups into the ones you need. Need the ability to jump just a little bit higher to get to that out-of-the-way platform? There’s a badge for that, too.

 

Controls

The Super Mario franchise has always been known for its smooth and intuitive controls. In Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the controls have been tuned to what feels like perfection, besting even the efforts of the most recent prequel, New Super Mario Bros. U (2012/Wii U). Players are never left to feel like they are fighting the device or fighting their intuition to make the character do what they want. If you screw up, it’s because you screwed up, not because the input device stymied you. In fact, the controls most closely resemble those of Super Mario World (1990/Super NES), which was a 16-bit masterpiece of golden era platformer perfection.

Although multiplayer closely resembles that of its predecessors, Super Mario Bros. Wonder offers a  handful of subtle tweaks that make all the difference. Playing with four people is still a chaotic mess, but it’ll more often end in a room full of people laughing hysterically than grinding their teeth in frustration.

The biggest single improvement is the fact that, with the exception of Yoshi, the players don’t interfere with one another onscreen.  You’re never going to miss a jump because someone else bounced on your head or go careening off into the blue because another player happened to hit you from below. On the other hand, players who actually want to interact directly can use Yoshi characters, which the other players can ride to impart a little invincibility and coordinate tricky double-jumps.

 

It’s All About The Game

For fans of the series, game progression is a familiar formula, although there are plenty of twists to keep this from feeling like deja vu.  Individual stages are grouped into “worlds” with a common theme, like the desert or the clouds. As usual, players don’t need to complete every stage to finish the game, and there are alternate paths for those who seek them out.

This being the Flower Kingdom, everything is plant-themed, so progression depends on earning “Wonder Seeds.”  Most stages will award one seed to the player just for completing the stage and another for finding a hidden Wonder Flower, which unlocks a different version of the stage with added challenges. Some seeds are simply given away just for making it to a new world, and others are sold in shops so they can be earned by collecting the new purple Flower Coins spread throughout each level. Additionally, many are hidden in cleverly hidden secret areas and secret exits.  

A certain number of Wonder Seeds is required to unlock the final stage of each world. With so many ways to earn Wonder Seeds, the player has the freedom to choose the path that matches their ability rather than being forced to play harder levels that then become a frustrating barrier to progress. Additionally, each level is helpfully labeled with a difficulty rating in order to make these choices obvious.  

The main object in each world is a “Royal Seed,” which is one of six flower-themed MacGuffins that unlock the final confrontation with Bowser.  Not every world follows the same formula. Sometimes, just finding your way through a tricky puzzle will be enough to net you the Royal Seed at the end without having to fight a boss for it.  

If you’re a completionist or a Mario “veteran,” there are plenty of secret areas and challenges to test your mettle.

A vestige from their roots as an arcade game, where it was important to limit the time taken by each credit, side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. games have traditionally used a timer. When time runs out, you lose a life and have to begin again. While, in the past, this helped to keep the action constantly moving and added pressure when trying to find a secret or work out how to do a tricky jump, Super Mario Bros. Wonder does away with this, leaving the player free to hunt for secrets without fear of the clock running out.

If there’s one single, very minor element of this game that becomes annoying over the duration, it has to be the Talking Flowers that are now spread throughout the stages. These will occasionally offer hints about secret areas or speak words of encouragement, but they will also express a range of emotions and try to tell bad jokes. They can detract from the experience sometimes more than they add to it, but thankfully, there’s a setting to mute them, so no harm, no foul.

 

Hearing It Out

The music is new but with enough classic elements like reworked melodies and passages from older titles woven in to satisfy the staunchest of fans.  Though you’ll find orchestral scores, the soundtrack doesn’t confine itself to any particular genre; gamers will be treated to everything from heavy metal to disco to sitar music.  More than once, I found myself smiling and nodding my head or tapping my foot to the beat while I was playing. The music is also dynamic, often changing according to what a player is doing.

 

Final Thoughts

For a series celebrating its 38th anniversary, Super Mario Bros. Wonder feels impossibly fresh. Everything from the sound effects to the character animations has been subtly crafted to evoke nostalgia, but there’s nothing actually old about it.  Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t just hold up to its impressive pedigree but raises the bar as well.

 

Woke Elements

While some might argue that making Peach a playable character instead of the more traditional damsel in distress, as I stated before, it’s not without precedent. With no real story to speak of and no other obvious ideologically driven elements, we’re going to err on the side of this decision being less about agenda and more about freedom of gameplay.

