Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a delightful return to form on Nintendo Switch

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the first new 2D Mario game in 10 years, and the first game in nearly 20 years that blazes its own trail to deliver the clever, dazzling and refreshing perspective that the series has so desperately needed for some time. The game continually reinvents itself until its very last breath, breaking its own rules in wildly creative ways that push the envelope further and further, all while nailing exactly what’s made Mario a lastingly great series for the past 38 years.

Wonder takes a completely new approach to 2D Mario games, and adds loads of new gameplay and quality-of-life features, such as the Badge mechanic, which allows players to choose their own way to approach any given level or challenge. Wonder Flowers are another exciting addition that give each level a bespoke challenge, puzzle or mechanic that helps to supplement the smooth jumping and running you’d expect in a Mario game.

Releasing exclusively for the Nintendo Switch family of systems on Oct. 20, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a delightful adventure for the whole family. It should take most players between 10 and 20 hours to reach the end of the game, depending on their respective skill level. That said, it may take challenge-seekers a few more hours to find all of the secret endings, alternate paths and other hidden surprises stuffed into its dense 3.5GB of platforming goodness. Wondering if this game’s for you? Here’s why we liked it so much.

What we liked about it

Return of the king

During the two-decade period since Mario’s last refresh, the platforming genre’s been shaken up, defined and redefined by small-budget, independent games like Braid, Super Meat Boy and Limbo. These titles opened up the floodgates for a revival of the genre that’s had a choke hold on independent gaming for over a decade. Games like Celeste, Shovel Knight, Inside, Cuphead and plenty of others often ran circles around big-budget outings. The occasional Rayman, Donkey Kong Country or Sonic the Hedgehog game sometimes hit comparable highs but tended to lack the spark found in their small-budget counterparts overall.

This is especially true for the two-dimensional Mario games, which have looked, sounded and functioned so similarly that most people probably couldn’t tell them apart since New Super Mario Bros. was released for the Nintendo DS in 2006. Across four games — all released over roughly seven years — the New Super Mario Bros. series introduced some neat ideas to the franchise and offered some excellent platforming gameplay, but often lacked the same vitality and juice found in the games that came before it.

As a series that’s remained agile for so long, thanks to its ability to reinvent itself, 2D Mario games often felt like an afterthought compared to the 3D titles like Super Mario Odyssey or Galaxy, which maintained their radical bent. In that regard, Wonder takes far more cues from recent 3D Mario games and does its own thing.

The Wonder Flower lets the game run wild

Mario games work best when they deftly jump from idea to idea, squeezing as much as possible from each fresh thought without making it stale before bounding on to their next trick. The Wonder Flower takes that idea and distills it into a winning formula. Each level has its own Wonder Flower; sometimes they’re hidden behind a puzzle, while others might require some platforming savvy to reach.

They’re rarely too difficult to spot, but even experienced players might need to take an extra crack or two at a level before actually getting their hands on any level’s Wonder Flower. Once you do get your hands on the power-up, though, you’ll be faced with some sort of challenge, puzzle or other … change. It’s difficult to get into detail about many of Wonder’s best moments without ruining the surprise, but you’ll be transformed into any number of different shapes and sizes — you might be as big as a gigantic spiky ball, demolishing everything in your path, but you might also find yourself transformed into a Goomba, one of Mario’s oldest and most iconic enemies. Elements of the courses might come to life in unexpected ways like a pipe suddenly moving along the level like an inchworm.

Eventually, the changes will reach a logical conclusion, and you’ll pick up a Wonder Seed, Mario Wonder’s in-game collectible that’s used to unlock challenge levels and the castles found at the end of each world.

Time and time again, the Wonder Flower effects find new ways to delight and dazzle. Even flowers that repeat mechanics or ideas do so with a tactful, creative sense of progress that builds on what the previous iteration of that power or mechanic did. There were a few Wonder Flowers that introduced mechanics or powers that made things a bit challenging or confusing to control at times, but even these brief lapses in locomotive prowess provided such a consistent sense of comical, whimsical silliness to the affair that it’s hard to stay sour on them.

Badges add a welcome layer of approachability

Badges are Wonder’s other completely new, game-changing add. While you can equip only one at a time, many of them open up new possibilities for exploration and platforming. One of our favorites was the Parachute Cap Badge, which allows you to use a giant Mario cap as a parachute to slow down your character’s fall speed. In a game without an equivalent to the Tanooki Suit from Mario 3, it’s a welcome addition that feels perfectly natural in Mario that leaves room for power-ups to explore other, more off-the-wall abilities and functions. Any Badge that requires input from the player fits comfortably within Wonder’s control scheme, though you’ll lose the ability to execute Mario’s midair spin ability should you choose an ability like the Parachute Cap.

Previous Mario games centered some or many of their power-ups around mobility and exploration; these Badges remove some of those limits. Mario can use the powers granted by the Badges at any time without collecting some special mushroom or flower, making exploring and besting Wonder’s levels more feasible. It doesn’t matter what size or power-up your character’s wearing either, making it much easier to scour each level for secrets and surprises.

A lot of the Badges available in Wonder follow that same design ethos; the Grappling Vine, for example, lets you grab onto nearby walls (or flagpoles) and zip forward to them before perching in place on said object. It’s a fun tool that changes how you’re able to explore a level without making it too easy.

Still, some non-movement-related Badges help in different ways. The Coin Magnet Badge, for example, helps you pick up nearby coins without going out of your way. The Super Mushroom Badge lets you start each level with the Super Mushroom power-up instead of your character’s more vulnerable state, allowing you to pick up better power-ups and avoid losing a life after one hit from an enemy or obstacle.

