What is Super Mario Bros Wonder?
The Super Mario series has been around for over forty years, offering timeless adventures for many. Though in recent years, the indie space and even its ape rival outclassed it.
Desiring to take that crown back, the 2D Mario team released Super Mario Bros Wonder on Nintendo Switch in 2023, recapturing the magic that was missing in the New Super Mario Bros. series. Fast forward a few years, and Nintendo celebrates Mario’s 40th Anniversary with a Switch 2 Edition.
With all the new additions to the base game, Super Mario Bros Wonder Switch 2 Edition + Meet Up at Ballebel Park still captures Nintendo magic the original release created.
Publisher/Developer: Nintendo/Nintendo EPD
Release Date: October 20th, 2023 (SW1), March 23rd (SW2 Edition)
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2
Price: $79.99 for Digital Bundle/Physical Cart, $19.99 for Upgrade Pack
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2
Premise of Super Mario Bros Wonder
Receiving an invitation to visit the Flower Kingdom from Prince Florin, Mario and his friends rush to visit the nearby land. However, after seeing the sights and sounds, familiar threats emerge. Bowser steals the Wonder Flower, fusing with the Prince’s castle and warping the land in his image.
This causes the Mario crew to fight Bowser’s army, led by Kemek and Bowser Jr., who are both using the Wonder Flower to make themselves powerful threats.
It’s a simple premise, but unlike the New Super Mario Bros. games, there is a genuine attempt to add personality to the world. Seeing familiar faces like Captain Toad assisting the Mario crew and meeting to the adorable Poplins offering advice across the adventure, exploring the overworld to see the friendly NPCs is appreciated.
The premise also allows other Mario characters to join in on the adventure, like Princess Peach and Daisy, which is a refreshing change of pace. With Peach always kidnapped in every mainline Mario adventure, her joining in on the adventure as she did in Super Mario 3D World is awesome, and I hope this trend continues for the Mario series.
The Return of the Koopalings – Meet up in Ballebel Park Premise
Alongside the main adventure, there’s a side-story that was added with the Meet Up in Ballebel Park expansion. While Mario and friends are on their adventure, they come across a mysterious entrance to Ballabel Park. The crew enters the mines to explore, but is intercepted by the Koopalings.
They steal the powerful, magical flower-like bells, leading Captain Toad and his Poplin mentee to request the Mario crew for help. They gladly offer, battling each Koopaling in every major world to reclaim that magical flower bell.
The Koopalings are delightfully animated and have pre-battle banter. All the while, I enjoyed seeing the new friendly NPCs interacting with the Mario crew. It complements the main campaign nicely, but the adventure doesn’t expand the core campaign.
Super Mario Bros Wonderful! – Gameplay
For how timeless 2D Mario gameplay is, playing through Super Mario Bros. Wonder feels like picking up my SNES controller for the first time again.
Mario and friends all control the same, featuring the tighter movement from Super Mario World, but with some of the movement options like the wall jump from the New Super Mario Bros games. It’s a masterful combo, leading to fantastic feeling platforming.
Supporting the tight platforming is a series of familiar and new power-ups. The Fire Flower returns but is also joined by three new power-ups.
These consist of the melee-focused Elephant Form (breaking blocks and throwing water around), the Bubble Flower (throwing bubbles, trapping foes, and creating temporary platforms), and the Drill Mushroom (diving into the ground and moving underneath ceilings).
The SW2 Edition adds the Flower Form as a new power-up, having a Yoshi-esque flutter jump and upward flower-based projectiles.
A Helping Hand – Yoshi & Nabbit Gameplay
But what about newcomers to the 2D platformer? Super Mario Bros. Wonder lets players play as Yoshi (having his flutter jump and tongue attack) or Nabbit. However, they cannot use power-ups like the rest of the cast, who are impervious to damage.
It’s a shame there’s no option to turn that accessibility feature off, but for younger players new to platformers, it’s a nice option to have these characters as playable.
What Do Ya Feel Like – Super Mario Bros Badge System
In addition, gameplay can be expanded throught the use of an equipable badge. These offer access to new moves like upward wall-jumps, faster running, and more. Some special levels are built with this in mind to unlock them. But otherwise, the main campaign can be played with whatever badge-loadout the player has equipped.
