Goodbyes are never easy. In the six years since its release, the Nintendo Switch has rejuvenated the company's reputation after the lukewarm reception to the Wii U with industry-defining releases from launch day—looking at you, Breath of the Wild—to recent hits like Pikmin 4.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder feels like the perfect bookend to a console that re-established Nintendo as a gaming powerhouse. While the Switch will no doubt be remembered for Super Mario Odyssey as the plumber's most celebrated outing, don't sleep on Wonder. It's, ahem, wonderful.
As soon as you dive into Super Mario Bros. Wonder, you'll know exactly what to expect. Bright colours, charming music, and a very brief introduction to Mario et al. as they embark on yet another quest. That setup is broadly the same here, which is my only real complaint with Wonder: it doesn't expand upon the established formula in any meaningful way. Of course, that's not necessarily a problem, but unless it's your very first Mario game, Wonder won't surprise you much.
click to enlarge
+ 3It's hard to consider that a problem when everything in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just so polished. The presentation is as clean as ever, with vivid character models looking as good as they ever have, and a nifty board-game style of map layout as you zip to each new level. It all runs incredibly smoothly and shimmers on the Switch OLED, marking itself as one of the best-looking games of the year.
Without getting into specifics of the story, Mario and his crew of friends—many of whom are also playable—have to head to a range of colourful worlds, from the Shining Falls to Pipe-Rock Plateau. Within each realm is a bunch of Wonder Flowers, which you'll gradually collect by beating levels, finding hidden paths, and mastering your new abilities. These are required to hunt down the big bad Bowser and work towards saving the day, but it's more of a setup that facilitates the fun gameplay, rather than a deep story. No big surprises there, but it's certainly much safer in its narrative and setting than some of Mario's more ambitious adventures, namely the Galaxy games and the aforementioned Odyssey.
I really didn't mind that though, because I found it incredibly hard to put Super Mario Bros. Wonder down. The game does start slightly slowly, taking a little while before you're familiar with all the different types of stage and how the progression works. Once it sinks its teeth in, though, the game will not let go. I found myself always hunting for just a few more Wonder Flowers to add to my tally, aiming to unlock the next world on my radar. It's tough to pinpoint exactly what makes it so endearing and unputdownable, but it's no doubt the combination of its simplistic gameplay loop and arresting visual style, where other games just pale in comparison.
click to enlarge + 3While it isn't revolutionary in a gameplay sense, the new features and abilities added to Super Mario Bros. Wonder offer a huge amount of variety depending on how you want to tackle levels. This primarily comes in the form of Wonder Effects, the new forms you'll no doubt have seen in the game's trailers. Yes, Mario turns into an elephant in Wonder, and while I won't go in-depth on the other forms available, they're all transformative in their own way. Some are geared towards you smashing through everything and everyone in your sight, while others encourage further exploration, accessing areas you may not be able to otherwise.
On top of that, the more permanent alteration in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the introduction of Badges. These are akin to perks, where you equip one prior to starting a level and can use its effect consistently until you swap it back out. While you unlock a lot of them by playing specific badge challenge levels, I mostly found myself sticking to the same one or two, only swapping out if a particularly punishing level clearly necessitated the use of a different one.
I spent most of my time using the Auto Super Mushroom, where you start each level with the green mushroom already equipped, so you have one free hit and aren't always tiny. Some adventurous players may want to sample the whole bunch of badges, but found what worked for my style of play and remained loyal.
click to enlarge + 3In all, it took me around ten hours to blast through Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and my only regret in that sense is that to me at least, I don't feel much impetus to dive back in and replay levels. While the levels are all incredibly fun—and occasionally much harder than I expected—Wonder doesn't have the engaging overworld of Odyssey, which all but demands players to go back and explore with a fine-tooth comb. I loved my time with the game, but without much to keep me going after the story's done and dusted, I'll need to leave it a little while before diving into a replay.
But at its core, I think Super Mario Bros. Wonder knows it's a game that marks the end of an era, rather than kicking a new one off in spectacular fashion like Odyssey did. With the Switch inevitably entering its twilight years, this is the perfect game to celebrate its heritage, by refining the 2D Mario formula flawlessly.
I loved Super Mario Bros. Wonder, because it knows exactly how to hook you in for some of the most endearing and accessible fun in all of gaming. It may be sad to think of a gaming landscape without the Switch, but Wonder will always be a title I can look back on fondly as the beginning of the long goodbye.
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch. A code was provided by the publisher.
For more articles like this, take a look at our Reviews and Super Mario page.