Super Mario Bros. Wonder Review
Wyatt Tomlin's Super Mario Bros. Wonder experience
By: Wyatt Tomlin
Introduction
As most of you know or may not know, a new Super Mario game titled Super Mario Bros. Wonder was launched for the Nintendo Switch worldwide last Friday, October 20, 2023 (ten days before my birthday). It is the first 2D Super Mario side-scroller game in over ten years, since 2012 with New Super Mario Bros. U for the Nintendo Wii U. I could not possibly hold back from sharing my experience with the game, so I’m about to get into it.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is very aptly named because it is peculiarly full of “wonder”, in extensive amounts. I had a wonderful experience playing the game, and you can find my gameplay experience on my YouTube channel Wyatt Tomlin, where I captured my entire gameplay in the breakdown of five different parts, which I would appreciate for you to watch. This was a unique game in so many aspects.
Note beforehand: my cognition is not good at all so I will most likely struggle to remember and describe every detail. I will try my best.
Without further ado, let’s dive into my firsthand experience. Welcome everyone!
How I got the game
I was very fortunate to receive and play this game the same day of its initial release date, which is something I have never gotten to do with previous games. Huge thanks to my dad, who pre-ordered the game for me for a birthday present and it was initially supposed to arrive on Saturday, the day after it was released, but it advanced to Friday by 10 PM, according to what it said. When I woke up on Friday morning, got out of my bed and went downstairs, my dad said something along the lines of “look what’s on the computer desk for you”, and I was immediately shot with a ray of excitement and shocked that it had already came. Needless to say, I hastily took the game out of the package, took it out of the wrap, got my camera and screen recorder ready that I had bought a couple years ago, for the adventure I was about to procure, and put the game card into my Nintendo Switch in my bedroom.
How I heard of the game
I have been a Super Mario game fan virtually my entire life after my dad had introduced me to the New Super Mario Bros. series in my early years, particularly the game New Super Mario Bros. Wii for the Nintendo Wii, so it may come as a staggering shock that I was late to know that a new Mario game was coming out. That’s right, I was delayed on finding out that it was actually coming out. My dad and my sister had even known about it and thought for certain I did too, but I did not. When I found out, I was in absolute disbelief, and don’t know how I haven’t found out sooner. I’ve been wondering for quite some time when another 2D side-scroller was going to come out since there was an abrupt broadened gap, and Nintendo was focused on other games like more Mario Party’s, Super Mario Odyssey in 2017, Super Mario 3D World in 2013, you know, the one with the cat power-up and transformation, and other 3D-style games. Also, for some reason people were getting tired and dissatisfied with the New Super Mario Bros. series games, New Super Mario Bros. (2006), New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009), New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012) (which is really unnecessarily misleading given the title because it was the third one in sequence, not the second), and of course, New Super Mario Bros. U (also 2012). And just for a proclamation, I don’t consider New Super Mario Bros. U “Deluxe” or New Super Luigi U. to be adequately deemed as being a part of the series, because the first-mentioned is the exact same gameplay as the original with literally ONE singular additional feature which added Toadette as a playable character, and the latter was just where Luigi was the main character and you only had 100 seconds to finish a course; so both I consider to be a part of the same game. I found out about the game for the first time on August 23, 2023, and felt as if I was living under a rock and like I haven’t been paying much attention to anything. In response to me finding out about the game’s existence, I made a video on YouTube covering it, as well as the retirement of Charles Martinet, as the distinct, longtime voice of Mario, Luigi and other Nintendo characters, who’s been voice acting some of the characters in the Mario games for nearly 30 years. I’m still confused and upset on how I didn’t know of it until just a few months ago.
My experience
Who gives a shit about me or my interpretation of things. But in case you do even slightly, this is how my experience transpired.