Traditional Meets Innovation – Level Design
The core of Super Mario Bros Wonder is tight platforming challenges that take everything from 2D Mario adventures, but adds a small twist. For every simple run and jump venture through flowery meadows and deserts, there’s a unique twist for every single level.
And that is, the Wonder Flower. It completely transforms a level with random modifiers. These range from changing character speeds to flat-out transforming Mario and friends into various enemies. It combines the surprise from the best of Mario’s 2D (Yoshi’s Island) and 3D (Mario Galaxy & Mario 3D World) titles.
My favorite example of this is later in the game. Mario touches a Wonder Flower, and he turns into Metal Mario from Mario 64. I had the dumbest grin on my face, running through electricity that damaged me earlier in the level.
Collecting the Wonder Seed reverts the level to normal, but finding every Wonder Flower effect is half the fun of Mario Wonder’s enjoyable platforming.
Trials of a Toad – Toad Brigade Missions
But if you want something more controlled, the Switch 2 Edition adds Toad Brigade courses. These challenges take levels old and new, asking Mario and friends to complete them in new ways.
Highlights include using mechanics from the multiplayer modes, rushing to the goal while invincible, and using specific badges to get through a course. These test your mastery of the Wonder’s mechanics and are a blast to complete.
Heated Bouts – Super Mario Bros Boss Encounters
At the end of most worlds, there are encounters with Bowser Jr using Wonder Power in clever ways. These boss fights leverage the game’s mechanics well, using mechanics like swimming to good effect in one fight.
But by far the best boss encounter has to be the final one against King Koopa himself. Running with a heavy metal motif, Castle Bowser offers a good mix of challenge and set-pieces. Finishing him off was satisfying, but the best boss fights are exclusive to the Switch 2 Edition of Mario Wonder.
Each Koopaling battle uses unique mechanics and is visually distinct. They are varied, including such wonders as a living storm cloud that uses lightning and wind to push you away, or a giant puppet that you have to pull the strings down to make it punch itself, and smashing through a crystallized koopa that uses other crystal platforms.
They are enjoyable and unique battles, addressing the lack of boss variety in the Mario Wonder experience.
A New Coat of Paint – Presentation in Super Mario Bros Wonder
For a time, whenever a new 2D Mario adventure was released, it would wow people. Seeing the more defined pixels of Super Mario World and seeing the breathtaking storybook-inspired visuals of Yoshi’s Island, Nintendo took visuals seriously for their 2D Mario platforms.
But with the New Super Mario Bros games, they focused more on gameplay instead of presentation, resulting in fun but bland-looking games. With Super Mario Bros Wonder, Nintendo returns to making an earnest attempt to make a beautiful 2D Mario game.
Bright colors for every level, combined with fantastic key-framing for Mario and the cast, make everything feel like a playable cartoon. In many ways, it feels like what would happen if Nintendo combined the best visual features of Yoshi’s Island and Super Mario World.
This extends to the Switch 2 Edition, supporting a higher resolution target (4K Docked/1080p Portable), and the game looks stunning in both modes. The lack of a proper 120 FPS mode is a shame, considering the hardware could pull something like that off.
Mario the Melody Maker – Soundtrack
This change in mindset extends to the soundtrack as well, with Super Mario Bros Wonder featuring catchy music with personality, mirroring the scores from Super Mario 3D World or Super Mario Odyssey. Every level having a charming theme that brings each course to life.
But the musical highlights are specific courses where the Wonder Flower effect has the enemies actively singing a charming melody as Mario and friends run through a level. My favorite highlights have to be the final stages that leverage this style of music-powered level design.
Bower’s final battle and his lead-up stage lean heavily into the rock and metal genre, being a fantastic fit for a final gauntlet for Mario to run through.
Overall, the game’s soundtrack is as varied and full of life as the adventure’s high-quality presentation.
Meet up at the Park – Super Mario Bros Wonder Multiplayer
The biggest addition to Super Mario Bros Wonder on Switch 2 is an extensive multiplayer offering. After completing the first four levels in World 1 and visiting the park, you and up to three friends can partake in enjoyable multiplayer challenges.
