The new Super Mario Wonder is not only the first Mario platformer in six years – it’s also the first two-dimensional installment in eleven years. Miracle style goes back even further, to the days of the Super Nintendo, but with a modern twist. Occasionally the game looks like a watercolor painting, in which the protagonist moves more freely than in old games: he pulls his falling cap along as he dives into a tube, or runs like an enthusiastic child with his hands behind his back.
The story is an excuse to send you from area to area, just like other games in the series. Dino villain Bowser is back again to mess things up, this time turning the flower kingdom upside down. Mario and his friends must find special seeds scattered throughout the levels to stop him.
When playing those levels late Mario Wonder see what it is capable of. This is the most inventive platform game of recent decades: levels are full of secrets and alternative exits, which can lead to other, hidden areas. It gives the game a clever level of difficulty: young and inexperienced players get satisfaction from simply completing a level, while more experienced gamers will spend hours trying to find everything.
Levels completely transform in form and purpose when you find the hidden, so-called Wonder Flower. This bright blue-colored plant sends Mario on a kind of psychedelic trip: stationary platforms suddenly start walking, gravity can stop and sometimes Mario suddenly views the world from above instead of from the side. The Wonder Flower is an excuse for Nintendo to abandon all aspects of the initial game design and temporarily turn it into something completely different. A license to hide creative, different types of games in this game, often resulting in surprising experiences. Nintendo once again proves to have some of the most creative and experienced designers in house.
On the road together
The 2D style of Mario Wonder is clearly an attempt to appease old fans, but the maker seems aware that the generation that grew up with it now often has children. The game can be played cooperatively, but this cooperative mode seems to be primarily designed to go out together with an inexperienced, perhaps younger, gamer. For example, five of the twelve playable characters cannot take damage, and if you play together, a dead character is quickly revived.
When selecting the level you often have a free choice from several areas, where the game neatly tells you in advance how difficult each individual challenge is. This way you can avoid the most difficult levels with a young fellow player to keep it a bit fun.
And then that gradual level of difficulty comes into its own again. In the weeks that I played the game for review, I did so with my four-year-old son. That alone is extremely fun: he slowly learned how a platform game works as we explored the creative levels together. When he was in bed, I went back through all those levels to find all the missed coins and secrets. Too difficult for him, but doing this afterwards did not detract from the experience for him.
Super Mario Wonder is a Mario game in the spirit of the classic installments on the Super Nintendo. With extremely creative levels where the emphasis is not on achieving difficult jumps, but on finding secrets and continually discovering creative, different levels. Let this be an example of how you can make a game feel fresh and original every time.
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