Developer: Nintendo
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
Release Date: October 20, 2023
Official Website
The single most exciting part of Super Mario Bros. Wonder is also the part of the game that I want to write the least about: the Wonder Flower.
In various levels, whenever Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, a Yoshi, or Nabbit touches a Wonder Flower, the entire world around them changes from the standard course to a crazy and magical experience, and it shows exactly why Nintendo has been the company leading the gaming industry since the Ultra Hand was created by Gunpei Yokoi in 1966. In the 15 minutes I played the demo, I saw multiple Wonder Flower effects that showed off the insane creativity of Nintendo, ranging from herds of blue buffalo charging across the bottom of the screen to shooting stars raining down from the sky that invoked the opening of Super Mario Galaxy. Everything I saw made me smile in some way and I wished that I could just drink in the full experience instead of continuing to plod along in the course.
It also puts the Wonder in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and I absolutely do not want to spoil it – or any of the other special stage effects – for anyone else who is reading this. I believe that the Wonder Flower is the ultimate selling point of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and it is why it will be a day one purchase for me and many others: because once you see it in action, you will become a believer in this game.
During my demo at Nintendo Live 2023: Seattle, I played with two other people who I competed with just as much as I cooperated with. I played Luigi, one played Princess Peach, and the third played a Yoshi. I picked Luigi purposefully to see if he got a higher jump like he previously did in Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA for the NES/Famicom or Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, and I was a little disappointed that he didn’t, as almost all of the characters instead seemed to play identically. The world’s graphics were gorgeous as always, and this definitely felt like a natural graphical follow-up to the 2019 release of Super Mario. Bros. U Deluxe, itself a re-release of the excellent 2012 Wii U game Super Mario Bros. U.
The most interesting character concepts were the various playable Yoshi and Nabbit. If you select one of those characters, you cannot take damage and you can do things like ride Yoshi (which I repeatedly did!) and they had their famed flutter jump. To compensate for this, however, Yoshi characters and Nabbit cannot transform when they receive a powerup item. The inclusion of Yoshi/Nabbit is clearly an attempt by Nintendo to ensure that players who aren’t great at platforming games and who want to simply see all that Super Mario Bros. Wonder has to offer are able to do so. And it is honestly a smart inclusion of Nintendo to do so, since it only widens the potential family gamer pool of who can play all together.
I mentioned earlier that Super Mario Bros. is all about competing as much as it is cooperative, and that is the absolute truth. When I was hit by an enemy and I turned into little Luigi, I was still often competing with the other players to get various powerups to get back into the action. I also competed with other players to get coins, the three large purple coins in each course, and even who could land the highest on the flagpole at the top of the course. It didn’t feel vicious at any point, but instead was more fun than anything. There was also a lot of cooperation at play too: At one point, we wanted to get to a purple coin, but it was trapped by a large set of smashable blocks. We ended up working together to get an elephant powerup (more about that in a moment), and then let that player smash those blocks so we could then get the coin. There were other moments of teamwork in luring one of the buffalo creatures over to smash other blocks, and hitting each other’s ghost (when you die, you turn into a ghost that you can control on the screen) to bring that player back to life. There is a real constant tug-and-pull between being cooperative and being competitive that just simply works.
“I believe that the Wonder Flower is the ultimate selling point of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and it is why it will be a day one purchase for me and many others: because once you see it in action, you will become a believer in this game.”
Another feature I, with the patience of my other players, explored during my Super Mario Bros. Wonder demo was the Badge system. Badges are a feature familiar to anyone who has played Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Nintendo GameCube or Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga on GameBoy Advance or Nintendo 3DS: you equip a badge, and you can get a special effect that can change your character’s gameplay. I went through several badges that ranged from a badge that let us jump higher after charging for a moment to getting coins whenever we kill an enemy. Intriguingly, I led my party to a course that had a simple goal: learn how to use the Wall Jump I Badge, clear the stage with it, and get the Wall Jump I Badge to potentially equip in the rest of the game. I loved having a real reward for clearing a stage instead of just moving onto the next level, and I hope Nintendo has these types of winnable badges scattered frequently throughout the game.
If you watched the Nintendo Treehouse video linked above, or checked out any of the other screenshots here, then you can tell that Super Mario Bros. Wonder looks like a beautiful game. I loved all the little details in the world, and the bright colors that really popped out of the screen. Even though the Nintendo Switch was released in March 2017, making this console seven years old, it still can produce jaw-droppingly beautiful graphics.
Finally, there are the powerups. During the demo, I was able to experience the Super Mushroom, the Fire Flower, and the new elephant powerup. The Super Mushroom lets you become regular-sized Mario/Luigi, etc., from their smaller form. The Fire Flower changes your character’s outfit and you can throw fireballs to kill enemies. Both of these have been series mainstays since Super Mario Bros. on the NES, and no one needs me to rehash them. The third powerup, the elephant powerup, was definitely a lot of fun to try out. As a stretched-out pachyderm, your character can swing at enemies sideways, shoot water, and more. It did not feel like a game-defining powerup like the Super Bell in Super Mario 3D World that turned your character into a cat, and I was a bit thankful for that. These 2D Mario games tend to always have various new powerups to try and explore, and I was happy that the one I was able to enjoy definitely did not feel like a retread of what had come before.
Overall, I loved what I found in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and it made me want to see what all it has in store. I really hope that Nintendo puts a demo out on the Nintendo Store for people to try, as I think you’ll find that you’ll want to grab every single Wonder Flower out there like I do and buy this game immediately at launch.
What do you think of the Wonder Flowers?
Are you as excited to see what all they can do as I am?
Let us know in the comments below!