Before getting into the different modes, I must highlight a disappointment. Some of the game modes, like a few-versus matches and all the Co-Op attractions, are locked to local multiplayer. Fellow LogNet writers Don, Subagels, and I got around this via GameShare (which worked very well), but the fact that these aren’t natively online is a problem.
Super Mario Bros – Survival Attractions
For offline multiplayer, there are several survival attractions. Leveraging the game’s tight platforming controls and mechanics, players are tasked with maintaining the most lives. These levels could involve players throwing bombs at one another, jumping on platforms that disappear after a few jumps, and more.
These took advantage of the game’s badges, with players able to select one ahead of each round. These got pretty intense, making them quite a joy to play. And with a sizable number of levels and survival challenges, this is one that you can go back to often.
Yoshi-Themed Attractions
Alongside the survival attractions, there are a few Yoshi-themed ones in local multiplayer. These are composed of races where the player who feeds their Baby Yoshi the most wins, or they play as actual Yoshis, eating the most fruit.
Co-Op Attractions
My favorite multiplayer mode is the Co-Op attractions. This mode is where up to four players in local multiplayer work together to complete a challenge. The variety on offer for these attractions is quite varied, with three specific ones being major highlights of the entire experience.
The first is a Bomb Bomb Toss attraction, where players take turns holding a bomb as everyone progresses through a level. After a few seconds, you have to pass the bomb to a specific player. The frantic nature of this forces players to stick together, never wandering too far off. If they do, the timer goes down fast, and then everyone blows up.
The second was something ripped right out of Super Mario Maker, where one player runs and jumps through a level, while the other makes platforms to help them get across massive bottomless pits. Subeg and I played this one extensively. The tension of not having one of us fall is ever-present.
And by far the best mode in the entire package is the Captain Toad attraction. He can’t jump, so players control him moving left and right, while the other player controls a bird that can jump and hover in the air. It takes the core concept of 2D Mario and adds a surprising layer to the experience. Carefully making the right movements and trusting your ally to jump at the exact moment is rewarding.
Super Mario Bros Wonder Racing Attractions
Exclusive to online multiplayer are racing attractions. Riding a flying flower, a shoe with wheels and wings, and even a bouncy ball, these races test your mastery of Mario level design in clever ways. For example, the bouncy ball races leverage its bounce mechanics, with the ball bouncing between walls and having proper momentum.
And with the flower and shoe races, there’s a Mario Kart-like after-trail where following your rivals actually builds up speed. So many races between me, Don, and Subeg were a blast because we kept hitting split-second times. It reminded me of engaging Mario Kart or Sonic Racing CrossWorlds matches, and that’s a great feeling.
Platforming Racing Attraction
Another exclusive online race-type is a platforming challenge, where players navigate a course that reveals itself over time.
Like some of the other attractions, you can use badges to make things easier, but with two levels to play through, playing these got intense.
A major highlight was during the downward level, where Don and Subeg were ahead of me, and I was frantically trying to get through.
Closing Thoughts on Super Mario Bros Wonder SW2 Edition + Meet Up in Ballebel Park
To say Super Mario Bros Wonder is the greatest 2D Mario platformer since Super Mario World or Yoshi’s Island would be an understatement. It takes the best aspects of the New Super Mario Bros games and combines them with high-quality presentation, creative level design, and gameplay decisions one would expect from the mainline 3D Mario platformers.
All that, combined with a wide slate of new multiplayer modes and welcomed inclusions to the main adventure with this Switch 2 Edition release, and even at the high price tag of $80 for the physical release, this is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for an amazing platforming adventure.
Score: 9 out of 10
This game was purchased by the reviewer for the purposes of this review.
Pros:
- Visuals look stunning, with the art direction enhanced by the S2 Edition’s higher resolution target.
- New Koopaling Boss Battles are welcome inclusions, adding more variety to the single-player campaign.
- Multiplayer Modes are a ton of fun, having a lot of variety for versus and co-op play.
- Platforming mechanics, controls, and level design are some of 2D Mario’s best.
- Music is charming and has some memorable melodies.
- Wonder Flower keeps things interesting with unique modifiers for every level.
Cons:
- Lack of 120 FPS support a slight disappointment.
- Co-Op and Specific VS Attractions locked to GameShare/Local MP is a disappointment.