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Simon Westen

Simon is a science fiction author, tech blogger and retro gaming enthusiast. He lives in the US Midwest with his two sons and wife of 26 years. Though he doesn't consider it a religion, he is unabashedly Christian. His heritage is primarily Native American and Scott/Irish. He is an outspoken libertarian (in belief, not necessarily in party) and values the principles of freedom and individual sovereignty above all else.

13 comments

  • Dave

    November 6, 2023 at 4:09 pm

    1 out of 5

    I do declare this woke because of the voice actors. The new voice for Daisy is a mentally ill girl named Giselle Fernandez who uses they/them pronouns!

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    Reply

    • Rick

      November 8, 2023 at 12:23 am

      If that’s the worst of the games problems, something that doesn’t even affect the game (They still casted a biological woman who sounds like a woman to play a woman) then we should count ourselves lucky.

      Nintendo’s been dipping into the same VA pool since Fire Emblem Awakening, and I encourage nobody to browse any of their twitters.

      They’re hired for their voice and their voice alone, they recasted Charles Martinet as the brothers, but it wasn’t because “Hes not a real Italian” or anything like that.

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      Reply

  • MrDraxs

    November 7, 2023 at 9:15 am

    5 out of 5

    is worth it but is woke though
    the WONDER is remembers a lot a transformers flag
    guess even nintendo cant fight against that ESG score.

    3
    4

    Reply

    • Justice

      December 13, 2023 at 1:31 pm

      Pls don’t talk about the colors, that’s exactly what they want, they want us to see these lgbtqjhfowjeb flags when looking at certain color combinations, just enjoy the game and try to unsee it 🙂

      Reply

  • Rick

    November 8, 2023 at 12:35 am

    4 out of 5

    I have my thoughts about the game’s difficulty, but overall it’s like night and day comparing this to PlayStation’s Spiderman 2 wokenado that released the same day. It’s clearly being made by people who care about fun front-and-center, rather than representing any kind of fringe overly peer-reviewed minority.

    The wokest thing about this game are the balanced genders on the roster.but that’s mostly because they want people playing this with their family (Brothers and sisters, moms and dads alike).

    Similarly, the more recently released Warioware Move It is completely free of any of that as well. (It has dangerous natives, multiple minigames about heterosexual couples with no gayness in sight, etc.)

    it’s just an all around good time for the family (or beating your own high scores solo if that’s your thing) if you’re a fan of motion controls.

    This kinda thing seems like Nintendo’s MO for the most part and I hope that doesn’t change any time soon. They’re the only one of the big 3 still making games with fun at the forefront.

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    Reply

    • Michael

      November 21, 2023 at 10:56 am

      “The wokest thing about this game are the balanced genders”. Really now? And Pokémon allowing you to play either as a guy or a girl is woke too? The few comments above are not better.

      Reply

  • MAGA MAN

    November 8, 2023 at 10:17 am

    5 out of 5

    One of the wokest games ever made. Can’t believe there are female characters in a Mario game! I want to SAVE the princess not PLAY as the princess. So tired of this Hollywood liberal crap. We could have had Wario and Waluigi and instead we get Daisy and Peach. Will it ever stop?

    5
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    Reply

    • Crunchy Carl 1987

      November 13, 2023 at 10:35 am

      hi diva,
      have you ever met a woman? just so you know, they do things other than sit in a tower and flick they bean.

      many thanks my slime
      Crunchy Carl, 1987

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      Reply

    • Belanah

      November 13, 2023 at 2:57 pm

      As a woman I do have to say, I enjoy playing a game where I get to be a female character. And It’s not woke to change up the story from time to time. There’s nothing wrong with having a damsel in distress but there shouldn’t be anything wrong with not having a damsel in distress.

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    • Jocelyn Madden

      July 11, 2024 at 1:38 pm

      Dude it’s just the characters going on an adventure and FEMALES like myself ALSO play the game and DON’T want to play as BOYS. Ur just wining now smh.

      Reply

  • SazerLite

    November 9, 2023 at 7:29 pm

    5 out of 5

    Is it too late to review Pikmin 4?
    Some people are praising it for not being “transphobic”.

    Reply

  • MBII

    December 23, 2023 at 3:26 am

    Oh c’mon, the talking flowers are great

    Reply

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