This is the first time I have played Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and I feel fortunate for that, as this has been an unmitigated delight to experience for the first time, especially now that it has the multiplayer stuff added into it. The result is a big package of Nintendo at some of its most whimsical.
What distinguishes the Super Mario Bros. platforms from their genre peers is something simple, yet sadly so elusive in modern video games: Real, genuine creativity. No level rehashes what you played in the previous one. Meanwhile, you will find yourself wishing that Nintendo DID do that, because every level’s quirk is one that will bring a smile to your face and make you wish for more.
Meanwhile, every single thing in the game, right down to the tiniest enemy animations, background effects, music and general flow of the action, all feel like it was all hand-crafted and so carefully calibrated that not a second is wasted. And so, while you’re doing the same basic things in Super Mario Bros. Wonder that you do in almost every other platformer – this is a genre that only requires a few buttons, and there’s not much you can do to vary the basic mechanics, after all – Wonder makes you feel like it’s an all-new take on it all anyway.
I don’t feel like there’s much point in reviewing that side of the game further, though, since there are surely only a tiny handful of people that would be 1) interested in platformers and 2) only just now looking at Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The real question here is whether the new stuff is “worth it” for the Switch 2 upgrade.
The main addition is a new area dedicated to multiplayer, with 17 new minigames, and some of those are playable online. Some are co-operative, others are competitive, and just about all of them feel like stuff that had been left on the cutting room floor of a Mario Party title, that Nintendo had the wisdom to keep on hand just in case they ever needed content for a re-release of one of its games. I don’t want to sound too critical of the mini-games, because they are good fun, but it’s not going to add more than a couple of hours to the base game, and it’s not enough to get Wonder added to the multiplayer gaming session regular rotation.
What does add value to the Wonder experience, meanwhile, is the Toad Brigade Training Camp levels, which will test your ability to utilise the power-ups and abilities in very specific ways. Given that Wonder itself is a fairly low-challenge exercise overall, these levels will give experienced platforming fans something a little more testing and the sense of satisfaction on completing the challenges that some might have found lacking in the base game.
There are also some new boss battles, and the boss battles that were added to this edition were the ones I enjoyed playing the most, as they go well beyond Nintendo’s usual “jump on the enemy’s head three times” routine for Mario platformers.
The overall theme here should be clear – the new material is endgame stuff, designed for people who have properly mastered the base game and want something to extend the experience, be that more difficult challenges or fun new ways to interact with the game world via multiplayer. It seems Nintendo made the same assumptions about just who the potential audience is for this release that I did in writing the review.
There are also some smaller upgrades that are obligatory for a Switch 2 upgrade. The frame rate is locked to 60fps, which helps with the precision platforming required for those more significant challenges. Whether you’re playing in docked or handheld, it’s also gorgeous to look at. Mouse controls are thrown in as well, though limited in application – the mouse player can control an ally character who makes the game obscenely easy and was clearly designed for a parent or elder sibling to help a youngster out. Still, the mouse is a fun hardware gimmick for this console, and I do like seeing it implemented.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is arguably the finest Nintendo platformer ever, for the way that it managed to perfectly capture Nintendo’s entire philosophy towards platformers. This review might sound flat on the game, but that’s only because the “DLC” that’s been added to the Switch 2 upgrade is difficult to be quite so enthusiastic about. Still, if this is your first time with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it’s adding more to an already brilliant package, and if you already have the game, the “DLC” is only $20, which is more than reasonable as an excuse to dust it off for another whirl.
