Month of Mario: Quality Time: Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)

When the Super Mario Bros. games first hit the scene, they were trailblazers. Each new game was guaranteed to get players and competitors to pay attention as they pushed boundaries and set the stage for what could be done with a 2D platformer, and Mario was even able to carry that inventiveness over into 3D with Super Mario 64 and helped define how movement should even be handled in a video game with three dimensions. Mario was king, but after Super Mario 64, things started to change. The game industry was moving in new directions and new Mario titles weren’t the home runs that other video games were looking to for inspiration anymore, even when innovative games like Super Mario Galaxy found inventive new ways to handle gravity in a game space.

 

While part of this was just the ever increasing scope of what people accepted as a good video game, another part of it was Nintendo’s own complacency. New Super Mario Bros. and its follow-ups were part of a trend where you could always find an enjoyable Mario platformer when you played it, but it hardly stood out or tried much new. You’d get an idea here or there like a level where you ride atop a giant caterpillar or one with a lovely Van Gogh inspired night sky, but the four New Super Mario Bros. games blend together and some of the design ethos even leaked over into other titles like Super Mario 3D Land. It was like a romantic relationship in some ways; Mario had made us fall in love with him with grand impressive gestures in the past, but over time things dialed back to more subdued but still thoughtful games. 2D Mario platformers were comfortable, you could always count on them to be good adventures, but it was telling that the spark wasn’t as present as before when New Super Mario Bros. U didn’t have much new to brag about besides the power to place platforms with a touch screen to make it easier and a flying squirrel power-up that was rather close in concept to the pre-existing Propeller Mushroom. The architects in charge of designing Mario levels were certainly skilled, but while it takes skill to make a skyscraper, if it’s just another boxy grey tower then it’s going to become more a part of the skyline than something that stands out on its own.

 

When it came time for another 2D platformer starring Mario to hit the scene in 2023 though, something was different. Some things looked familiar, the cheery plumber in red running through side-scrolling stages collecting coins and hitting floating blocks to grab power-ups, but many other things looked strange and new. Mario could now grab an apple and turn into an elephant, the world around him could change to trigger a stampede of triceratops or a chorus of singing plants. His run was more lively, he wiggled when he entered warp pipes, and it seems like he was heading to a world filled with all sorts of strange new mechanics and enemies where you never knew what could happen next and each level would be able to stand out from each other because of it. When first seeing the trailer, it almost felt like it could be summed up with the rather snide remark “it’s New Super Mario Bros. but with the new gimmick of creativity,” but it really was a 2D Mario game that inspired wonder after a long period where Nintendo was afraid to take risks with the format. It felt important to temper expectations, knowing that it could be possible that it was all window dressing, that maybe the platforming would still be straightforward outside those showstopping moments something strange stepped forward. Out of fear it was just a well disguised retread, it felt important to guard one’s self against heart break, to avoid building up hope only to have it dashed…

 

But Super Mario Bros. Wonder really is a wondrous showcase of imagination and what a 2D Mario game can be when unshackled from its old role of being platform gaming comfort food.

 

WONDERFUL FREEDOM

Right as you start the game, you’ll immediately be presented with a range of characters you can play as, Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s large playable cast similar in many ways but a few have some interesting key differences. When it comes to Mario, his brother Luigi, the two princesses Peach and Daisy, and Peach’s three mushroom-headed servants Blue Toad, Yellow Toad, and Toadette, everything is on an even keel. They’re all here to pick as you please, which works well considering the game’s multiplayer allows up to four players to traipse through levels together so there’s room for players to actually pick who they like rather than being locked into odd choices. However, there are five more characters you can select, four of them being different colorations for the friendly dinosaur Yoshi and the last one being the rabbit thief Nabbit. What sets these ones apart is their near invincibility, these characters a good fit for a young or struggling players as damage is no longer a concern save for instant kill sources like falling down a pit or touching liquid poison. The Yoshis can even do a hover jump in air for more travel distance or pull things in with their tongues, but these five do come with the restriction that they can’t utilize power-ups which doesn’t feel like a necessary limitation when the benefits are already so heavily weighed in their favor.

