Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023): The Review

Overview

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a respectable addition to Nintendo’s ever-growing lineup of Mario games. It makes a clear effort to uphold the series’ standards in gameplay, visual style, and replayability. While it doesn’t quite stand out from the pack, particularly in terms of visuals, it’s far from a misstep and remains an enjoyable experience overall.

Score: 8,5 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a confident, polished entry in Nintendo’s long-running platforming dynasty. From the outset, it’s clear that a lot of care went into preserving what makes Mario games work: tight controls, clever level design, and a constant sense of forward momentum. While it may not radically redefine the franchise’s visual identity, it still looks and feels like a premium Mario experience through and through.

The platforming itself is excellent. Movement is crisp and responsive, and every jump, dash, and bounce feels deliberate. Each level is carefully constructed to balance difficulty, theme, and discovery, ensuring that nothing feels randomly thrown together. Enemy placement, platform spacing, and environmental hazards all serve a purpose, creating levels that feel handcrafted rather than procedurally assembled.

One of the game’s strongest ideas is the Wonder Flower and its resulting Wonder Effects. These moments twist reality in creative ways, transforming familiar stages into something unpredictable and often spectacular. Whether gravity shifts, environments come alive, or the rules of movement change entirely, these effects keep the game feeling fresh and surprising right up to the final world.

New mechanics like the Item Balloon and the Badge system add meaningful layers of strategy. Being able to store and swap power-ups on the fly opens up new tactical options, while badges subtly reshape how you approach levels. Since badges can’t be lost when taking damage, they encourage experimentation without punishing failure, which fits perfectly with Mario’s accessible design ethos.

The audiovisual presentation is another major highlight. World designs are vibrant and imaginative, animations are fluid, and the soundtrack is stacked with memorable tracks. Every world benefits from music that reinforces its identity, while minigames and boss encounters are elevated by energetic, infectious compositions. Simply put, this is a game that sounds as good as it plays.

The Negatives ⚠️

Despite its many strengths, Super Mario Bros. Wonder stumbles when it comes to storytelling. Platformers aren’t typically narrative powerhouses, but the game’s plot is as basic as they come. You get a familiar “save the kingdom” setup, complete with MacGuffins and surface-level world-building that never evolves beyond its initial premise.

The Flower Kingdom itself, while visually appealing, lacks narrative depth. Locations feel more like themed backdrops than lived-in places, and characters rarely rise above their functional roles. The story does its job of tying levels together, but it never becomes memorable or emotionally engaging.

Voice acting is another missed opportunity. While the Mario franchise has never leaned heavily on spoken dialogue, the near-total absence of it here makes the story feel even flatter. Aside from the fully voiced flower characters at checkpoints, most cutscenes rely on silent gestures and non-verbal sounds, which limits their impact.

Some accessibility features, while well-intentioned, come with trade-offs. Characters like Yoshi and Nabbit allow players to ignore enemy damage entirely, making the game far easier, but they also can’t use power-ups. This can make their gameplay feel repetitive and even restrict level completion in certain cases.

Finally, while the game does an admirable job keeping things fresh, its core identity is still very familiar. Strip away the Wonder Effects, badges, and power-up twists, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder looks a lot like many Mario games before it. Without its clever design flourishes, it wouldn’t stand out nearly as much.

The Experience 🎮

Playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder is, above all else, fun. The game understands the delicate balance platformers need to strike: easy to pick up, difficult to master. New players are given plenty of safety nets, while veterans can push themselves by hunting down hidden Wonder Seeds, optimizing routes, and experimenting with different badge combinations.

The progression system reinforces this flexibility beautifully. Simply completing levels will usually earn you enough Wonder Seeds to move forward, but skilled or curious players can speed things up by uncovering hidden ones. This creates a natural difficulty curve that adapts to how much effort you want to invest.

Replayability is a major part of the experience. Levels often feel completely different when revisited with new badges or power-ups, and discovering secondary uses for abilities, like the Elephant Fruit’s water-spraying tricks, adds an element of experimentation that rewards curiosity. The game rarely spells these things out, trusting players to learn through play.

Minigames help break up the pacing and prevent fatigue. Whether you’re racing a Wiggler, surviving enemy gauntlets, or hunting for hidden objects, these diversions keep the experience lively and varied. They also reinforce the arcade roots of the franchise, offering bite-sized challenges that feel distinct from standard levels.

By the time the credits roll, Super Mario Bros. Wonder feels like a celebration of Mario’s design philosophy: inclusive, inventive, and endlessly replayable. With around 20 hours for the main path and closer to 30 if you explore everything, plus both local and online multiplayer, it offers excellent value for its price. It may not reinvent Mario’s world, but it refines it beautifully, and that’s more than enough to make it worth your time.