How it went
This game was really a remarkable, groundbreaking game changer. It was very different from the previous 2D Super Mario side-scrollers in so many profound ways. Very, very different. I started my journey as Luigi and went on to play the entire game as him. It really gave the nostalgic perception of a recollection from my childhood, when me and my dad would play (probably nearly every day) and he would always be the main character and star of the game, Mario, while I would always preferably play as Luigi, who has pretty much always been my favorite character. I have just always liked the weird green dude. Although, I did play as Toadette, (green) Yoshi, and one of the Toads or some crap later, after I concluded the entire game (excluding the Special World).
I played the full game solely, by myself.
I’ve watched some brief videos of the gameplay prior to my firsthand adventure but did not want to watch those full gameplay videos and boss battle compilation videos of the game that were promptly uploading on YouTube before the game even released that were already getting countless views, because I didn’t want to spoil the game, and wanted to feel surprised as it progressed. Gosh, didn’t know there were that many hardcore, diehard fans! I really don’t know how they were able to have exclusive access to whole game, and on top of that upload all of it to YouTube, BEFORE IT EVEN CAME OUT! Because it came out worldwide on the same day.
The start of the game
It started off with the ‘benevolent Prince Florian’, who is described as the “Wiggler-like ruler of the Flower Kingdom”. Oh yeah! Which brings to the mentioning that this is the first Super Mario game that takes place outside of the eminent Mushroom Kingdom. Ever heard of that one before? Any reminiscence? It has always been the setting of the Mario games. This one takes place in the Flower Kingdom, which is narrated in the game to be “just a short hop away from the Mushroom Kingdom”. It starts out with a gathering of everyone, surrounding the walkway where Prince Florian is giving a gibberish speech of some kind, and a Wonder Flower is overhead of him. You can start to see Kamek (Magikoopa) swiftly flying in the background from side to side as the small crowd starts to frantically scan the sky. But then, the king of the koopas, Bowser breaths a slew of fire and collides with the Wonder Flower, then merges with Prince Florian’s castle and he transforms into a floating Bowser castle, who is very powerful. You can see where this is going right?
Then Mario and his shaken-up friends are stuck with a terrible mess that has transpired over the whole kingdom. Prince Florian jumps into the players hat and joins in the adventure.
Talking flowers
All throughout the entire game you will see this/these ubiquitous, uplifting talking flower(s), who personally helps motivate and make me feel better when I’m having a tough time or getting frustrated with a level. You will see these guys incessantly. This is surely a very useful companion that we have never had anything like in any previous Mario game. I want to point out one moment, specifically where I was getting furious with a difficult course, and the gleefully encouraging plant was telling me to take some “deep breaths”, which is exactly what I needed to be reminded of in that peculiar moment.
These flowers are never lacking in words of encouragement and heartening words that differ for the appropriate situation. I want to personally thank you, talking flowers for all the inspiration, so hear it goes; thank you.
Wonder Flower
The new Wonder Flowers has sort of flirted with the idea of being contemplated as a power-up, but nonetheless still really technically isn’t classified as one. Wonder Flowers are found in almost every course (sometimes hidden or out of view), and upon jumping into them, an incredible unanticipated thing will happen. As stated in the game trailer, literally anything can happen when you touch one. Sometimes there will be alive, moving, dancing warp pipes, singing enemies, a change of angle, a change in your appearance, such as you turning into a spike ball, a green blob, turning tall and stretched out, disguising as an enemy, and many, many more. Don’t expected anything that’s expected if you reach a Wonder Flower.
Power-ups and what they do
Speaking of power-ups, here are the actual ones. Power-ups in this game have been confusing to assuredly define what one is, especially since there are also Badges featured in the game, which are disparate from power-ups. There is obviously still the Super Mushroom, which has been relevant since the very first, original Mario game, Super Mario Bros. in 1984, which make the character bigger and able to still survive the damage of one hit but die after two. There is still the omnipresent Fire Flower power-up, which allows you to shoot fire balls at enemies, and be able to take a maximum of three hits before dying. Don’t forget about the Super Star (or the Invincibility Star) that lets you become immune to taking any damage for a temporarily amount of time.