 

You can change your character on the level select screen whenever you like though, so no matter who you start off with, that character joins the others in their visit to the Flower Kingdom. The small green caterpillar royal named Prince Florian has invited over this band of heroes, this proving to be a fortuitous time to have them over as the evil turtle king Bowser has elected to attack the Flower Kingdom as a change of pace. The Flower Kingdom has special Wonder Flowers in it that can reshape the world in incredible ways, and Bowser immediately gets his hands on one and shows off the unusual range they can achieve as he ends up fusing with Prince Florian’s castle. Now a flying talking smog-spewing mechanical fortress, Bowser travels across the land to taint it with his newfound power, the Koopa King trying to build up power for an even more incredible and devastating Wonder but needing time to do so. Mario and his friends quickly head off to stop him, and so begins Super Mario Bros. Wonder as you’re dropped into Pipe-Rock Plateau to play it’s first level, Welcome to Flower Kingdom!.

 

An introductory stage has a lot of weight to carry, and in some games, it’s often just a chance to ease the player in so they know what to expect. Here you’ll find a lot of what you’d expect from a 2D Mario game is intact. Mario can run, jump, wall jump, and even do a little twirl in the air to stall his fall for half a second. He and the other heroes are more expressive than usual though and carry themselves with a delightful cartoonish energy, not every animation getting outright wacky but they still have some life to their movements and behavior. Something else that will come to define every level in Super Mario Bros. Wonder though are the Talking Flowers, these little yellows flowers found all about and speaking in voice acted English whenever you run past them. They usually have only a quick line to say and are pretty friendly, and despite their abundance, they never seem to outstay their welcome because of the brevity and smart placement. They’re there to offer support, make fun comments on what you see, and almost feel like a little pal along for the ride. While many levels have excellent energetic music, the Talking Flowers do a good job of rooting you in the moment, thinking along with their observations as you spend a little more time looking at the world, its lovely touches, and its interesting peculiarities. They’re not without personality either, they sometimes are completely caught off-guard by what’s going on, they can be a bit playful when you find one hidden, and they also seem to have an odd fascination with how things like slime might taste. You can disable their voices if you find them to be too much, but while they’re not above a cliche “Well, that was something” here or there, there are definitely moments where their little contributions are delightful, funny, or just a nice bit of support that makes it hard to want them gone.

As the Talking Flowers comment on your actions in Welcome to Flower Kingdom! you’ll be jumping on Goomba heads, grabbing coins, and finding things clean and responsive. When you come across a power-up though, it’s time for your character to become an elephant, and while Super Mario Bros. Wonder will become defined by its Wonder Flowers and the wild impact they have on their stages, Super Mario Bros. Wonder puts together a tight set of power-ups that reappear across the adventure. The Super Mushroom is a straightforward offering, it there to just make it so you can take an extra hit without dying, and in a rather strange touch lives are present but level timers are not. You can take your time and some levels even have a condition where you won’t lose lives for failing, but game overs don’t seem punishing either so it’s not much to worry about. The old standby of Fire Flowers are here and as helpful as ever, the ability to throw a fireball forward great for clearing out foes even if more baddies than usual can take a few hits before being fully roasted. The Elephant Apple is the first new treat you’ll find in stages, Mario and friends not just getting bigger but also able to smash things with their trunks or suck up water to spray it around. You can break your way through barriers, water plants, and put out fires with this flexible ability leading to some level designs where it’s the clear preferred option, and this ends up true of the Drill Mushroom as well. The Drill power-up will let you go underground to slip into tight spots or dig into the ceiling for a new range of travel, so while it’s not the most useful in dealing with enemies, it does lead to moments with new navigation options and some trickier secrets. The Bubble Flower is the last member of the standard power-ups and a bit like the Fire Flower in its purpose. Blow some bubbles forward and enemies can get trapped inside and disappear, but if you’re speedy and smart, you can use bubbles as temporary boosts by bouncing across them. You’re almost always going to be happy to find any of these power-ups, only the standard Mushroom feeling a bit unexciting because of its simple purpose while the others can find use in battle and traversal even in areas not designed around them but enhanced through them.

 

You might think that Elephant power-up is going to be enough to spice up the game’s first level, especially since it does work to show you off its special traits. But in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, every standard level has a Wonder Flower, so even from the get-go things are going to get a little crazy as the regular rules of the world are upended. Here, pipes spring to life, moving like inchworms, appearing in front of the screen, doing little water fountain displays, and giving you some moving ground to cross as you head towards the stage’s end to collect the Wonder Seed reward for clearing that Wonder Flower section as well as one for beating the level in general. These will be the major collectible in the game, a certain amount needed for opening up the castles where the Royal Seeds needed to open the path to Castle Bowser will be found. But while moving pipes is a nice little disruption of a long-standing Mario level object, it’s only the start of where Super Mario Bros. Wonder will take this excuse to take its obstacle course levels in surprising new directions.

