Platformer · 2023 · Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 10 · local · online
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
A two-dimensional Mario in which a flower rewrites the rules of the level mid-jump.
What it is about
A Mario seen from the side, as it has been for decades — until somewhere in each level a Wonder Flower turns up. Touch it and the rules change: the pipes come alive, gravity turns, you become blobs of slime, or the whole level starts singing.
Up to four play at once on one screen. You share abilities, can be brought back as a ghost, and set down standees that let others rejoin. Unlike in earlier games you no longer shove each other off the platforms.
On top of that come badges you equip before a level: one lets you jump further, one catches your first fall, one reveals hidden paths. If you want to be quite safe, take Yoshi or Nabbit — neither of them takes any damage at all.
Our verdict for couples
The earlier games had a problem every couple knows: you knock each other off the platform, and afterwards one of you is sulking. Here that is gone. Instead you share abilities, come back as a ghost and place standees the other one can rejoin from when they get stuck somewhere. If you want to bring in someone who usually only watches, give them Yoshi — he takes no damage at all, which gets someone through who has never held a controller. The main run takes twelve hours, and the special world after it ramps up so noticeably that you can safely save it for another evening.
Pros
- Yoshi takes no damage — the way in for onlookers
- Nearly every level brings an idea of its own
- Badges take the edge off difficult passages
Cons
- Some miss the shoving of earlier games
- The special world at the end steps up sharply
- The main game is done after twelve hours
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Harmonious
- Cosiness
- Cosy
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- 5–15 hours
What other co-op fans say
8.9 from 3,474 votes on Metacritic, and the enthusiasm almost always circles the same thing: that every level introduces an idea and then lets it go. About playing with others the verdict is consistently good — several write that it only really shines in a group. The one recurring objection is an affectionate one: that the characters no longer shove each other takes away a kind of comedy earlier entries had. Anybody after a calm evening will read that as a plus.
- “The multiplayer is a blast, the Wonder Flower moments are bursting with brilliant, unexpected ideas, and the variety of playable characters is a welcome touch.”
- “This game takes me back to the Wii era”
- “The only thing I dislike is that characters do not bump on each other in multiplayer, which in previous games created some of the funniest times i've had with my friends in a videogame.”
Summarised by machine from 3474 Metacritic user reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
If you like this one
Runs on the same devices as this game.
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Four characters on one screen, and at the end of every level exactly one gets the crown.
Mario travels the world with a hat that takes over other bodies.
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