Even the act of unlocking new Badges is rewarding. Some, like the Coin Magnet Badge, are simply unlocked through progressing through the game. Movement-based abilities, on the other hand, require you to complete a course that teaches you how to use said power. They’re welcome challenges that focus more on platforming challenges than exploration and progression, and provide a welcome break from the standard pace and structure found in most levels in Wonder.

Wonder’s new power-ups are really cool

Mario Wonder’s reveal trailer took the internet by storm, thanks in no small part to its stinger: the reveal of Elephant Mario. With an exuberant “wowie-zowie!” the Italian plumber had transformed into a pachyderm with overalls and a mustache. It’s a silly sight to behold, but the new ability’s worth more than shock value; the elephant ability adds cool new ways to interact with the environments that go beyond traversal. For example, you can carry water in your character’s trunk and spray it over dried-up seeds to earn special rewards like coins or power-ups.

The drill power-up is a bit more conventional in that it focuses on traversal and exploration, but it’s nothing like what we’ve seen from Marios past: It allows you to burrow underground and get underneath otherwise unbreakable obstacles or objects. It also just feels great to zoom around underground Bugs Bunny-style. This is easily Wonder’s least explored power-up, though it still gets ample time to shine.

Last but certainly not least is the Bubble Flower, which lets you shoot bubbles. They trap enemies before transforming them into a coin. More importantly, however, you can also jump on top of the same bubbles to get a little height boost. It’s a super-helpful ability that can help you reach spots that badges might not get you to.

The game’s just plain charming

Mario games have always been endearing. Between cutesy, cartoony character design and charming music, charisma has always been a part of the series’ success from the first game’s iconic, catchy tune to Wonder’s talking flowers. Not only is Wonder’s cast of characters as adorable as ever, with lively animations and joyful voice work, but it’s also backed by some spectacular sound design.

Hardcore fans will notice several breaks from tradition here, as almost none of the sound effects for things like stomping on an enemy or even jumping sound the same as previous entries. Stuff like entering a warp pipe or hitting a block to reveal an item has sounded the same for decades. Art styles may have changed, but sound design never had. And with good reason — a lot of it holds up today. But making a ground pound sound like a drumroll heightens Wonder’s best aspects.

But its charm goes further than granular details; talking flowers permeate Wonder’s smattering of levels, and add extra doses of personality and the occasional hint to a soundscape that would otherwise be dominated by a “wahoo” or an “oh yeah.” These flowers all offer commentary based on their surroundings and sometimes even react to what the player does. They’re just the right blend of weird, goofy and cute, and represent Wonder’s off-the-wall, bizarro charm.

Wonder’s levels are incredible and creative

Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s levels are excellent. While some are certainly stronger than others, even the less-than-desirable issues found in great Mario games come few and far between. The Dolphin Kick badge makes water-focused levels much more fun and less of a pain to navigate.

Some levels (which we can’t discuss due to Nintendo’s coverage guidelines for the game) feature new enemies or mechanics only to use them one or two more times before ditching them completely. There’s a clear focus on allowing each level to be its own thing; where other games would focus on a successful mechanic, Wonder trims and distills every single good idea down to its best, sharpest possible instance. After running wild with a clever new idea, Wonder sets it down almost immediately before moving on to the next masterful morsel — never allowing any creative twist to stale or tarnish.

You’d think that Wonder might not be as exciting if a player misses a level’s hidden Wonder Flower, but because Wonder Flowers usually either take the player into a different section of a level or are designed around a level’s specific layout, they’re still great fun. Obviously, you’ll miss out on the flower’s wacky, trippy high jinks, but you’ll still get to experience a fully fleshed-out level.

Multiplayer is the best it’s ever been in a 2D Mario game

In the past, multiplayer in 2D Mario games fell into two categories: chaotic fun that toed the line between collaboration and sabotage, and taking turns to play. While taking turns has long since gone the way of the dodo, playing local multiplayer with a friend or three made progressing through New Super Mario Bros. Wii and U a complete toss-up. Sometimes, it was really fun to jump through the Mushroom Kingdom with pals, while others it was a total pain to deal with running into each other, picking each other up and dealing with those games’ bubble mechanics.

Wonder marries the best of both worlds; players interact with the same levels but don’t risk running into each other or potentially killing each other on accident. Instead, though they operate on the same planes, they rarely interact with each other, letting everyone platform to their heart’s content without accidentally bumping each other off a ledge. It lets the game focus on tighter platforming level design and pacing. If someone’s playing as one of the four Yoshis in the game, another player can ride on their back in case they need some help tackling a tough jump.

Online multiplayer makes its 2D Mario debut in Wonder, but with less interaction between players than in local play. You’ll see semitransparent ghosts of your fellow platformers (platformists?) hopping around the level you’re in, but you won’t interact, share items and coins, or stomp on the same enemies as them like in local play. Instead, you can drop down a standee for others to bump into or use to revive themselves when playing in online mode.

The only other notable online-only feature in Wonder is the Friend Race, where you race to the end of a level against other players in the same lobby as you. We only had a small amount of time to try this feature in the review period, but it’s a fun mode that’s sure to give Wonder a big online multiplayer presence once it hits store shelves. As far as we could tell, Friend Races ran smoothly despite Nintendo’s famously stodgy online infrastructure. Time will only tell if the mode will hold up under scrutiny once more players with varied connection speeds and strengths get their hands on the game.

Bottom line

It’s hard not to gush about Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Even in its weakest moments, Wonder is an unexpected return to form that’s never content to rest on its laurels. Bursting at the seams with creativity and charm in equal measure, this is a game best savored, because we may not get another like it for some time. Not only is it one of the best games on Nintendo Switch, but it deserves a place in the pantheon of lauded Mario games alongside the likes of Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3.