Review: SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER offers all the wonder

In October, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. Wonder on the Nintendo Switch. Many believe that this will be the last great Nintendo Switch game before its successor and the question arises: is it a worthy farewell? Nintendo was kind enough to provide me with a code for this review, but all thoughts are my own. You can purchase your own copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder from the eShop or your favorite retailers, including GameStop (affiliate link).

Introducing the ultimate gaming adventure that will transport you to a world of pure joy and excitement! Get ready to embark on an epic journey with Super Mario Bros. Wonder for Nintendo Switch. This Nintendo platform masterpiece will captivate your senses with its stunning graphics, immersive gameplay and nostalgic charm. Join Mario and his friends as they navigate challenging levels, defeat menacing enemies, and collect power-ups to save Princess Peach. With its innovative features and endless fun, Super Mario Bros. Wonder It’s a must have for any gaming enthusiast. Get ready to jump, stomp and slide your way to victory!

Find wonder in the next evolution of Mario fun. Mario’s classic side-scrolling gameplay is revolutionized with the addition of Wonder Flowers. These revolutionary objects trigger spectacular moments that you have to see to believe… Witness pipes come to life, wreak havoc like a giant spiky ball, and witness even more unexpected events called Wonder Effects.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder It’s the first new 2D Mario game for Nintendo Switch, and it’s fantastic. It’s a side-scrolling platformer that lets you play as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, a couple of different Toads, Toadette, some Yoshis, and Nabbit. You’ll work together with up to 3 friends to stop Bowser after he absorbs the power of the Wonder and becomes a giant magical castle. You will have to travel across the land collecting Wonder Seeds and Royal Seeds to weaken Bowser’s hold. Players will find classic power-ups like the Fire Flower along with brand new ones like the Elephant Fruit and the Bubble Flower, just to name a few. It was a lot of fun to play.

First, Super Mario Bros. Wonder It looks absolutely amazing. The animation is so smooth. The characters and backgrounds are gorgeous. Even the shadows are amazing! Digital Foundry has reported on its performance, and this game runs at native 1080p on the Switch when docked and at native 720p in handheld mode. Making it even more impressive is the fact that the game runs at a solid 60fps outside of a few moments on the world map. This really goes to show that even though the Switch is underpowered, that doesn’t mean games have to look bad. Even the little details are much appreciated, like when Mario or Luigi have to reach backwards through a pipe to grab the hat or the way the characters (including enemies) have eye tracking.

Next, let’s talk about sound. Once again, the music and sound effects are perfect. It’s also important to note that the voice cast has changed. I know I was very wary of anyone taking over from Charles Martinet as Mario, but Kevin Afghani and all the other new cast members did a great job. If you pay attention, you can hear the difference as you would expect, but in my opinion it’s not a bad difference. Good job, casting team!

The game for Super Mario Bros. Wonder It’s another great part of the game. Everything looks beautiful and exactly as you would expect. The team did not fall asleep on the job. One thing that threw me for a moment is that the playable characters don’t seem to have any differences beyond their appearance, with the exception of Yoshi and Nabbit. Peach can’t hover, Luigi can’t jump higher, and Toad can’t run faster. This is nice because now you can choose which character is your favorite instead of worrying about what playstyle you prefer. Yoshi and Nabbit are the easy mode for Super Mario Bros. Wonder. They can’t use power-ups but they don’t take damage and Yoshi does his flutter jump and other players can ride him. Another thing to mention when talking about characters is that levels will sometimes have special hidden blocks that can only be seen by certain characters. Anyone can use the block, but only that character can see it.

One aspect I really appreciated were the Wonder Flower segments of the levels. After the first one, I was afraid that all the others would be the same. Thankfully, in all my playing I have not experienced any duplicate Wonder Flower experience. Sometimes it becomes a top-down experience, sometimes it becomes a black and white experience, and the list goes on. I can’t wait to see what Wonder Flower does next.

Another really interesting thing Super Mario Bros. Wonder is that it apparently unlocks a new feature of the Pro Controller. At some points while playing, you may notice music playing from the controller. This freaked me out when I first noticed it because the Pro Controller (I haven’t tested it with Joy Con) doesn’t have a speaker! I’m not sure how Nintendo did this, but somehow they managed to play the music. I absolutely love things like this!

Now it’s time to briefly talk about online gaming. I was honestly very hesitant to play online. I didn’t want to get stuck with random players in lobby style gameplay. Luckily, that’s not how it works. Essentially, other players show up as ghosts at your level and don’t interact with your level. That said, sometimes by watching other players you can get hints on what to do. Additionally, you can activate or even release little characters that don’t seem to do much at first, but can be used for a couple of things. First, they can be used to revive you when you become a ghost (it’s also an instance where you can interact with other players). Secondly, sometimes players will be polite and use standing characters to point out secrets and things like that. Overall, I am satisfied with the online experience.

I haven’t even talked about the badges yet! Badges are special power-ups that you can unlock. They impact all players and can be changed when you start a level. This can include things like running faster, performing crouch jumps to go higher, using your hat as a parachute to slow down falls, and much more. These are a nice touch and if you’re feeling brave, you can even select them at random. It’s also fun because there are several levels designed as challenges for specific badges and are a nice break from the standard levels.

All of this praise is 100% deserved, but there is one aspect of the game that I’m not a fan of and that’s the only reason Super Mario Bros. Wonder I can’t get a perfect score out of myself. The camera in multiplayer drives me crazy! When you play with more than one person, one of them (usually the one who does best, I think) will essentially be considered the main character and the camera will follow them. Unfortunately, there’s no camera stretch or anything. This makes it very easy for other characters to get stuck, not be able to see themselves, and have a frustrating experience because the person with the camera following them is going too fast or not communicating that they’re backtracking or something like that . This is why I was wary of online play and thankfully it only happens in multiplayer mode. I really wish there was a little bit of a stretch or something. Maybe I’m the only one who bothers, but it bothers me a lot and has caused a lot of frustration.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder It’s a phenomenal video game. It looks great, sounds great and sounds fantastic. I highly recommend you play it if you like platformers. The only negative thing I can say is that multiplayer can be frustrating due to the camera. Other than that, it was a real pleasure, made with so much love and care.