Review: Super Mario Wonder reinvents 2D platformers with silly, strange, and whimsical gameplay

I am not the biggest Mario fan, at least not historically. I’ve enjoyed all of the classics at this point, but if you asked me what my desert island Switch game would be, the iconic red and green plumbers wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of my list. But now after a weekend with Super Mario Wonder, that might just be changing.

The latest title from the world of the Mushroom Kingdom is here. Super Mario Wonder just launched on Nintendo Switch last Friday, and I have spent the weekend exploring as much of the new game as I could. In just a few words, I am absolutely hooked. But I have much more to say than just wax poetic about how I am ready to lose all of my free time to the escapades of Mario, Luigi, and company.

I first had the pleasure of seeing what Super Mario Wonder was about back in September. Nintendo invited me to come check out a wonderful showcase of its upcoming games – with the newest addition to its main franchise front and center. Even though my first experience with the game only lasted around 30 minutes, I got just enough of a taste to know that I’d be counting down the days until I could fully explore what the whole Switch experience had to offer.

And now that time as come.

After a weekend of playing the game, it’s also safe to say that my initial whimsy from the initial hands-on demo wasn’t just limited to the first impression. That kind of delight and joy isn’t limited to just your first few gameplay sessions but will be present through the entirely of your journey through Wonder’s many different worlds.

I’m not here to give you a technical breakdown of why every level is the most impressive thing we’ve ever seen from a platformer. I’ll leave that to some of the more seasoned gamers out there. But as someone who is finally getting in touch with Mario and his latest imagining, I have to gush a little about what I’ve loved from the game so far.

The thing about Super Mario Wonder that I can’t stop thinking about is just how silly, and even strange, the game is. Nothing about this feels like a classic rendition of the side-scroller. Sure, there are some original enemies like Koopas and Goombas. Hell, there’s even the usual plot of Bower running amok and messing up the tranquility of Princess Peach and her subjects. But the more levels you explore and the more enemies you defeat, the more you realize that this isn’t anything like World 1-1.

The whole experience really is just such a blast. Power Ups feel like the perfect place to start, and oh boy are there tons of new ways to amplify Mario and company’s usual gameplay. The new Elephant upgrade may have stolen the show, but that’s just where the conversation begins. I don’t want to spoil too much, but there’s also a Bubble Power Up that has been a blast to play around with. Not to mention the new Drill mode that imbues Mario with the kind of gameplay that particularly speaks to Studio Trigger fans like myself.

Each of the levels doubles down on that creativity to really push the limits of the new Power Ups, as well as the old abilities. You’ll have to fight new and old enemies alike, which combine with treacherous terrain in order to keep gameplay fresh. Even levels within the same world – while themed similarly – manage to keep you on your toes.

There are levels where the entire world strangely comes alive just to sing to you. Levels where precision is the name of the game and others where it’s all about speed. But each one is still expertly crafted to not only help you explore a new mechanic or ability, but also show off how gorgeous a platformer can look in the process.

Just as the usual Nintendo charm is imbued into just about every pixel of every level, the company also wanted make the game appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. So I suppose my new love affair with Marios shouldn’t come as a surprise. Accessibility in gaming is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart – and to see Nintendo implement it in such a novel way makes me incredibly happy.

Instead of having different difficulties like most titles do these days, the team behind Super Mario Wonder has traveled down a different road. The first of these choices has you pick which character you want to play as. It’s nothing out of the ordinary for some of the more modern 2D titles from the series – expect that your decision changes just more than whether you’ll be hearing Mario, Luigi, or one of the other characters. Picking Yoshi for instance means that you can’t actually take any damage, providing a more care-free way to explore the game.

There’s also tons of different abilities you can unlock that you get to choose from to start each level. Some of these are must-haves to traverse certain environments, but others give you a bit of an edge based on how you’re trying to play. There are tons of different moment abilities, as well as ones that give you a 1-Up mushroom to start off every run-through. It’s all in the name of offering more flexible play styles that suit gamers of different skills.

Super Mario Wonder feels like it’s the jumping off point for the next generation of the franchise – at least as far as the 2D side of the action is concerned. By comparison, Super Mario Odyssey was a defining moment in the game’s history – it was so good that it even got gamers like myself addicted to collecting every single last Power Moon hidden across its creative and charming levels.

The entire Switch era has been defined by this kind of reimagining of Nintendo’s core IP. Breath of the Wild did the same thing with Zelda and the world of Hyrule, only to be followed by a more cozy take on Pikmin, and version of Animal Crossing that took the game’s communal elements to a whole new level.

And now after all of these years, it is 2D Mario’s turn.

9to5Toys’ Take

Like I said, historically I haven’t been the biggest Mario enjoyer. But I’ll be first to tell you that Mario Wonder is absolutely worth the buy. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it – Nintendo has absolutely surpassed all expectations with its latest take on a 2D Mario title. So much so that it was able to convince a more casual enjoyer of the franchise like myself to sink every spare moment of her weekend trying to jump, battle, and wahoo my way through as many levels as I could.

All of that success of course fits the bill for Nintendo – but feels even better knowing that the company didn’t hold the development team to the same crunch standards as the rest of the industry. During my original hands-on time with the game, I learned that Nintendo gave the developers time to work on the game and release it at their own pace. It’s such a refreshing strategy in a world where it feels like every other game is rushed out to hit corporate deadlines.

The results really do speak for themselves. Hopefully Super Mario Wonder and its amazing reception can be at least play some small part to change the video games industry and its obsession with overworking developers. It’s not often you get a game this good, especially not one that manages to achieve such critical acclaim for gamers who have enjoyed every Mario title and those who are recent converts like myself.

In any case, Super Mario Wonder deserves a spot on your Switch. It’s the most whimsical that the heroes have ever been, and completely changes the game for what’s possible from a side-scroller.

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