The long-awaited video game, “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” (SMBW) was finally released in retail stores on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. It is the newest 2D scrolling platformer sequel to the Super Mario Bros. video game franchise and brings new physics, mechanics, power-ups, creativity and animations to Nintendo Switch tablets.
Nintendo has finally ditched the word “New” from the 2D platformer franchise of the Mario Bros. that was omnipresent on the games titles of the Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U and Switch. However, all seasoned Mario Bros. players will notice familiarity and nostalgia from a variety of past 2D and 3D Mario games in SMBW, while also feeling a great sense of novelty as well. SMBW is worth experiencing for everybody, especially after so many of the prior Nintendo Switch Mario titles have been ports off of the previous Nintendo consoles with little to no modifications.
SMBW is a 2D platformer with 3D elements. The characters, enemies, platform textures and vividly colored backgrounds can be interacted through 3D rendering. The kingdom’s map and realistic facial rendering with eye-tracking enhance the gameplay.
***SPOILER ALERT***
The starting cut-scene of the game begins with a new story plot that extends beyond the classic Mushroom Kingdom. SMBW takes place in the Flower Kingdom where Prince Florian is the leader of the kingdom, and Bowser steals the mystical Wonder Flower to transform into a living castle and performs a hostile takeover of the lovely kingdom. The Flower Kingdom consists of seven main worlds and “Special World,” which features bonus challenges. The world map combines linear levels with an open world feature for flexible gameplay. Wandering around the world map resembles the look and feel of the world map of Super Mario 3D World (SM3DW) on the Wii U and Switch consoles.
Unlike previous games, they are instead on a mission to stop Bowser from destroying Prince Florian’s magnificent kingdom and reconcile peace and prosperity within his kingdom. Since Peach needs no rescue like in past games, she is a playable character.
2D Mario Bros. games typically have countdown timers to urge players to reach the flagpole within a set time. However, SMBW is the first 2D Mario Bros. game without a countdown timer. The traditional 3D Mario Bros. games usually do not have timers. There is also no tracking of points at the top of the screen from enemy stomps and gatherings of the collectibles.
In addition, there are up to 12 playable characters to choose from. The physics of each character remains the same, however, there exist differences in their aesthetics. The characters are Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yellow Toad, Blue Toad, Toadette, four different colored Yoshis and Nabbit. The Yoshis and Nabbit are considered “baby-mode” because they are invulnerable to enemies and cannot use power-ups, and they can only perish by falling into a pit, lava or poisonous swamp.
Games within the Mario franchise typically have collectibles, and SMBW is no different. The collectibles in each SMBW level offer inspiration for perfectionists to explore and accomplish every nook and cranny of the game. The levels contain collectibles such as flower seeds, three purple 10-coins, single gold and purple coins and green 1-up mushrooms. The 10-coins feel as if they were inspired from “Super Mario Maker 2” (SMM2). As always, the 1-ups symbolize extra lives, and 100 gold coins sums up to a 1-up. The purple coins can be used in the Poplin shops in each world of the game to purchase seeds, Standee poses, more 1-ups or Boost Badges. There are a total of 12 Standee poses for each of the 12 playable characters for a total of 144 Standee poses.
It would not be a Mario Bros. game without power-ups. Each level offers different costumes with unique abilities. The elephant flower costume allows fewer pounces on enemies and swinging of the trunk to knock them out. The bubble flower costume allows the player to blow bubbles to jump on the bubbles as platforms while covering larger gaps, and the bubbles transform enemies into gold coins. Power-ups also progress as players advance, starting with mushrooms when they are small and then upgrading to various flowers. Unlike past Mario titles, this game lacks the flying power-up.For those players who enjoy flying over the entire level while skipping the action and challenges on the ground, they may be filled with disappointment. Furthermore, the multicolored pipes that spawn power-ups and POW blocks are reminiscent of SMM2’s ideas.
