Kicking Off Mario’s 40th Anniversary
It’s hard to think the worlds favourite plumber is now 40 years old. With the countless adventures Mario has had it’s fair to say he truly is an icon. A dominate cultural figure who has entertained generations. To help celebrate his big four, zero, Nintendo announced a collection of games and a sequel to the ‘Super Mario Movie’. Mario Wonder has been upgraded with added content as part of this celebration. So is this celebration a party worth attending? Let’s find out.
Mario Wonder starts in a rather expected manner. Mario and his friends are having fun in a colourful kingdom, the Flower Kingdom in this case. In the frivolities Bowser shows up to ruin the day. Stealing the Flower Kingdom’s prize precession a Wonder Flower. Perfectly displaying one of Mario Wonder’s core mechanics, wonder = weird. Bowser suddenly transforms into a huge battle ship with a swarm of evil looking piranha plants. Narratively that is essentially the set up. Mario’s call to adventure is set.
Mario Wonder returns to Mario’s side scrolling 2D roots. Sent on the quest to find Wonder Seeds from the many Wonder Flowers of the Flower Kingdom. To give Mario and his friends the chance to battle Bowser. Running, jumping and powering up across over a hundred levels. As always the control system is super tight and incredibly easy to pick up. Mario can bring his friends along on every single level as well. Options of local and online multiplayer can be chosen to tackle any challenge that precedes you. Even an asynchronous online multiplayer mode is available, where you can see and help other players playing the level you are playing.
The new core mechanic here is wonder. Upon collecting a Wonder Flower the stage transforms into a surreal occurrence. Warp pipes can come to life, plants start singing, stampeding dinosaur bulls. Basically a lot of crazy stuff can occur that usually totally changes how you play the level. The wonder moments clearly display the level of creativity the developers have. It is often the highlight of each level. Which is saying a lot as Mario Wonder is a masterclass in level design.
With the sheer madness of some of the wonder moment things can get a tad difficult. Fear not though as another new mechanic in the form of badges can help. Throughout the Flower Kingdom Mario can find and equip a collection of badges that give players and extra move or slight advantage. An early badge allows Mario to use his hat as a parachute to descend slowly and make more distance from jumps. Later badges give invaluable assistance. One that saved my skin numerous times allows Mario to do life saving jump on pitfalls. On some of the harder levels I basically required this badge as in its harder moment Mario Wonder can make you sweat.
Mario Wonder looks outstanding. The art direction is very cute and colourful. To those with OLED TV’s this is a must play docked. The colours with the Switch 2’s HDR will be virtually bursting off your screen. The upgrade also offers a 4K resolution with no noticeable upscaling, and a solid 60FPS. This makes Mario Wonder a true spectacle. While still a brilliant handheld experience this is one of the few Switch 2 games I found myself enjoying docked play the most.
Speaking of the upgrade lets talk added content. Mario and friends can venture to Bellabel Park. A brand new location where most of the added content takes place. Single player offerings challenge Mario to retrieve the Bellabel Flowers from the Koopalings. Bowsers little minions are as we have never seen them before taking influence from the rest of Mario Wonder. These seven levels are some of the best levels the game has to offer. Great albeit it short levels with great platforming and a satisfying fight at the end. These levels also introduce the new Flower Pot power up. Transforming Mario into a plant that can flutter after jumps extending air time. Flower Mario can also summon flowers that burst vertically through a stage damaging enemies. It feels like quite an over powered ability for how silly and cute the design is. Flower Mario is also great fun to be so who cares if it can trivialise some of the games content.
The larger part of Bellabel Park is focused on multiplayer. A collection of chaotic mini games with multiple stages. It is very clear this mode was made for local multiplayer as the online features here are severely lacking. Only allowing game rooms with friends and no way of playing with random people online. If your a single player gamer your kind of out of luck and have no way of experiencing the major part of this expansion. At it’s best it’s like a side scrolling Mario Party, at it’s worst it a single players buyers remorse.
Mario Wonder is a fantastic game with a potentially polarising upgrade. Re-experiencing the original games stages in 4K is 100% an experience worth recommending. The expanded content left me feeling a little empty. With seven excellent stages going up against the Koopalings I was offered content I personally wanted. I’d have much preferred an emphasis on fleshing that out with more stages that can be tackled both single and multi player. Bellabel Park is not what I would of wanted from an expansion. The sheer focus on multiplayer mini games is a bit disappointing. Mario is still at the top of his game even at 40 however in his age he clearly wants to have fun with his family rather than save the kingdom again.
Review Code Kingly Provided By Nintendo
