Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Super Mario Bros. Wonder
"Onward and upward!"
Protagonist(s): Mario Luigi Princess Peach Princess Daisy Yellow Toad Blue Toad Toadette Yoshi Red Yoshi Yellow Yoshi Light Blue Yoshi Nabbit Prince Florian Genre(s): Platformer Platform(s): Nintendo Switch Release: October 20, 2023 Developer(s): Nintendo EPD Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Super Mario Predecessor: Super Mario Maker 2

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a 2D side-scrolling platformer released on the Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2023. It is the twenty-second mainline game in the Super Mario franchise. This is also the first game to feature Kevin Afghani as Mario and Luigi, Giselle Fernandez as Princess Daisy, and Dawn M. Bennett as Nabbit, replacing Charles Martinet, Deanna Mustard, and Natsuko Yokoyama, respectively.

Why It's Wonderful

1. The game adds various fresh ideas that distinguish it from previous 2D Mario games, such as new powerups, more playable characters, and the badge mechanic.
   • Following Super Mario Run, the game marks Princess Daisy's second playable role in a 2D Mario game.
   • Yoshi makes a return as a playable character for the first time since Super Mario Run in several colors.
   • Yellow Toad, Blue Toad, Toadette, and Captain Toad (as a non-playable character) also return.
   • Nabbit also makes a reappearance. Much like previous games, he and the Yoshis are invincible to enemies and he still cannot use Power-ups except for the Super Star.
   • King Boo finally appears, and it's great to see him in the Super Mario series.
2. Prince Florian is an adorable and extremely likable new supporting character.
3. The talking flowers' dialogue adds life into the game, and a lot of their dialogue is funny.
   • Also, the talking flowers has multiple languages which is set to console's language by default and can be changed to any language including two Spanish and Portuguese localizations such as Rafael Parra in the European Spanish, Alan Fernando Velázquez in the Latin American Spanish, Luís Barros in the European Portuguese (which also voiced Mario in the European Portuguese dub from The Super Mario Bros. Movie) and Leandro Hainis in the Brazilian Portuguese.
4. Kevin Afghani, the new voice actor for the Super Mario franchise as a replacement of Charles Martinet (who departed from his voice-acting career of the series and became a Super Mario ambassador in August 2023), does an excellently great job at voicing Mario and Luigi since his voice work of them perfectly resembles what they sounded like when they're voiced by the latter VA.
   • In fact, his Mario impression sounds like Charles Martinet's voice for Mario in the GameCube era.
   • Mick Wingert does a great and entertaining job voicing the Talking Flowers despite BQ#1.
5. The course hub takes a different path from previous 2D Mario games and goes for a hybrid approach (part linear, part open world), like Yoshi's Wooly World and Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
6. Gorgeous graphics that are a massive upgrade from the New Super Mario Bros. series.
7. The badges add a lot of replay value and variety, as well as turning off the sounds after completing the Final-Final Test.
8. Tons of nostalgic references.
9. Great new Power-ups, with them being the Drill Mushroom, the Bubble Flower and the iconic Elephant Fruit which the latter transforms Mario and his friends (except Yoshis and Nabbit) into bipedal elephants, they can defeat enemies and fill and launch water with their trunks.
   • Additionally, if you beat a level, as an elephant with water filled in your trunk, the character launches water to a Poplin causing the bud on their head to bloom.
10. Most of the levels are really fun to play, and they have lot of replay value and three Purple Coins each. Not to mention that some of these are very challenging.
    • The Wonder Effects are great and creative, and they are in every level.
11. Fantastic catchy music, as expected from a Mario game.
12. This game re-introduces extra lives and game overs, both of which were absent in Mario Odyssey and Bowser's Fury, providing slightly more challenge than those games did.

Bad Qualities

1. The talking flowers can be annoying for some people, especially when they're screaming in some levels, which can quickly get on your nerves. Luckily, there's an option to turn their voices off (similar to Bubsy 3D).
2. Missed opportunities:
   • For some reason, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Yellow Toad, Blue Toad, and Toadette all play the same, this removes Luigi's ability to jump higher than Mario, much like Super Mario Maker 2, and even Princess Peach's and Princess Daisy's abilities are sadly removed. Yoshi and his species even play in Easy Mode, and this is completely disappointing, especially to Yoshi fans. Much like Nabbit, he and his colors don't even get to use any of the power-ups at all, except for the Super Star.
   • There are no extra/unlockable playable characters in the game, such as Rosalina, Wario (though this can be excused that he is in WarioWare: Move It!), Waluigi, Donkey Kong, Birdo, Toadsworth (sound familiar?), Pauline, etc.
   • Multiple old power-ups are missing (the Ice Flower, the Super Leaf, Mini Mushroom, Propeller Mushroom, etc.).
   • Kamek serves no purpose and doesn't do anything in the game other than minor stuff, which is rather disappointing since other games have him battling against Mario, Luigi, etc.
   • The Koopalings are absent.
   • Disappointing unlockable from reaching 100% (including achieving all 6 medals), as all you unlock upon doing so (aside from the Sound Off badge) is a new title screen, and that's it.
   • Aside from the fact that you fight Bowser Jr. multiple times and Bowser in his castle form, the variety of bosses is very lacking.
     • This is due to other bosses being survival-like levels for Wonder stages, alongside Wonder Boat Bowser interior.
3. Just like Super Mario Galaxy 2's infamous "The Perfect Run" challenge, "The Final-Final Test Badge Marathon" level is extremely hard. Worse yet, it's treated as a regular level unlike other Badge Challenges, which means you will lose a life when you die.

Trivia

• The "Wowie zowie!" quote that Mario and friends grab the Elephant Fruit rapidly became an internet meme.
  • Elephant Mario also appears in the Choco Krispis frosty flakes.
• One level "Piranha Plants On Parade" is a clear reference to the infamous psychedelic "Pink Elephants On Parade" video from Disney's Dumbo and the Super Mario RPG commercial of the singing Piranha Plants.
• This is the first Mario game to be released since Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. Coincidentally, the game was released on the first anniversary of Mario & Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.
• The Bubble Flower power-up appeared in a 2016 Super Mario World ROM Hack named New Super Mario World 1: The Twelve Magic Orbs, seven years before this game released, complete with the same colors from both the power up and Mario as well as the same ability to jump into the bubbles.

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