It's a Wonderful time! (Super Mario Bros. Wonder in early review)

    Friends, it's not every day that we get a new 2D Mario game. Even after years of releasing similar or uninspired products like the New Super Mario Bros. games, the games were still pretty fun. Here's a shocking statistic for you, while people are mocking that now old series (which is funny considering New is a permanent fixture in the title), but the most recent game in the series (not counting New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, since that was basically the same as the Wii U game, or Super Mario Maker 1 or 2, since those were built mostly around the fan community) came out 10 years ago. That was the last time that we saw Mario take on the 2D stage, but now in 2023, we've gotten Super Mario Bros. Wonder! For the first time in a long time, the future looks bright for the 2D Mario landscape, and it looks like they're knocking it out of the park this time. Let's get into why it makes it special from some previous releases, shall we?

A New Adventure!

    The game begins with Mario and friends entering the Flower Kingdom, which they were invited to by Prince Florian. Everything seems to be going well and everyone is really happy, but of course, Bowser ruins everything when he swipes a Wonder Flower and fuses with the castle of this once happy kingdom. He traps most of the Poplins (think the Flower Kingdom version of Toads) in towers with his newly found power, and flies off. As always, it's up to Mario and friends to stop the Koopa King from his nefarious schemes, though this time they have the help of Prince Florian, who assists by equipping badges (which I'll get to later). That's really most of the story so far, which is not too surprising, given the simplicity of Mario's adventures. I haven't completed the game yet, but I have completed the first 4 worlds or so, and hopefully by the time you're reading this post, I'll have finished the game. I would not be surprised to see some major twist towards the end, especially with Bowser spending most of the game so far talking about doing a "big wonder," who knows what he means by that, but I guess we'll see by the end of the game.

Main Players and New Powers!

    The character selection is a bit more interesting this time around, with 7 normal characters and 5 special characters that can't take damage, but they can't use power-ups either. The normal characters are Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yellow and Blue Toads, and Toadette. The special characters are 4 different colors of Yoshi and then Nabbit. I don't know why Nabbit is still here, after being a real nuisance in New Super Mario Bros. U and then brought back as a playable character in subsequent rereleases, but someone at Nintendo must like him for some reason. I should say that the Yoshis feel like they always do, and it's cool that they're treated as a character in this game instead of being closer to an item in a lot of appearances, even if they are treated as an "easy mode" character. It's so nice that Daisy is playable this time around, since she's never been playable in a 2D or 3D Platformer (except Super Mario Run, which is a separate entity as a mobile game.) until now, and she's a really nice addition to the group! Of course, all of the normal characters control the same, it just matters what badges you have equipped and power-ups that you've picked up.

    The power-ups in this game include the old stand-by types, as well as quite a few new ones! We have the classic Super Mushroom, 1-Up Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman of course, but there's also the Bubble Flower, the Drill Mushroom, and, of course, the Elephant fruit. The Bubble Flower allows you to blow bubbles which can trap enemies inside, defeating them instantly and leaving a coin in the wake, or it can allow for an extra spring in your jump if you jump on it in the right way. Drill mushroom allows you to drill either into the floor or ceiling, which may allow you to uncover some secrets, especially since most levels that have them around will have some spots too narrow to fit into unless you're drilling into them. The Elephant is definitely what has gotten the most publicity of all of them though, allowing Mario and friends to become elephants. It's a crazy concept, but it works really well! There are even water mechanics allowing your character to store water in their trunks to water flowers later in the level. Lots of very cute touches with all of these powers, and they all look great with the new animation style that is being utilized in this game! One power-up, however, puts all of these to shame, just as I thought it would, and I'm talking about the Wonder Flower.

What makes this game "Wonderful?"

    The Wonder Flower gives this game its tagline for sure, since this is where Nintendo's creativity goes nuts. In every level, there's a Wonder Flower, and once you pick it up, the level is remixed in a different and weird way. There may be a giant enemy that begins chasing your party, bubbles may begin flying in like crazy and bounce you up into the sky, you may transform into something else entirely, you may inflate and start flying through space, stars may begin falling from the sky and allowing you to have a continuous invincible run, the list just goes on and on. So many things can happen with the Wonder Flower, I really don't want to list too many examples for risk of spoiling some of the magic that this game has, but really there are so many of them in this game, I don't think I could possibly spoil everything here. Every single level, I'm so excited to see what the Wonder Flower will do, and every time I've been pretty happy with the resulting reaction!

    The other big new addition in this game is the Badge system. Depending on which badge you equip, you can do all kinds of different powers such as getting a huge hat that lets you glide for a bit, you can get Luigi's jump from Super Mario Bros. 2, you can get the Charge Jump (also from Super Mario Bros. 2), you can do a dolphin kick attack when underwater, and just like the Wonder Flowers, they all seem super cool, though some are definitely less exciting than others. The badges are great for a lot of reasons, but it's really nice that the game gives you a tutorial level with many of them, acting as short little challenge areas where you don't lose lives when you die, so you're able to experiment with the badge and see how the badges work. My favorite badge so far is probably the Luigi Jump, but I haven't finished the game and gotten them all yet, so I could change my mind on that one.

    This game has been an absolute delight to play through so far, which is why I really couldn't wait to start writing about it, even though typically I like to finish games before I write about them. I do feel like I've played enough to understand the overall feel of the game, and I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of it, and maybe I'll even try to go 100% on it! It is such a good time, even in Co-Op, which works pretty well, as long as one person doesn't just fly through levels (as I have been known to do). The collision in this game is nonexistent, so you can't mess with your friends or get in their way like you could back in the multiplayer New Super Mario Bros. games, which is definitely nice. While I haven't had a chance to play online yet, I've heard good things about it, and I'll have to check that out, even though it's more just a "Playing alone together" sort of experience, which does sound fun, I have to say! I really hope that everyone is enjoying this game as much as I have so far, and I totally understand why so many reviews seemed to compare it to Super Mario World.

    Thanks so much for reading this review, friends! As you know, I love Nintendo games, so I absolutely had to write about the first new 2D Mario in quite a while. I hope you're all enjoying the game so far if you're playing it, and I hope that you, like I, will continue to enjoy the game for many years to come. Thanks again for all of your support and I hope you'll all have a great week! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Mario expert, and I'll talk to you again soon!