Game Review: Super Mario Bros. Wonder

It’s fair to say the Super Mario Bros franchise has had a long run of releases across the decades.  All the way from the early days of the Nintendo Entertainment System right up to modern day with the Nintendo Switch.  Despite its longevity however, I and many people would argue the 2-D platformer has grown stale and disappeared behind the shadow of Super Mario’s more creative 3-D endeavors within the recent years. Even with my new found re-introduction back into the platforming genre, I had no real desire to go back and play any of the more recent Super Mario Bros titles just because I knew there wasn’t all that much behind them.  It was clear as anything that what the Super Mario Bros franchise needed was some kind of reinvention if it was going to bring anything credible to the table of modern-day platformers.  It’s fortunate in this case that Nintendo recognized that core need and released their own reinvention of the Mario Bros series in 2023; titled Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

The development of Super Mario Bros. Wonder has some interesting notes behind it.  Soon after New Super Mario Bros Deluxe released in 2019, both Shiro Mouri and Takashi Tezuka returned as Director and Producer on Wonder respectively.  They noted that there was no deadline the project needed to hit so it gave the development team a lot of time to experiment and brainstorm a way to reinvent the series.  One of the biggest inspirations for Shiro Mouri was to bring back the sense of ‘secrets and mystery’ to the levels that many audiences sought out during the original Super Mario Bros.  That’s where the idea behind the Wonder Flower came into fruition and the rest of the game was designed around the levels ability to drastically alter in fun and interesting ways.   Released on October 20^th 2022 the title drew a lot of interest from general audiences, leading the game to sell over 4.3 million units in the first two weeks of release; making it the fastest selling Mario game of all time.  Critically the game received no end of accolades from critics and general audiences, earning 98% total score on OpenCritic and receiving many Game of the Year nominations.

The story follows Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy and a collection of Toads and Yoshis on a diplomatic visit to the neighboring Flower Kingdom at the behest of Prince Florian.  The Flower Kingdom’s greatest asset is known to be their Wonder Flowers. Rare and magical flowers with the ability to warp reality in strange and mysterious ways.  Before the official ceremony is underway, another visitor from the Mushroom Kingdom makes his presence known. King Bowser and his son Bowser Jr crash the proceedings and Bowser consumes a wonder flower which transforms him into a giant gloating castle. Once transformed Bowser wreaks havoc across the kingdom by imprisoning its citizens and flooding it with his minions.  With Prince Florian accompanying the party, Mario and co, band together to go rescue the citizens of the Flower Kingdom, collect the mighty Wonder Seeds and put an end to Bowser’s nefarious schemes before it’s too late.

The narrative in this game is purely set up, which is often the expectation with not just Super Mario Bros but many a platformer these days.  While the narrative scope is purely for the purposes of setup, it’s hard not to appreciate the amount of creativity put into the setting and objective of the game this time around.  Flower Kingdom is distinctly different to the Mushroom Kingdom we’re all used to, with the setting and its inhabitants all taking on a unique flair.  The idea of Bowser coming in to ruin proceedings is nothing new, but the fact he turns into a giant talking castle and you have to stop him by proceeding through the world and warping reality against him is a novel concept that you can’t say has been done in a prior Mario game.  There’s no long-term payoff to the narrative but I don’t think that’s a negative because its only intent was to serve as a set up for the gameplay to take a more center stage

Now Super Mario Bros. Wonder does an admirable job in getting all the basics of the Mario platforming controls down.  Each level is presented to you in a 2-D side-scrolling perspective. You move left and right using directional input, you can jump and dash using the B and Y buttons respectively.  There’s a nice and tight approach to the basic controls that helps them feel responsive.  What’s more noteworthy about the gameplay through is what new aspects are introduced.  Badges are a new feature to the game which add an incredible amount of value and replayability. You can only equip one badge at one time during your time in the game’s levels, but each badge offers the player a wide array of variations on how the gameplay can shift.  It can be something as basic as giving more speed to your dashes or more momentum to your jumps.  Others are bit more extensive though like the grappling vine which allows you to grapple onto any surface within reach or the parachute cap which allows you to give yourself more airtime and float down using a giant cap.  These badges serve as one of the games key features that differentiates it from prior entries in the series.  Each badge has a nice benefit you can utilize, some even add challenges to handle as you progress through the level.  That ability to tailor the game to your playstyle is something the badges get down so well.  

One of the other new key features that deserves all the praise is the Wonder Flowers.  Each level in this game has a Wonder Flower for you to pick up and whenever you pick one of these magical flowers up the entire level shifts course dramatically.  The nature in which these levels shift when you collect the Wonder Flower varies considerably from level to level.  For example, in one level upon picking the flower up the scenery of the level will come to life and you will need to navigate moving trees and pipes as you aim to collect the levels Wonder Seed.  Another example is in a later level you will end up turning into one of the levels enemies in order to navigate the level in a different way. The creative scope of these Wonder Flowers has literally no limits and it gives each level a very unique flair that makes it fun to keep progressing through the game and seeing what new ideas you’ll get thrown into next.

From a visual end, the game utilizes the Switch’s specifications to the best of its ability. Of course, with it being a 2-D platformer it was never going to push the engine visually, but the creative scope of each level and the number of animations that inhabit a screen at one time is really impressive.  There are several worlds in the Flower Kingdom, all presenting their own creative themes that not only play into the game visually but add a practical challenge to overcome too.  It’s a smart and layered approach to level design and it’s worth recognizing the entire games art style utilizes a water color hue to it.  Accompanying each section of the game is a wonderfully quirky soundtrack by composers Koji Kondo, Shiho Fujii, Sayako Doi and Chisaki Shimazu.

On a whole Super Mario Bros. Wonder does a wonderous job in reinvigorating a franchise that was at risk of becoming stale.  It delivers the core concept of a Mario platformer but does it in a way that feels creatively refreshing at every avenue.  Its world is rich with bright and colorful visuals and its gameplay is tight and robust with a load of variety in its approach. It’s a game which spares no expense in experimenting with every creative opportunity to give the player a truly memorable journey from start to finish.  If there was any doubt Mario Bros was running out of creative steam, then I am happy Super Mario Bros Wonder has come along and reassured me and many others than there’s always room to come back swinging.