But what are the new power-ups? Glad you asked my friend! There is now the Elephant Fruit, which stunningly turns the character into an elephant and gives you the ability to hit enemies and blocks with your trunk, hold water in your trunk and splash it out, and duck while swinging your trunk. This is one of the main incentives of the game and makes it stand out.
There is also a Bubble Flower power-up, which enables you to shoot stylish pink bubbles to kill enemies, trap objects inside of them, and be able to leap off of them and get a boost amid air. Pretty neat! I must say!
Last but not least, there is my personal favorite the Drill Mushroom, which has a resemblance to the Spin Drill from Super Mario Galaxy 2. This power-up makes it possible to drill underground and on the ceiling, and also shields and protects you from taking any damage from falling objects or anything overhead of you. It first appears in World 3, Shining Falls.
Also, real quick, I would just like to address this photo pictured below, that shows all the very professedly distorted power-ups. Or in other words, pure clickbait. The one on the far-left, far-right and center are the real power-ups from the game. The other two are transformation effects of the Wonder Flower, not actual power-ups like it suggests.
Problems from previous games that’s finally been refined
If you are a Super Mario player who likes to play with others, there is either some very good news for you, or really bad news for you. In this game, you can no longer pick players up and throw them off into the pit, or even pick them up and throw them at all. For me personally, this flaw in past Mario games has, let's just say, resulted to conflict with my family during playing the game.
Another thing is, when in multiplayer, you are now exempt from annoyingly bumping into characters or colliding with them when playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and now can traverse through other players during the game. That’s a big deal! But naturally, it’s disadvantageous for players who like to torture your fellow players by perpetually throwing them into pits and into enemies.
Also, very notably, you can finally store an extra power-up you may have attained, which is useful because you can use it later or in a more appropriate situation. This feature has never been available in a 2D Mario game.
Another thing is that Nintendo finally ditched time-limits in courses. Now you can comfortably take your time and as much needed, as well as not be forced to be in a rush while in a course. That’s one of countless inducements of the game.
Inventiveness
Most Super Mario Bros. games gleefully reinvent itself to some degree; but this one takes it to a whole other level. The graphics are bold and sufficiently fresh, there are a diverseness of new enemies. There’s now Hoppycats, which as the name suggest, they copy you every time you jump.
There is now Condarts, which aggressively throws themselves, like a dart would, at the player. They fly over top of you, but you must watch out for them, because they will pierce right through you.
Mumsies, are a fun one! They are mummy-like enemies that can be unwound if you move yourself to the right position. These ones are so satisfying to unwind.
I can’t forget to mention Maw-Maws, which I am most ascertain were named after my great grandmother, ‘Maw Maw’. They are cute little fellas but can widely open their mouths and chomp you up.
There are various other distinctive enemies, but that’s all I’m naming. You are going to have to play for yourself to know them all.
Badges
So here we are at the badges in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. These are not to be mistaken for power-ups, because they’re NOT POWER-UPS! There are a range of 24 innovative badges you can obtain throughout the game, which are categorized in three different kinds.
There are the:
Action Badges (the most functional): which allow you to perform certain special moves by pressing the right button.
Boost Badges: which give you passive bonuses.
Expert Badges: which are designed for “experts”, which are to make the experience more challenging and intense.
Different badges can be unlocked through reaching new expanses across the eight worlds.
My personal favorite is probably the standard Parachute Cap, that allows to you slowly float downward when pressing the “R” button or by shaking the controller you are playing with. But there are a lot of cool different ones, which are all used for different things.
