Buy Super Mario Bros. Wonder

It can be difficult for Mario to be surprising because we know the red-hatted plumber better than any other game character on the market. He's done everything from platforming to racing to tennis to full-fledged RPGs. This goes double for the 2D platforming that made him famous. Even when you have a game as wonderfully designed as New Super Mario Bros. U, there's an air of familiarity to it that can leave it lacking punch. That is a big part of what makes Super Mario Bros. Wonder such a delight. It takes the safest, most familiar, most iconic part of video games and proves that it can still surprise even the most jaded of gamers.

On some level, you don't really need to describe a 2D Mario title's gameplay. If you've played almost any platformer in the world, you generally know what you're getting. You run, you jump, and you stomp on Goombas; it's all very familiar. However, Wonder is one of the epitomes of that particular genre. The game feels great to play, with delightfully smooth and accessible controls. You can choose almost any member of the Mario cast to play, including Princess Daisy for the first time. Unlike other titles, all of the characters have roughly the same skills, aside from Yoshi (a separate playable Yoshi from the one you can ride) and Nabbit, who serve as "handicap" characters who can't die and have special bonuses.

The spectacle in Wonder comes from the titular Wonder Flowers, which are an absolute delight of an addition to the franchise. They bring an element of the 3D Mario collect-a-thon to the 2D games in a seamless and delightful way. Your goal is to collect the flowers, which allow you to unlock more stages. You'll get one for finishing a stage, but the real fun comes when you find one in a stage.

Touching a Wonder Flower causes the world to change, and each time you touch one, it's different. One stage may cause the pipes to come alive and twist and dance around, and another may cause a nonstop rush of buffalo-like mobs who you have to ride on. Another could start a musical number and turn the entire stage into a roller derby rink. Finding the flowers, which are sometimes obvious and sometimes hidden, introduce you to something new almost every time. Even in the cases where ideas are repeated, they are usually shifted around enough to remain interesting. Sometimes the effect lasts for an entire stage, and other times, it can be for a scant seconds, but you know that touching a Wonder Flower means something interesting is about to happen.

This is what makes the levels glow. Many of the stages are fun and creative on their own merits, but the moment you find a Wonder Flower, you know you're in for an extra treat. It's somewhat akin to getting a new form in Mario Odyssey, except on a larger scale. Most importantly, it prevents things from ever feeling repetitive. There are gimmicks in the game that feel like they could've carried an entire game on their own but are relegated to a single stage. This might sound disappointing in theory, but the sheer variety and constant sense of delight at finding something new far eclipses that.

As is the standard for any good Mario game, platforming antics also come with a variety of power-ups. In addition to the standard Fire Flower and Super Mushroom, you also get a handful of new tricks. The most distinctive — and easily the weirdest — is the Elephant power-up. The Elephant costume turns your character into an anthropomorphic elephant. As you might gather, that makes you huge and stronger, and you're able to smash through obstacles. You can also use your trunk as an attack or use it to water plants to unlock secrets. The Drill Hat lets you drill into the ground and ceiling for additional movement, and it gives you a better Ground Pound. The Bubble outfit provides deadly but slow-moving bubbles that can defeat enemies and be used as platforms. It's a good solid lineup of skills, but Elephant is easily the Super Cape/Tanuki Suit of the game in that you'll never want to swap away from it unless you have to.

Also new to the 2D era of Mario are badges, which bring an element of customization by giving your chosen character a single badge with a distinct attribute. Some are active abilities, so you can glide, double-jump on walls, or swim like a dolphin. Some are passive, so they add extra bonus blocks to a stage, point out hidden Wonder Flowers, or combine all power-ups into a single power-up. There are even challenge badges that make Mario never stop running or become invisible. These badges can be swapped out between stages or upon death.

It's really neat to use badges to customize your character, even if it's just for a tiny bit, to balance out having skills. I frequently swapped between badges depending on the level, but players will probably be perfectly happy picking a favorite. It's also a nice way to give a helping hand to players who are having trouble on a stage without going to the extremes of Yoshi or Nabbit.

In general, Wonder is a masterclass of Mario stage design. Even if you ignored the Wonder Flower mechanic, the stages are all delightfully well designed and stand on their own merits as creative stages — and that's before you take a kid-friendly acid trip. There are challenges to face that always feel fair and reasonable. The difficulty might be on the low side if you're a longtime fan of the franchise, but like Super Mario World, that doesn't stand out when the moment-to-moment gameplay is so fun. There are also a delightful number of secrets and gimmicks. There are stages that have special requirements, such as solving puzzles or using only a certain badge, and there are hidden paths that might unlock new stages.

I'd go as far as to say that Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the best 2D Mario since the SNES days. The New Super Mario Bros. titles were fun and well crafted, but there's a level of raw creativity in Wonder that hasn't been seen since fellow "touch fuzzy, get dizzy" title, Yoshi's Island. It's a genuine delight from start to finish and brings some much-needed life to the plumber's 2D antics.

Wonder also has multiplayer (including online), but it's different from recent Mario titles. Rather than sharing a physical screen, characters are transparent in each other's worlds. You can see the characters but can't directly interact. If you die during a multiplayer game, you return as a ghost and can be revived by an ally. You can even put down special standees which, if touched by a ghost, will revive them. In the case of playable Yoshi, players can ride him; this allows for the possibility of having a friend help you through a tough stage. It's a nice addition, and while it lacks the physicality of the other games, it's more fun on a personal level.

The new art style helps, too. The character artwork and level design have all been given a fresh coat of paint that I absolutely adore. It's a really cute style that gives everything a more cartoony style, and it provides it with a more distinct personality by moving away from the same (albeit charming) 3D design that Nintendo has been using for a while. The music is also excellent, with a solid mix of new and old tunes. The voices for Mario and friends have been changed, but after a short adjustment period, I barely noticed. It's-a him, Mario, even if he sounds slightly different now.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a must-play for any fans of the plumber. It's constantly creative, consistently clever, and lives up to its name. There's so much raw delight and fun in the game that everyone will smile while going through it. Pretty much every new gameplay feature is a hit. It's the familiar 2D Mario gameplay, but it's a perfect example of why familiar isn't shorthand for bad. As long as there's creativity and energy in the design, even the grandpa of platformers can get up and dance.

Score: 9.5/10