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.

1 Vacation

2 Shop

3 Amazon

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.