Current Events > Super Maro Bros. Wonder is surprisingly ordinary.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I suppose it's better than the New Super Mario Bros. slop, but despite a coat of wowz0rz, Wonder didn't really engage on a meaningful level the way the more "recent" Mario games, like 3D World and 3D Land does. It almost feels like the "Wonder" aspect is quirky visuals while what I wanted was for the quirkiness to extend more strongly to the gameplay as well and with few exceptions like the shadow stretchy wonder power, it's just not there.

I think the Badge system does the game a massive disservice as it means general levels are not designed with any of the really cool movement options in mind as they are optional and exclusive, aside from the associated challenge levels. Really, what the badges are most useful for is challenge modes with the ones that fuck up your movement completely, but I just want a more engaging base experience.

I didn't hate the game, but I also don't think it offers much reason that I will be returning to it... ever. Which is rare for me. I'm still annoyed that Nintendo are not porting 3D Land to Switch as I really want to play that one again.

I feel like the Wonder aspect is tied more to the Wonder Flower effects on the levels, but I agree that the gameplay around it was more your standard 2D Mario fare. It also doesn't help that the game only has three bosses aside from Bowser himself, and all of them are just different fights with Bowser Jr.

Im not sure what you were expecting. As someone who hated how safe and boring NSMB2 and NSMBU were, I thought Wonder was very good. Did you beat the whole game?

I agree 3D Land needs a HD port. Shouldve been included in 3D All Stars.

My biggest hope for super mario wonder is that if a super mario maker 3 were to ever become a thing on the super switch/switch 2/whatever the hell its going to be called is that wonder will be one of the styles used for the game. Assuming with this style the player also has the ability to use some of those badges then this game style has the potential for some real fun player-made levels. (Those super mario wonder ziplines you can grab from below on ride on for example. They always gave me the vibe of the clinger winger level from battletoads, so It'd like to see players come up with some cool ways to use these).

I'm not too big a fan of maximum sweat kaizo mario level stuff, but I love the player made levels that has a challenge a step below that.

Tbh, Mario's big thing in the platforming realm is that it wasn't afraid to change up it's visual style and physics game-to-game unlike many of its peers, both in the 2d and 3d space. In terms of 'wacky' gameplay, that's never really been Mario's thing, as his series has always been about the purity of platforming itself. While the visuals/physics change game-to-game, they feel very Mario, which is a good thing. Wario gets to be Nintendo's wacky platformer, if anything.

I don't really want Mario to focus on 'gimmicks' over level design tbh.

It needed more/better boss fights and less badge challenges and more actual levels

2D Mario in general has never really been anything other than competent. They're good games but not much else.

This is how I felt about the game. Bought it at launch and what I got was a very good 2D Mario game, which is fine, but reviews and impressions made it seem like it was going to be some big shakeup of the formula.

It feels like any interesting edges to the game were sanded down to make the game fit into the "traditional 2D mario box". All the main changes end up being mostly inconsequential, or made the game easier/worse.

for example the removal of the time limit with no change to the length and general structure of the levels only makes it easier/less urgent feeling, with the added effect of removing any time trial/high score option for replay.

the badges that grant extra moves are almost exclusively there to make the game easier, except for the ones like invisibility that make the game harder in a way that is not rewarding at all (after all, there's no time trial/high score functionality). Every badge just has exactly two short levels that showcases it and then it's useless anywhere else.

the bite-size levels were a bit of a change from the formula, but ultimately those were mostly brain-dead easy exemplified by shit like this wasting your time with baby's first tutorial level over halfway into the game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASExyMidmyg

the addition of secret levels was cool but most if not all of them just involve skipping the wonder flower for that particular level and where's the fun in that? ultimately the wonder flower ends up being just as formulaic as everything else as there's exactly one in each level and if you skip it the level is just kinda bland

also Nintendo is so good at bosses so it's super disappointing how lazy they were with bosses in this one

like tears of the kingdom, it was a lazy rehash designed for viral marketing on social and nothing more

Idk, I quite enjoy it. The animations of Mario in particular are so filled with life and wonder. The final challenge was a true challenge and I occasionally think of it still. It's no 3D world, but it's a damn fine Mario game and return to form for 2D.

i like it :3

mario maker 2 is still the best, followed by SMB3

I love the animations and art style.

The only difficult thing is the final level and some coins are in weird places.

I didnt think it was boring at all though.

TheGoldenEel posted...

also Nintendo is so good at bosses so it's super disappointing how lazy they were with bosses in this one

I really enjoyed the Bowser fight actually.

I think it's the best 2D Mario since Mario World. It's basically a 10 for 2D Mario titles.

It's literally meant to be played by 4 year olds, what did you expect?

It was an amazing experience and fun to 100%

No replayability after that.

This is why you play 2D Sonic and 3D Mario

PowerOats posted...

This is why you play 2D Sonic and 3D Mario

Gross, the worst 2D Mario is still better than any sonic game. I'd much rather play SMB1 than Sonic 2 or 3.

The game kinda shows that if the NSMB games just had different artstyles from each other that people would've been far more receptive to them.

But aside from that, the Wonder effects were pretty cool. I wish they did more with the badge system, but I guess they wanted to let the player beat (and fully complete) the entire game without the necessity for any single one...which in turn made them seem like a wasted idea.

voldothegr8 posted...

Gross, the worst 2D Mario is still better than any sonic game. I'd much rather play SMB1 than Sonic 2 or 3.

The only one good enough is Yoshi's Island, World and Bros 3

Bros 1 is Bros 1
Bros 2 is a no
NSMB is Sonic 4 but polished... But it's still Sonic 4

it's so rare for nintendo to have good bosses that i didn't really care that the game barely had any

i hate how the bite-sized levels are super unsatisfying. overly simplistic and content that almost feels like it's not even worth having at all