The worlds
There are eight new geographical worlds, we’ve just been over this! This includes the extra world. And the novelty of them were pretty much noticed momentarily after just starting the game. The very first world, world 1 was called Pipe-Rock Plateau, which is a mix of hilly grasslands and a rocky plateau landscape, and is the setting that you begin the game in. The second world, world 2 introduced a new fresh design, Fluff-Puff Peaks, which had a setting of the color pink, clouds, and soft skies. World 3 is Shining Falls, of which can only be complicatedly described, is a golden polygonal landscape comprised of large oblongs and octahedrons, with what appears to be hovering over a golden filtrated body of water. The fourth world, world 4, Sunbaked Desert is a desert comprising of white sand that has a large fortress, where some of the levels are hid out of optical view and a player must find and walk into in order for them to reveal and be able to be played. Fungi Mines, world 5 is a gloomy mushroom forest with a slimy, goopy purple and green setting that gradually descends into a deep underground cave. Deep Magma Bog is world 6, and as the name articulates, is a deep underground bog that oozes steaming hot magma over a molten hard rock surface, with pools of lava. Then there is Petal Isles, a world which isn’t defined as with sequential number. It is the center of the Wonder Kingdom and is a small archipelago that contains many islands that have connected pathways. It is where Castle Bowser is located and where the final boss battle with Bowser takes place. Castle Bowser is hovering over the center of this world, and the entire kingdom. It connects to the surrounding 6 worlds. In the game, you will go through this world not all at once, but throughout you will come back to it.
The last world is the Special World, a secret bonus world that was designed to test the players skills. These courses are not easy and can be very frustrating. This is the only world that does not contain a Royal Seed after you complete it, like the other 7 do. It is made up of a set of flower-shaped platforms in the sky. To access this world, you will have to reach a Propeller Flower exit, that you can find throughout the game in other worlds. This world has different pathways that require you to find the Propeller Flower that can be found in secret areas across the corresponding lands.
Royals Seeds
Speaking of beforementioned Royal Seeds, what actually are they?
Royal Seeds are much more powerful versions of Wonder Seeds, so to understand what they are, you have to know what Wonder Seeds are first.
Wonder Seeds
Wonder Seeds are collectable items all throughout the game. The color of them depends on which world you are in. Every worlds Wonder Seeds are different colors. Wonder Seeds are blue in Pipe-Rock Plateau, turquoise in the Fluff-Puff Peaks world, pink in Shining Falls, yellow in Sunbaked Desert, green in Fungi Mines, purple in Deep Magma Bog, orange in Petal Isles, and lastly white in the Special World. Each full level has at least two of them, one of which is given as a reward after completing it, by jumping on the end flagpole and rescuing a Poplin, (who are humanoid beings with flower buds on their heads and are inhabitants of the Flower Kingdom, ruled by Prince Florian). In some instances, you have to have a certain amount of Wonder Seeds in order to unlock and play a course.
The other ones are typically found while activating the Wonder Effect, which is a result of touching a Wonder Flower that you find during a course. Once you collect the Wonder Seeds, the Wonder Effect ends, and the course goes back to its normality state that it was in prior to touching the Wonder Flower.
Okay, so back to the Royal Seed
So, now that you know what Wonder Seeds are, you can have a much clearer comprehension of what a Royal Seed is. Royal Seeds resemble a normal Wonder Seed but are much larger and appear to have golden, crown-like coating. They are found in the end of each world in the palaces except for Shining Falls and Fungi Mines, because they don’t have any palaces.
Royal Seeds are used to help suck up Cloud Piranhas surrounding Castle Bowser in a vacuum-style manner. You will use these to remove all Castle Bowser’s encircling Cloud Piranha. After all, Bowser did call them his “defenseless” Cloud Piranhas. You did see this coming, didn’t you Bowser?
Playable characters
Oh right! I forgot to mention the unique availability of the playable characters. In this game you can play up to four people. You have the extensive spectrum of characters that you can play as. They include Mario, Luigi, Peach (since she isn’t captured in this game for once), Daisy, Yellow Toad, Blue Toad, Toadette, Yoshi, Red Yoshi, Yellow Yoshi, Blue Yoshi, and that weird dude Nabbit who for some reason made a return from New Super Mario Bros. U from 2012, who doesn’t even take damage. How unchallenging! Nabbit also can’t transform into any other form from a power-up. How unchallenging and boring! The Yoshi’s also can’t take any damage or can’t get the transformation of any power-up. I guess it’s a good inclusion for beginners, however.
