Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Review
Can you believe that it has been 11 years since the last original console 2D Mario release, that was when New Super Mario Bros. U launched on the Wii U. Of course, we have not been devoid of the character since then, what with Odyssey, Kart and the countless other titles, but there is always something special about a new 2D title. Has the long wait for a new game been worth it, or will this latest adventure leave you wondering on why it took so long?
Let me get this out of the way now, Super Mario Bros Wonder does nothing different in terms of story, the major change is a new land, but beyond that it’s the same basic premise. Mario and crew have been invited to visit a neighbouring kingdom, called the Flower Kingdom and upon being shown one of its major powers, Bowser swoops and steals it. This of course leads Mario and Prince Florian to chase after him and put things right, so yes its generic as heck, but this is a Mario game and the platforming is always the star. Unlike past Mario platforming titles, there are characters you will meet, much like how Toad is Toad and then Toad is also Toad, here Poplins are the citizens of the kingdom. As you venture across the numerous themed worlds, you will encounter Poplins in various situations, some a running shops to help you out and others will provide information, or open shortcuts. Outside of that, Prince Florian provides a lot of commentary about things that you are seeing, so expect to hear from him a lot.
In terms of gameplay, there is one major new addition and the rest is just the Mario you know, lets start with the returning. Mario or whichever character you choose to play as, comes with the usual assortment of moves, running, jumping, wall jumping and so on. A few power ups are returning ones, like the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower and Super Stars, but there are some new ones as well. The somewhat returning item is the Drill power up, which while new for the game, had a similar look to Super Mario Galaxy 2. The all new items are the Bubble Flower and the Elephant Flower, the latter of the two being the one that is used in all the marketing. While the Bubble Flower has its uses and bouncing off a bubble is always fun, the elephant flower is the bigger one, as it brings in some new gameplay tweaks. One of the biggest ones is that you can now break blocks from the side, which normally requires a Koopa shell and some fast reflexes. You can also carry water in your trunk, which can water dried out talking flowers and cool down hot rocks, along with just being fun.
Of course, perhaps the biggest addition is the Wonder Flower, something that is hidden in each stage. Completing a stage presents you with a Wonder Seed, but the Wonder Flower is something else entirely, either touching one or finding a hidden one, will make the world go topsy turvy. The effect on each stage is different, but not random, so each time you replay the same stage, you will experience the same effect. Sadly I wasn’t a fan of this, not because it was bad, but it really didn’t do enough for me, its very much the Kirby's Return to Dream Land game, where it had giant insane effects take place if you triggered an item. It also reminded me of the Yoshi titles, where the character would transform into a helicopter or other vehicle for a limited time. The Wonder effect has some really fun moments, but for the most part it just makes the stage behave weird until you collect the Wonder Seed.
The Wonder Seed’s purpose is as I expected from my hands on at PAX Australia, it’s a gate keeping device. In order to unlock the boss fights in each world or even a new world, you need a certain number of Wonder Seeds from that location, with some requiring a fair number. It would have been great to see progression tied to ability rather than seeds, because that way getting into new levels would have meant something. The game also offers up a badge system, with their being three different kinds, the first of these are called Action Badges. These allow for you to gain new abilities, like a parachute cap or vertical wall jump, the second group are Boost Badges, which in turn let you earn coins when defeating an enemy or turn every power up into the one you like. The final group are the ones for advanced players, called Expert Badges they can trigger effects like always run or turn invisible. You can only have one singular badge on at any given time, but you can always swap at the start of each level or upon your death. Some badges are going to be great for younger players, whilst others are going to be more fun for more skilled players, and finding them and choosing which one to use is more entertaining.
All of the above talks about what you can do, but we now need to address the levels and by levels there are actually a number of types this time. Yes there are the traditional style and even a few airship levels, but mixing things up are break levels, which are micro stages, musical stages, battle arenas and badge mastery courses. Some of them are short, lasting only seconds, while others will challenge you and take a while to complete. The regular stages are all over the place in their length, some are quite short, while others are a little on the longer side and of course, depending on the badges you use, the length can vary a bit. Because each stage has a Wonder Flower within, I felt that most of them were super boring, until you activated the effect and even then sometimes it really didn’t do much. I was really hoping for more unique stages, much like the New Super Mario Bros. U level Painted Swampland. The levels that are hidden are fun, but are usually just tests of your skill rather than anything too unique.
That sadly brings me to the games presentation, which is fine, mostly. The games visuals are delightful, mixing together a plasticine look, along with stop-motion animation, which gives the game a really fun vibe. Some of the characters look infinitely better than others and some enemy designs are meh, but for the most part things look good. The world map is filled with plenty of alcoves to discover, with each of the lands having a lot to see and do, with two worlds especially having levels hidden in plain sight. The Wonder Flower effects, when they take hold are fun, mostly as you never know what you are going to see, but eventually they lose their wow effect. The stages themselves are fun, but they all sport a similar look to that of the New Super Mario Bros style and I know, some people will say that I am completely wrong, but they do look the same. I would have loved to have seen a more unique art style applied across the board, than a shinier version of what we had for 17 years.
We must now address the elephant in the room, the new voices, well first let me talk about the music. A lot of the familiar melodies are here once again, but they have been modified in nice ways, but for all the familiar there are a host of new tracks that make the entire score delightful to listen to, even when you pause the game. Now the bad, the new voices and for some people they say they don’t hear a difference, I say they are delusional as the new voices are so different, it’s like a new character. First I have to mention the Talking Flowers, from the moment they appeared in the trailer they annoyed me, they served no purpose in the game, so I turned them right off, I just wish I could have turned off the text as well. The new Mario and Luigi voice is so grating to my ears, that after 3 stages of Mario and 1 of Luigi I played the rest of the game as Daisy, as her voice was the one that differed the least. When Disney bring in a new actor to voice Mickey Mouse, they spend as long as the need to, in order to find the right actor for the voice, because that character needs to be the same. Nintendo appears to have just used a firm that they used for Fire Emblem and went with good enough and honestly it’s not good enough, its barely even Mario. For whatever reason they recast the voice, they need to think about what type of impact they want to have, because for me, this is not a good one.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an ok game, for me it was not the refresh I was hoping for, it has some great moments, but it basically boils down to just more Mario. While that is not a bad thing per say, there are times when I feel like I am just enjoying what I have already played. The new power ups are fun and trying to locate all the purple coins is a nice challenge, but the Wonder Flower effect is meh most of the time. The new voices are not great and fail to recapture the magic that Charles Martinet provided for over 20 years and if they are the normal going forward, I would question the decision for that. This was the game that could have given 2D Mario its Breath of the Wild refresh and while there are some fun times to be had, it just isn’t as wonderous as I had hoped for.
The Score
8.0
Review code provided by Nintendo
The Pros
The visual style is great, with some incredible animation effects
The stage variety is far grander than anything we have seen in a 2D Mario game before
The Cons
The voices are insulting to long-time fans as they don’t feel like the characters they are meant to be connected to
The Wonder Flower has a few really fun effects, but most of the time it feels superfluous to the level