 

WHAT’S IN A WONDER FLOWER?

Rest assured, this won’t be the section I ruin the surprise of every incredible Wonder Flower effect, partly because there are nearly 80 standard stages but also because the unpredictable nature of them is certainly one of the major appeals of finding a Wonder Flower within a level. Before you touch that glistening blue flower, you may think you’ve got some clue what the level might do. A surprising amount of stages feature a unique new enemy that makes surprisingly few appearances outside that initial stage, but the flower won’t always do something to those new foes. It might change what your character is capable of, quite a few stages having you control something entirely new and not just some twisted version of Mario or one of the enemies you saw running about. In fact, one of the few times I predicted a Wonder Flower effect with spot-on accuracy was because I thought it was almost too crazy for it to be the effect, and I was still delighted to see it was the choice after all.

 

Most Wonder Flower powers will keep things still rooted in 2D platforming, the game not going off the deep end in the kinds of strange shake-ups it could introduce, but oftentimes with these kind of gimmicks it is wise not to constantly try and one-up yourself or you can start to underwhelm. Not every stage is going to be completely off the wall, but there are still times where the level will even hint at what the Wonder Flower power might be and you still can’t predict the shape it will take. Sure, the Talking Flowers in one level talk up an approaching storm, but the way that storm manifests still feels like an impressive break from how the action unfolded so far, and quickly learning what new mechanics are at play an adapting makes sure these Wonder Flower effects aren’t just a bit of aesthetic variety. Some are more there for a fun rollercoaster ride of an idea while others do really begin to test your handling of the danger introduced. One level has a silhouette look to it to start with, Super Mario Bros. Wonder already diversifying its level theming and backgrounds well when there’s nothing unusual about. Worlds include things like a an ascent up a mountain of angular shapes structured like martial arts trials while another will be a poisonous bog, and yet within the concepts are a wide range of different stage types like that silhouette stage. In that level though, the Wonder Flower will cause your character to stretch to a massive height, the player able to squish down as well but navigating the dark shapes that overlap each other while in such a cumbersome form can lead to more cautious navigation, especially since enemies are often tailor made to guide some levels in general or play into the Wonder Flower’s effect in devious ways.

There are some trends to be found in Wonder Flower ideas admittedly, altering how enemies work or making you become one being repeat ideas but ones with quite a bit of mileage due to the unique functions each one has. In fact, it can feel like the game favors certain ones like slime transformation a bit too much, it appearing across a few levels since it lets you easily glide across walls and ceilings but you’re still being thrust into new situations despite the reappearance of this form. In fact, the reuse of some ideas helps some of them truly shine, since the first time you encounter them might need to spend its time training you up on what’s going on or it might be so early in the game it would be strange to come forward with something quite difficult already. When a Wonder Flower power reappears though, it can sometimes even throw in a surprise trick, making you think it’s one you’ve seen before only for a wild twist to hit you. The bouncy ball hippos that rain down from the sky in one level reappear in another, so when you grab the Wonder Flower and expect another downpour, you instead spring off one and suddenly you’re tumbling through outer space as they float by. This is a first world variation too so already it’s going for something out there before you’ve really dug too deep into the game, and the fact the game won’t constrain itself too much ensures there is some true excitement in seeing how the next level will be twisted into something new no matter where in the game you might be.

 

Because Super Mario Bros. Wonder never abandons its wheelhouse as a 2D side-scroller during the Wonder Flower portions, it also gets to pull from the game’s strong movement fundamentals. Many of the control styles or level shapes taken on could slip into a platformer based around their functions and provide an entertaining time, whether they’re simple fun like bouncing around a stage rapidly filling with giant bubbles or legitimately dangerous like trying to ride a moving monster as it winds around and can nearly toss you into the lava. While the Wonder Flower is a clean way of segmenting the level between more standard platforming dangers and something more involved and unusual, the design sensibilities remain strong so that things aren’t confusing and you’re still being tested on things like movement ability first and foremost. Creativity is on show and its easy to marvel at the inventive way things were suddenly changed, but the game doesn’t forget the fun is in the engagement with an idea and many are smartly aligned with things the level was already testing your knowledge of.