The spin drill flower is all too familiar to those who have played the 3D Mario game “Super Mario Galaxy 2” (SMG2), where Mario and Luigi could dig through small planets. The spin drill costume in SMBW allows players to move through ground blocks or platforms to avoid enemies or progress in the level.
There are other inspirations from SMG2 that take place in this new game, such as anti-gravity effects that feel as if the player is traveling through space. However, the mystical seeds of the levels are completely new and unique to this video game. Upon touching the seeds, bizarre and hallucinatory transformations happen to the map’s playing field to transcend the player into unexpected events. These transformations include anti-gravity, dancing pipes, accelerated or decelerated movement, sloped and tilted terrains, changing water and air interactions, semi-solid platforms coming to life and moving around, superpowers for enemies and cute little musical dance numbers. The power of the mystical seeds feel endless in their capabilities of creativity and pure fun. Each seed’s unique characteristic surprises and keeps the player in a state of wonderment. One thing is for sure: speedrunning the game may be far more challenging when the seeds’ interactions come to life.
In addition to the conventional power-up costumes, the player can opt to wear a badge for each level of the game that gives unique abilities. The three categories of badges include action, boost and expert. Only one badge can be worn at a time for each level. Action badges allow drifting down via parachute, floating while jumping, doing one-sided wall jumps, high jumping, dolphin-kicking and other abilities. Boost badges allow earning additional gold coins for enemy kills, safety bounces, starting levels with mushroom status, hints for hidden collectables, adding extra “!” blocks and other abilities. One of the expert badges is all too familiar to players of Super Mario Galaxy (SMG) and SMG2, which is the ability to perpetually hop, similar to the spring costume of the two 3D Mario games. Jet running and invisibility are two other expert badges. With the combination of various characters, power-ups and badges, there are ways to spice up the gameplay.
In order to make the 2D scrolling platform more realistic and give a 3D feel, the developers of the game have used perspective distortion, linear perspective and aerial perspective. For instance, the player’s character can use warp pipes to transition between the mid-ground, foreground and background, while maintaining an appropriate proportionality in each scene. In addition, they have added shadows and darkening of the textures to allow certain intricacies to pop in the player’s field of vision. This aspect of SMBW has never been done before in the previous 2D Mario Bros. games, so it is definitely worth experiencing.
The online component of the game has taken inspiration from the previous 35th anniversary game, “Super Mario Bros. 35,” (SMB35). Released in 2020, players would compete online by playing side by side, rather than on the same map. The online multiplayer action of SMBW allows up to three other players to appear as translucent characters on the same level’s map, and they can leave checkpoints called “Standees” on each other’s map of the level. When a player dies, they have five seconds to hover the ghost-form of their character towards a living character or a Standee checkpoint in order to continue playing the level. I have experienced a unique form of camaraderie between players in the online portion of the game, where the more advanced players slow down to help the beginners and juvenile players to regain control of the level from their character’s ghost-forms. As a player saves more ghost players, heart points increase to encourage further assistance to newcomers. Playing custom scrolling levels with other online players creates a tightly bound team, moving at the same rate. Online players can also see each other on the world map as they explore different levels.
The music of SMBW offers fresh, upbeat and melodious tunes as the Mario Bros. travel on their adventures in the Flower Kingdom. The basic tune of the classic Mario Bros. continues to exist, but it has been remixed with new instruments, fresh beats and rhythmic sensations. There are a few musical throwbacks to past Mario games included in some of the shorter levels.
Regardless of players growing up with the original Mario Bros. titles of the last century or the “New” Mario Bros. titles of the current century, SMBW offers something to enjoy for everybody. While the online infrastructure might offer limited interaction with online players, it is definitely a worthy consideration to experience. The entire game has a psychedelic blend of nostalgia and novelty to all players of the game. Some of the nostalgic elements include the various themes of each world, such as ground, underground, water, cloud, ice and desert, while offering new forms of gameplay within each level. It is almost like taking the original and classic levels off of the Super Nintendo console’s Mario games and remixing and modernizing them to fit the current era. SMBW is definitely worth experiencing for anybody who owns a Nintendo Switch.