Difficultly stars
For the first time ever, you can see a course’s difficulty in rank of stars. 1 star being the easiest, 5 being the most difficult. This is an amazing, immaculate upgrade for beginners and the new generation of Mario players. If a level is too tough, you can play another level with a lower difficult store with a lower number of stars. Great and efficacious new addition!
Bosses
Yep. You heard me….or read me. The bosses! Everyone loves good bosses in a Super Mario game. And me particularly, I have always been deeply attentive in the boss battles and what they have to offer in the game. I have a supposably unpopular opinion; I love battling the Koopalings and even admire them so much, I have a collection of plush dolls of each of them and a set of action figures of them (which I can’t find but have to be somewhere in this house!)
But apparently, gamers were getting tired of the Koopalings appearing in the Mario games. Some people have to just ruin it for the rest of us! As a result, Nintendo has started slowly lessoning the Koopalings in recent games. The last appearance as to date of the Koopalings appearing as bosses was in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions from 2017. Ever since, the company has noticeable distanced themselves from the idea of having the Koopalings be in them.
I was principally bummed that they continued this trend by not making a return in Super Mario Bros. Wonder as I was anticipating for them to.
I have developed that I have roughly only two sort-of minor flaws with the entire game; and those were the repetitiveness of bosses and that the Koopalings weren’t in the game as mentioned. There were literally only three individual bosses throughout the run of the entire game, but that’s okay because the innovativeness and originality of the rest of game substantially makes up for it! But it was still disappointing nonetheless.
The only bosses featuring in the game, were Bowser Jr., Robot Bowser Machine, Bowser Jr., Bowser Jr., Robot Bowser Machine, Bowser Jr., Robot Bowser Machine, and Bowser. So, in other words, Bowser (x4), Robot Bowser Machine (x3), and Bowser, which is the final boss.
Let’s break them down:
The very first boss in world 1 was Bowser Jr. with the exploitation of Wonder power that was provided to him by his dad that makes the battle more challenging for the player. This boss battle eventuated inside the Pipe-Rock Plateau Palace, named after the world 1.
The second boss takes place in the Fluff-Puff Peaks Flying Battleship, located in world 2, Fluff-Puff Peaks, and includes the notorious Robot Bowser Machine boss. Initially, seeing the Bob-ombs, made me think the objective was to activate them by jump on top of them and chucking them into the mouth of the robot machine, but I had to simply trigger the red self-destruct button located on top of it with the loco of Bowser’s face on it. You must avoid being squashed by the implemented objects moving up and down or you will get smashed. Needless to say, this boss is very easy unless you are so deeply embarrassingly bad at games.
Once you initiate the self-destruct button that was conveniently placed in a reachable position, on top of the machine, it will pretty go into hysterics and re-digest the Bob-ombs and Bowser blocks, freakishly and uncontrollably, in a berserk way. Makes you wonder, why does Bowser make this stuff so effortless? It’s like he’s trying to lose.
The third boss battle in the game is very unique and in style. Oh wait, that’s erroneous, it’s just Bowser Jr. appearing again. This boss battle, like previous takes place in Fluff-Puff Peaks in the palace. It was a little mix to it this time although.
The fourth boss transpires in the Sunbaked Desert Palace, located in world 4, Sunbaked Desert. This is the first 2D Mario game in a long time, maybe even ever to not have a boss battle in at least every world. There are conceivably no bosses in world 3, Shining Falls. But that isn’t the only place a boss is vacant, world 5, Fungi Mines also has no boss in sight. But, anyway, this boss consists of no other than Bowser Jr., again. This time, the room is overfilled with water, and moves to deferent areas throughout the battle, with the help of the resilient Wonder power.