If there’s one area the game could have pushed these flowers more though was during the game’s boss fights. Most boss battles will be with Bowser’s son Bowser Jr., and while he seems a little plain when you kick off that first fight, luckily he’s got tricks up his sleeve as well so the fights can shift as strange new conditions are applied. Bowser Jr. may get some new power or the arena will change, and it’s a little more complicated to actually catch the prince when he’s diving into rising and falling columns of honey. Still, it feels like this one place is where the game was a bit hesitant to shake things up too much with how a Wonder Flower kicks in, and while we at least get a fairly involved and challenging final boss and even a few regular stages have something close to a boss battle, Bowser Jr. ends up feeling like his fights might have been conceived before the design team decided to embrace their imagination fully.

 

Wonder Flowers are definitely the star of the show here in Super Mario Bros. Wonder and the backbone to the incredible heights the game reaches as platforming action can head in inspired new directions and require new approaches to maneuvering to succeed, and with some games this would be all the praise necessary to earn it high marks. Super Mario Bros. Wonder isn’t done throwing interesting ideas at the player on how things can be handled though, because you might have noticed by now I’ve been careful a few times to use phrases like “standard levels” to describe the game’s levels. While there are nearly 80 full-fledged levels to conquer, Super Mario Bros. Wonder has more than 150 it offers, and so it’s time to start diving into the many other wonderful ideas the game puts forward that don’t even require the effects of a colorful flower.

 

WONDERLUST

While Prince Florian joins Mario and the gang on the adventure through the Flower Kingdom, he’s not just there as the only person willing to talk to other characters in full sentences. Prince Florian is able to equip badges that the player can utilize in any level. To earn most of them requires first beating a badge challenge where it is equipped by default, and there is a wide range in how these badges can improve on your characters’ abilities. The parachute cap is already pretty easy to grasp, pull it out in midair and you can cover longer distances so you can better cross pits or hazards. Maybe you want more vertical reach though, so the boosting spin jump badge will essentially give you one midair jump, this one even helping to turn the initially daunting 100% completion condition of reaching the top of the flagpole at the end of every level into something you can easily sweep up later. These seem like they might just be simple changes to your pre-existing abilities, but you can also get a grappling vine where you can pull yourself to walls from far away and the game’s underwater levels are heavily improved by the Dolphin Kick badge that lets you tear forward at speed and break any blocks in your path.

 

On top of being incredibly useful and having different use cases to enhance how you personally tackle levels, the levels introducing them can be fun showcases or even challenging trials, especially when you get to certain badges that almost seem to exist more for the badge level than regular use. Jet Run makes you run so fast you can even run over thin air for a bit, and while this seems like it’s only good for the badge challenges where you need to make quick changes to your direction or jump at the right time, you can carry it into a few of the Wiggler race levels if you want to really show up the competition. Invisibility seems like it could be a contentious power in a platformer where watching yourself is key to survival at times, but the challenge levels are built around utilizing clues to figure out your position and using your new stealthy look to only alert the enemies you need to help you out.

 

Some badges provide more passive benefits like adding a few blocks to levels to make certain jumps easier, always ensuring you start off a stage with at least a Super Mushroom, or even working as a sensor for the hidden secrets inside stages. Super Mario Bros. Wonder focuses mostly on the Wonder Seeds, but each level is also filled with Flower Coins, these useful for buying some of the passive badges at stores and other goodies. However, each level has special 10 Flower Coins hidden to reward you for being perceptive or demonstrating greater platforming skill. Even simpler Wonder Flower sections can be spiced up by throwing a few 10 Flower Coins about to briefly tempt you into something riskier or more involved, the player sometimes needing to demonstrate a true understanding of the new mechanics if they want to fully complete a level. Some stages have secret exits to find as well and Super Mario Bros. Wonder isn’t afraid to put exciting and entertaining levels off the main path as a reward for being thorough, and even out in exploring the world maps you can sometimes uncover little secrets like a whole dance party level where you need to jump to the beat to help move parts of the level where you need them or properly avoid threats.

Sometimes Super Mario Bros. Wonder just wants to have a short bit of fun with what it calls Break Time levels, these barely even much of a stage and often more a quick little showcase of a fun idea or a small test. They are perhaps a bit too tiny, some could throw in a small iteration or two to keep the cute idea going a little longer without really breaking the idea they’re some sort of relaxing bonus stage between the more involved and inventive ones. One idea that is a bit unsteady though are the Search Parties, these more puzzle oriented levels meant to encourage you to help other players in finding hidden items in stage where players are sometimes given different information or clues. Some of these are a bit too focused on finding invisible blocks, but some are instead great puzzle stages that ask you to think outside the box and play into the game’s strong and interesting approach to online multiplayer.

