There were a lot of games in 2023. That isn’t to say there were more than usual, but rather that there was a higher number of titles that I felt like playing. So much so that I wasn’t able to get to all of them last year. I’m sure that’s a sentiment shared by many others, and, like myself, you’ve found yourself playing through a backlog of titles throughout the first several months of the year.

One of those aforementioned titles for me is Super Mario Bros. Wonder. It’s the latest entry in Nintendo’s long running series about jumping that stars the world’s most iconic plumber.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t too keen to play Wonder when it was first revealed. I have a long history with Mario games, and, while I tend to enjoy them, I don’t ever feel like I need to play them. I love Nintendo’s design philosophy as it relates to Mario titles, but I find those same guiding design principles make each new entry feel very formulaic. Yes, there are a ton of new mechanics jam packed into every level of each game. For some people that’s enough, but it isn’t for me. Not anymore. I simply can’t muster the same level of enthusiasm for Mario as I used to when I was younger.

Despite my ongoing lack of enthusiasm for Mario games, I found myself won over by the critical reception to Wonder shortly after its release. Many critics, and players alike were praising the game’s inventive levels, and deluge of mechanics that made for the most exciting 2D Mario game to date. This praise largely stems from Wonder’s main gimmick: Wonder Flowers. Each level features a Wonder Flower that remixes the level in some kind of unusual way. For example, one of the first levels goes from standard platforming fare to a musical where Mario and Co are jumping around a parade of singing carnivorous plants. It’s incredibly silly, but the stark change is equal parts refreshing, and charming.

Upon reading, or hearing these different impressions of the game, I thought to myself that maybe Mario Wonder had done it. Perhaps the developers over at Nintendo had experienced the same listless feeling I did while playing their games. Maybe these new Wonder Flowers would finally inject that excitement I’d been craving from Mario that I hadn’t felt in over a decade.

It didn’t. But you likely already knew that because of this article’s title.

That’s not to say Mario Wonder is a bad game. I think it’s fun in much the same way that every other Mario game is. However, when I think about the platforming games that I’ve had the most fun with over the past several years, I don’t think there is any question that Wonder isn’t amongst my favourites. It’s like getting a meal at a chain restaurant: it’s fine, but it’ll never be able to compete with your favourite hole in the wall.

To that end, I wanted to examine why I felt this way about the game. Mostly so I can move my thoughts on Mario Wonder out of my brain’s working storage, but if I can get a sweet article out of it that’s even better.

Rapid Fire Ideas

After some critical reflection, I think the number 1 thing that really left me wanting with Mario Wonder was how quickly it abandons its own great ideas. By and large, the majority of Wonder Flowers are located toward the last third of a level. They end up being 1 final hurrah that adds a nice shake up to whatever the level’s core mechanic was.

However, in limiting Wonder Flowers in this way, the majority of them feel like squandered potential. There’s a lot of different ideas that the development team throws out during these Wonder Flower segments, and some of them could carry an entire level. For example, one of the later levels in the game turns you into Metal Mario from Super Mario 64. This makes you totally invulnerable to the level’s multitude of electricity based traps, but reduces your ability to jump. The whole segment is quite literally the final 30 seconds of the level, and is missable without doing a little backtracking.

Why?! 

Why is something this interesting walled off into its own little corner of the level? You could build an entire level around Metal Mario’s limited movement. The fact that being metal completely alters your jump arc would make for an interesting 1 off challenge. Instead it’s just rolled out for some bonus fanfare at the end of an otherwise pedestrian level.

And it’s not just Metal Mario that is so easily dismissed: the majority of Wonder’s unique level gimmicks are dismissed just as quickly. This lends the game an aggressive pacing where nothing is ever allowed to become stale, but it also feels like there are so many ideas that are never given an opportunity to breathe. Not every Wonder Flower has a full level’s worth of potential, but several do, and it’s a crying shame that they don’t get the opportunity to demonstrate as much.

As a point of contrast for how I would have liked to see Mario Wonder handle things, we can look at Pepper Grinder. Each of Pepper Grinder’s different levels featured new, and surprising mechanics, like Metal Mario in Mario Wonder. However, these ideas weren’t restricted to a small portion of the level. I distinctly remember the excitement I felt the first time I played through Depprot City where you pilot a giant mech. I thought for certain that the idea would be abandoned after a short stint, but that isn’t the case. Nope. You’re able to run around as a giant pirate mech for almost the entire level. That makes for a fantastic palette cleanser, which is wholly unique from the rest of the game’s levels – levels that are just as unique, and exciting to play.

Creating Expectations

The other aspect of Mario Wonder that rubbed me up the wrong way is a lot more psychological. It has to do with how the game creates, and delivers on expectations. That is to say, Wonder Flowers are meant to surprise the player with some unexpected twist in each level. Unfortunately, thanks to this frequency, Wonder Flowers become a routine element of Mario Wonder, which greatly diminishes their ability to actually surprise the player.

I’ll be the first to admit that Wonder Flowers are genuinely a pleasant surprise the first several times you stumble into them. However, that effect really starts to peter out as you play through more of Mario Wonder’s levels. I’m not suggesting that the game’s later levels have worse gimmicks. In fact, I’d argue that many of Wonder’s best levels sit within its back half. No – what I am saying is that it’s hard to actually feel surprised when you’re expecting a surprise. The formulaic implementation of Wonder Flowers makes them a predictable element of Wonder’s level structure. This inhibits the ability of Wonder Flowers to truly surprise the player.

Despite my grousing, I still believe Mario Wonder is a fun game. However, I’m stuck here wondering how much better it could have been if Nintendo were more bold in their approach. What if they had more levels built entirely around Wonder mechanics? What if some levels didn’t feature a Wonder Flower at all, so you were left guessing when, and where they’d appear? What would happen if Nintendo wasn’t so married to their rigid level design philosophy?

I can’t answer those questions because we don’t live in that timeline, but I think Super Mario Bros. Wonder could have been a much greater step forward if Nintendo was willing to step outside of their comfort zone.

Well that’s me, but what about you? Have you played Mario Wonder? What did you think of it? Did you find you were also left wanting, or were you satisfied with the rapid fire pace of new ideas? Let me know in the comments below. I’m genuinely curious what non-critics thought of the game.

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