Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Developer	Nintendo EPD
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo Switch
Release Date	October 20, 2023
Rating	ESRB: E

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a 2-D Super Mario platformer that was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2023. It is the only original 2-D Mario adventure to be made for the Nintendo Switch, following the enhanced port of New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario Maker 2. This game acts as a successor to the New Super Mario Bros. games with a revamped visual style and direction. It was released over a decade after New Super Mario Bros. U, with the only other 2-D Mario platformer to have come out during that timeframe having been Super Mario Run. This game is also notable for being the first game to feature Kevin Afghani as the voice of Mario and Luigi following Charles Martinet's departure from the roles.

Story

Mario and his friends have been invited to visit Prince Florian in the Flower Kingdom. Arriving there for the first time, they are shown a Wonder Flower by Prince Florian until everything is disrupted by the sudden arrival of Bowser, who is accompanied by Bowser Jr. and Kamek. Bowser grabs the Wonder Flower and uses its power to merge with the Flower Castle. This causes Bowser to transform into a floating castle. In this form, Bowser wreaks havoc across the Flower Kingdom by trapping the Poplin citizens within their home and causing Piranha Plants to grow throughout the land. Mario and his friends volunteer to help Florian to save the Flower Kingdom. So they set off on a quest to save the Poplins and find the Elder Seeds, so that they can reach Bowser and defeat him in his new form, while Bowser prepares a Wonder of his own.

Gameplay

This game builds on the basic foundations of the 2-D Mario games, with the biggest addition in this game being the Wonder effects. A majority of stages have a Wonder Flower somewhere within them. Touching the Wonder Flower will cause something about the stage and/or the character(s) being played to change, often in some bizarre way that makes for unique gameplay. Some examples include Warp Pipes crawling around the stage, the player character being turned into a Goomba or the gameplay shifting into a top-down perspective. These Wonder segments may end if the player progresses past a certain boundary, while some segments have a time limit, but the goal during these segments is to collect a Wonder Seed. Wonder Seeds act as a prime collectible in this game, with at least two being found in each level: one from a Wonder Flower segment and one from each of the level's exits (meaning that levels with secret exits will have three Wonder Seeds altogether). Throughout the game, there are various areas where the player will need a certain number of Wonder Seeds to progress. In this sense, it is similar to collecting Power Stars or similar items to progress in the 3-D Mario games. In addition to the standard coins that can be collected to earn one-ups, this game also has purple Flower Coins which can be collected to be used to buy items from shops. Each level also has three large 10-Flower Coins within them. Each level can get a green checkmark for total completion by meeting three criteria: collecting all Wonder Flowers, collecting all 10-Flower Coins and earning a "Wonderful!" by grabbing the top of the flagpole at the end of a level. All these criteria do not need to be met within the same run of the level, and some levels have less criteria if they do not contain 10-Flower Coins or a Flagpole.

One other new feature in this game is the concept of Badges, a variation of which had previously only been used in RPG games. Badges could be obtained by completing special courses based around individual badges or by purchasing them from the game's item shops. These contain special abilities or other features that can change up the gameplay and possibly make things easier. Some examples include one that lets the player use a large hat to glide around and one that detects special items. As the player progresses through the game, they move along a world map. Unlike other world maps in 2-D games, this one contains areas in which the player can move around freely to play levels in their order of their liking and to possibly uncover secrets on the map. The game also has a large roster of playable characters including Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, the Blue and Purple Toads, Toadette, Nabbit, Yoshi and three other colors of Yoshi. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, the Toads and Toadette also play the same, as opposed to past games in which some characters had gameplay variations (such as Luigi's unique jump or Peach gliding with her dress), although some of those differences could be replicated with badges. Nabbit and the Yoshis act as the Easy Mode characters, similar to the way Nabbit played in New Super Mario Bros. U, as they do not take damage from enemies, but they also cannot use any power-ups. The game also features a revamped visual style for the characters, with a variety of unique animations. There are also several new power-ups, such as the Elephant Fruit, which transforms the character into a bipedal elephant that can attack with their trunk and store water to be used to water flowers or extinguish fires.

Like the New Super Mario Bros. games, Wonder features co-op multiplayer gameplay for up to four players. This includes a chance to bring back characters after they've died, although in this game they turn into ghosts rather than being encased in bubbles. There is also an online feature that works differently in which players can see other players going through levels at the same time, but they are unable to directly interact with each other's version of the level. The only direct interaction between online players is they can still revive defeated players, either by the ghosted player making direct contact with an online player or by touching their standees. Standees are cardboard cut-outs of characters in different poses that can be bought from item shops. A player can set up a standee to be used by other players at any time. Some of the figures appearing during online play are actually ghost data of past players, and their standees are initially turned around until a player touches them, which will activate that standee.