Super Mario Brothers Wonder is the latest 2D Mario Game released back in October 20, 2023. A very busy October in which Spider-Man 2 and Sonic Superstars also released.


Graphics: 10/10
This game caught my attention because prior to its release we've been stuck with the New Super Mario Bros Series and each of the games aside from the DS original always carried the same look, which then itself carried over into games like Super Mario Maker 1 and 2.

They've completely reworked this game's visuals, there's a ton of subtle animations and throwbacks like Marios jumping, Goombas will actually bite attack you, koopas will look freightened when you launch a fire ball or shell at them.

It's a very good looking game and superbly animated. Each of the worlds have their own distinct flavor going on with gorgeous backgrounds, and wonder seeds that carry a whole host of changes.

Sound: 8/10

For those who don't know, this is the first Mario game where Charles Martinet isn't voicing any of the characters due to him retiring from the role. The characters are voiced by Kevin Afghani and he does an excellent job here.

The soundtrack is completely original compositions with a bit of acapella thrown in and each motif sounds great, they'll sometimes even have tracks of Mario enemies doing singing and that combined with the visual style makes this game incredibly charming.


The only reason I don't rate it higher is out of spite for the talking flower.


Story: 6/10
Mario and friends are in the flower kingdom visiting Prince Florian when Bowser steals and uses all of the wonder seeds to become a giant Bowser ship that plans on using the power of Wonder to overtake the world and you along with Prince Florian have to stop him.


It's a pretty typical story.


Gameplay addictiveness and depth 9/10:
This is almost 2D Mario at its finest and I love everything this game has to offer, I would also love to replay it again sometime. The game is a traditional Mario game, you enter a level, get powerups, get to the end, find secrets, and more.

But there's these new gimmicks called badges which can do a wide variety of gameplay adjustments or tweaks depending on what you've equipped, some badges can make you run automatically, give you a floatier or springier jump, a dolphin kick to make you go faster underwater and more.


This game also offers two new powerups, the elephant and bubble flower.

The bubble flower is a superior fire flower, you fire bubbles and they defeat enemies and create some very cool platforms you can bounce off of. The projectiles also shoot in a straight line versus rolling down like the fire flower does. It's the best power up and one you should shoot for if your playing this game.

The elephant can break through walls, gather water and put out fire with it's trunk, attack with its trunk, and it seems pretty solid until you reach some later levels. Because the elephant makes your jumps heavier so some platforms you can reach as Big Mario, you'll be too heavy and can't reach as the elephant.

This game also went and removed the inventory hub that was present in the new super mario bros series, so if you died in a level you can't open up the menu and pop a mushroom to make yourself big, you'll have to use an auto mushroom badge and there's no badge for the other powerups due to my knowledge.

Not the worst thing but it is noticeable.

The gameplay can also be altered because each stage has a wonder flower which will do a wide variety of gimmicks depending on the level. Some levels have the wonder flower be absolutely mandatory for completion, in my case it was the jumping level in special world that was the most frustrating to deal with due to the extremely stingy timer. It's doable though.

Finally last but not least, Yoshi and Nabbit are this games easy mode because when you play as them they don't take damage and can only be defeated by pitfalls or getting crushed. I echo the online sentiment that I would've liked a choice for them to be damaged or not. These characters can also not use any powerups you collect, they'll just go into your reserved slot during gameplay.

Despite my gripes with this, I did use Yoshi to ease on some of the atrocious difficulty levels in there special world so there is a valid case for running them if you simply want to enjoy the game without any frustrating curve balls thrown your way.

The last thing I'm gonna gripe about is the lack of koppa kids, in each world, you might get a Bowser JR boss fight and some worlds will skip him entirely. There's no koopalings present in the base game, and it does make it feel somewhat incomplete compared to the new super mario bros series.

Difficulty is a 5/10 as I believe this game gives the player a fair challenge.



Overall: 9.7 l/10. I had a wonderful time playing this game and I'd highly recommend it for your switch library, I'm looking forward to the DLC it's supposed to get here with the switch 2 edition this spring.


You'll have a wonderful time, no pun intended.