Boss five, the fifth boss, the electronical Robot Bowser Machine makes a comeback in the Deep Magma Bog Flying Battleship in world 6, Deep Magma Bog. This time, he’s breathing green fire, which can only be temporarily gradually deactivated by yanking the metal chains, on the way up to the point in which you can briskly jump and hit the red self-destruct once again.
Next is the final Bowser Jr. battle, or should I say Bowser Jr.’s?
The sixth boss shows an angry, distraught Bowser Jr., aiming to vengeance on the player, so watch out. In this battle, the Wonder power allows him to make two other identical clones of himself all coming after you, concurrently. This is also in Deep Magma Bog, in the Deep Magma Bog Palace.
The seventh boss, the last one appearing before Castle Bowser is, yes, the Robot Bowser Machine. It is located on a small island in Petal Isles, and if you go east, you will enter world 4, Sunbaked Desert, directly north you will arrive in world 3, Shining Falls, and world 5, Fungi Mines if you go south and downward. This is in Petal Isles Flying Battleship, you get the memo by now, right? This one has rotating, green fire-flamers that you must dodge to not take any damage. This one can be played earlier, but still is considered the seventh boss in in sequence.
And finally, here it is the final boss battle — The Final Battle! Bowser’s Rage Stage located in a diverted small section in Petal Isles.
Once inside the area, you will come a crossed four courses leading to Bowser’s final showdown.
First you will go into Missile Meg Mayhem, a course of which you may have briefly seen in the trailers if you saw them. A place where upon collecting the far-reacting Wonder Flower, Missile Megs, a variant of the Bullet Bills will discharge a ray of rainbow fumes of many beautiful colors, which you ride on throughout the course.
Then next, you will travel through the levels, High-Voltage Gauntlet, followed by, Evade the Seeker Bullet Bills, and KnuckleFest Bowser’s Blazing Beats.
Now, at last, the actual course itself — The Final Battle! Bowser’s Rage Stage like abovementioned.
This course masterpiece will go down in history as possibly ONE OF THE best finales in a Super Mario game as up to date. This was a near-perfection way to end the game.
It may be categorized as hard though, because it has 5 stars, but it was unbelievable!
One second you on the ground or just normally walking, and swiftly, all of a sudden, you have to climb up these platforms that just instantaneously spawn out of nowhere, all of the enemies start singing and dancing, and then all the gravity just shuts off. The first time I played this was completely taken aback and in a state of shock.
Finally, the intense moment you have all been waiting for. The final boss battle and level.
Let me just say, this was magnificent and showed huge advancement.
Rage Stage Bowser appears from below the stage. The battle takes place in front of a loud, large audience in an arena, as you can hear the ambiance in the background. Bowser uses it as his final weapon to defeat the player(s) once and for all. It has massive, disembodied hands that he will exploit to try and smash you with. You must jump to the beat of the plunging/rising of the ground to give you a boost, so you are able to hit the weak-spot buttons on the palm of monstrous Bowser’s hands, and underneath his detached head. Then finally you will jump up onto platforms in order to hit the self-destruct button that becomes exposed on top of his head.
First time of me defeating Bowser and the course is pictured below.
Castle Bowser then detonates, and you have saved the kingdom!
The group of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Blue Toad, Yellow Toad, and all the Yoshi’s, alongside all the freed Poplin’s, who’s flower buds on top of their head, bloom.
Conclusion:
This was an absolutely astonishing, extraordinary game that I would even call revolutionary. I hope you all enjoyed my review of it and learned more about Super Mario Bros. Wonder!
Thank you for reading this article. You’ve really come a long way. if you ever want to see/hear of me again follow me here on Substack, Medium, on YouTube (original), YouTube (backup), Instagram, TikTok, and Threads. Stay safe everyone! Have a great rest of your life!
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