Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a platforming adventure polished to a shine. The level design is spotless and the addition of new powerups, badges, and of course the Wonder Flower succeed in shaking up the formula of previous games in fun new ways. While the game is excellent, it falls short in a few categories, most notably the poor excuse for a local multiplayer mode.
Remember, this review reflects my experience and therefore everyone else’s as well. If you disagree with any point I bring in this post, then you should reflect on your opinion until you agree with me as I am correct and you are wrong. Thank you for reading!
Level Design
The level design in Mario Wonder is immaculate. Each level is so perfectly constructed that it’s kind of scary. Not once did I notice a misleading set of coins or an unfairly placed hole in the ground. Whenever you are required to fall a great distance past the bottom of the screen, there are always coins there to indicate it. Well done to the level designers! The many effects of the Wonder Flower add a ton of variety to the gameplay. I don’t love all of the effects, but each one is only used 2 or 3 times, which feels like a crime to the programmers.
While the normal levels are great, the boss stages are a bit lame. People have been saying for years that they are tired of fighting the Koopalings in every single Mario game (I don’t feel the same, but I understand that complaint). This game does do away with the Koopalings, but by replacing them with only Bowser Jr and only Bowser Jr. Sure Bowser Jr gets a different wonder effect in each one, but each boss battle ended up feeling the same.
Half of the worlds didn’t even have a boss at the end! I guess I like the breaking of a pattern, but I was really hoping I’d get to fight that ninja poplin in the Shining Falls as a final challenge. You’d think this game all about crazy unexpected things would have more creative bosses, but they feel like an afterthought.
Badges
The badges are a great addition to the game! I had fun experimenting with different ones each level. Some of them are undeniably better than others, but they are all fun to use. My favorites are the Wall-Climb Jump and the Grappling Vine badges.
I wish there were more levels made for specific badges. For example, the grappling vine badge is great, but because it gets rid of your twirl in the air and because it is only useful for levels with lots of walls, it is barely useful in most levels. Plus, there is no way to know what badges might be useful for a level before you’ve played it. Maybe a list of recommended badges for each level could have been implemented.
Local Multiplayer
I enjoyed this game immensely as a one player experience, but Mario Wonder really fails to deliver on its 4-player co-op mode. This is such a shame since the modern Mario games are known for their chaotic fun multiplayer.
This games fails in multiple big ways. First of all, the camera does not zoom out to accommodate four players like it does in other games. There are basically four players shoved into a space where only one player comfortably fits. Secondly, the screen always follows one player, giving no thought to anyone else while they are in charge.
These two facts put together ruin the entire experience. With the camera exclusively focusing on one player, the others are resigned to getting crushed on the sides of the screen at their mercy. This gives that player the impossible responsibility of only moving when everyone else is ready, without going too quickly to crush those farther back or turning around too quickly as to crush those in front. When they inevitably fail, they’ll get blamed for everyone’s deaths when it is really the fault of bad design. Local multiplayer in this game is borderline unplayable.
Score
Mario Wonder has been seen as a return to form for the Mario Bros series after several games with the same art style and few innovations. I’m inclined to agree; the addition of so many fun mechanics, three new powerups, and badges has this game feeling like a whole new Mario. I loved just about every minute of this game when playing solo, it has me excited for what lies ahead for the series. On the other hand, the multiplayer experience is a massive letdown. The game was clearly made to be experienced solo, and they should not have bothered including an unplayable local coop mode.
Solo Score: 14/15
Local Multiplayer Score: 5/15
Thank you for reading! I’m changing how I write reviews a little bit. I’ve decided to stop creating Objective Scores for each game. This is because I feel like it’s impossible for me to realistically consider all aspects of a game as well as the context within which it was made. All I can really do for sure is talk about my experience and what I think could have been done better. So, from now on my scores will describe how much I enjoyed a game personally.