 

Only locally can three of your friends join in the fun, but if you enable online mode, even a solo player is no longer truly adventuring alone. While exploring a level, other players attempting the same stage will be visible running about. You can’t touch them and they can’t do anything like beat enemies for you or grab pick ups, but they can show you things and more importantly, they can place standees. Standees are like little player made checkpoints, and if you die, your ghost can fly over to a standee for a revival. What’s more, you can also just fly over to the translucent online players for that revival instead, and while your only way to communicate with these players is through a few little emoticons that are mostly positive, there can be some interesting social moments that arise out of it even when you’re not doing a Search Party stage.

For example, one time I came across a Peach player I could tell was having issues, so rather than blitzing on ahead to clear the level myself, I patiently accompanied her to help bail her out when she got hurt. You can even hand off reserve power-ups if you so wish, but at other times, in the toughest levels, it was comforting sometimes to have other players running alongside you, attempting the same hard jumps, and always there to be your little anchor if you missed and need a quick little revive to try it again. Some players would even pick the invincible Nabbit not to clear a level easily themselves, but so they could be a constant companion to players in need of a hand, and it was always a little sad to say goodbye when you went through a rather long or difficult level since this multiplayer system doesn’t punish you for ignoring it but fosters cooperation and kindness. I couldn’t help but think of the game Journey where you’re thrown in with a random online player and unable to speak to each other but able to travel in tandem. I wish I could speak to that Red Yoshi who was there with me as we threw ourselves against the game’s final hardest level again and again, but in some way, it’s beautiful that we had no connection before that moment. We had no obligation to wait for each other before moving to the next trial but we still made sure we hit that flagpole together after all we went through.

 

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

Super Mario Bros. Wonder isn’t the kind of genre defining game that the earliest Mario platformers were, but that spark of creativity that made them so appealing lives on through the willingness to experiment and shift up what a Mario level can entail. Already a cavalcade of new enemies, a strong base of flexible power-ups, and top-notch level design would have ensured that this would be an adventure filled with challenges and secrets that could hook a player in and make for an incredible ride that’s hard to put down. By having each main level feature a Wonder Flower effect though, it leads to an extra helping of inventiveness and entertaining play options that motivate you to keep heading forward as you want to see what new unexpected concept crops up next.

 

If it was all just surprises Super Mario Bros. Wonder would certainly command attention, but the substance behind interactions both in standard play and the topsy-turvy situations Wonder Flowers introduce are excellently designed while still being adjustable thanks to additional expansive concepts like the badges and the approach to online play. It was a common thought going around after the releases of Super Mario Maker 1 and 2 that there might not be much need for a new 2D Mario platformer, but the design team has gone on record saying they used that sentiment as motivation to think outside the box. The heart and soul of Mario’s approachable and responsive platforming movement is never pushed aside in pursuit of novelty though, meaning the craft put into making even standard play effective is just an extra layer when you have some extra gimmick layered over it.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is, most importantly of all, exciting. You aren’t just facing some new obstacle course with a slight guiding idea to how recognizable enemies and platforms are placed. Levels are ideas, there’s some new creature in your path or they’ll feature some distinct layout, and then you find the Wonder Flower, and the idea evolves into something that evolves what you’ve seen before but still feels fresh and unexpected. World themes are creative instead of well-trodden reliable tropes, and even though Break Time levels are basic, it still gives off the air of the designers just wanting to share some nifty idea they had that they didn’t want to stretch out and risk breaking. Sure, a 2D platformer in 2023 is going to have a rough time trying to reinvent how we see the genre, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder is not trying to reshape things as we know them. It’s trying to be what the next evolution of Mario should have been long ago, a wellspring of imaginative twists to how a side-scrolling space can be traversed, and it makes it a bit funny in retrospect that certain Mario titles were rated so highly when they seem so safe by comparison. A wondrous playground for imaginative game design, Super Mario Bros. Wonder presents a smorgasbord of enjoyable mechanics that never outstay their welcome but mix marvelously with the ideas that do reappear, the combination captivating since everything was considered carefully and yet approached with a loose whimsy that keeps things fresh and breezy.

 

And so, I give Super Mario Bros. Wonder…

Sorry about that, what that SHOULD be is… I give Super Mario Bros. Wonder a FANTASTIC rating.