Super Mario Bros. Wonder

9.5/10

In the newest Super Mario 2D platformer, Mario, Luigi and friends are visiting the Flower Kingdom. The wicked Bowser swoops in, steals one of the realm's Wonder Flowers and uses it to merge with the castle of Prince Florian to become a giant, floating castle being. It is up to the heroes to stop him.

The creators of this clearly heard the criticism about the last four 2D Mario platformers, the New Super Mario Bros. series. The games were all fun (yes, in my opinion even NSMB2; I liked the focus on coins, what can I say), but they'd gotten repetitive and for a franchise known for creativity and reinventing itself had played it a little too safe. (I like the Koopalings as much as the next person, but their attacks have gotten a bit repetitive.) I'm pleased to say that wonder brings us back to the days when the Mario games would take a wild new swing. 

Gameplay feels innovative with multiple new game mechanics ideas that are fun and addictive. The biggest innovation in this are the wonder flowers. They appear or are hidden in all regular levels; touch one and the level radically changes in constantly new weird and wonderful ways. Unfortunately, the game still uses the flag pole goal. I remember when Super Mario Brothers 3 and Super Mario World had different styles of goals, and I'm so tired of being stuck with the same boring goal over and over and over.

Super Mario World has always been knoen for how interconnected the entire map was and the various hidden routes. Sadly after that, Nintendo was never that ambitious with the game maps. Finally, we've got a game that tries to recapture that magic. It's still second to SMW, but Wonder really tries to shake things up. There are various and hidden levels and different ways for accessing them.  

Never before have we been able to play so many Mario characters in one game (twelve if I'm remembering correctly). One can play Princess Daisy for the first time in a main Mario game (previously she's only been available in the Mario Party and sports games). For younger kids (or people who are fed up with the harder special levels), you can play a Yoshi or Nabbit, who don't take any damage. However, they can't use power-ups either.

The game comes up with multiple inventive new villain ideas while breathing new life into old villains, such as Koopa Troopas on roller blades. Unfortunately, one of the games' few weaknesses is the sheer lack of boss battles and variations of said battles. Some worlds don't have any boss battles at all and the ones that do exist with the exception of the final battle with Bowser are all Bowser Jr. To the BJ battles' credit, the Wonder Flower powers make all of them different and a breath of fresh air from all old school shelled Koopa boss/mini-boss fights, but I still wanted more variety. There is also one mini-boss in this and it may be the easiest, most lackluster one in Mario history.

The game's other weak spot is the power ups. None of them are bad, but they don't have the special zing that some previous types did. The elephant power-up has been the new big power up associated with this game that's in all the advertising. However, though a fun design that feels unique for the series, it feels like a retread of the rhino and elephant from the Donkey Kong Country games. Being able to whack bad guys and shoot water (which has limited range) isn't as involving as you'd think. Also, this is the first Mario 2D platformer in a while where you don't have the ability to fly. On the other, hand I wasn't much impressed with the bubble power up at first, because I wondered why we needed another projectile power when we already have the fire flower power up. I was pleased to be proven wrong as its range and damage amount was surprisingly different.

Ironically, the better powers don't come from the regular power-ups. Wonder Flowers may temporarily change Mario and company's shapes in brief game segments that are more fun to play and control. For the first time, we got a Mario game with an equipment feature. You can earn or purchase various badges which grant special enhancements like the ability to float or jump higher. You can only use one at a time, and I like the strategy aspect this gives you. I also found some of the badges to be very helpful. However, there are clearly a few that are truly useful and many that aren't so much. There are several badges that force you to be constantly in motion. How is that useful unless you want to challenge yourself?

Visually, there was an obvious effort to reinvent the look of Mario. Flower Land has a unique look to it with charming and colorful backgrounds. I've never seen a Mario game with such personality to it either. The game has a cartoony feel with a greater emphasis on animation details, like Mario grabbing his hat when entering a pipe or the expressions on Goomba's faces.

Highly recommended. The best 2D Mario platformer in decades and a very fun time.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

 

10/10

This contains 2 games, the previously released Super Mario 3D World and the brand new supplemental game Bowser's Fury.

Super Mario 3D World: 

In this follow-up to Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS, Mario, his brother Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad go to rescue six Sprixies who have been kidnapped by the evil Bowser.

I never had the opportunity to play the original version on the Wii U. I'm glad I finally got the chance. This has probably made my top 5 Mario games list. The Mario series has always been known for it's quality and managing to stay fresh, but the game developers really went all out this time. The level design is some of the best. It's impressive how fresh each stage is. 3D Land was a great game, but even it never reached the levels of creativity this one does. (I get the feeling that the creators were able to fulfill ideas for Land they had that the limitations of the device wouldn't allow them to put into practice.)  

A lot of levels are relatively short when compared to other traditional Mario games. That's actually a good call. This allows the developers to cram a ton of them. Plus, it makes it simpler to retrieve items you missed the first time around without taking forever to finish the stage again. The game is accommodating to both children/causuals and more hardcore gamers who like a challenge. After beating the main game, which isn't too hard at least from an adult's perspective, you get a few more bonus worlds where the difficulty is really ramped up (and the game continues to be creative, no rehashing.) There are also some pretty fun optional challenge stages that the series hasn't tried before.

I also like how the game got a little inventive with the maps No, they don't reach the ambitiousness of Super Mario World, but they do something different and become a little interactive. Mario and company can straight up walk wherever they want all over the level maps, plus they can do things like break blocks or find hidden coins or other things. (Though if you liked the games where you can find hidden exits in levels, this one doesn't do that.) 

The levels look great, too; colorful and creative. Like the level design, the appearances are distinctive without a lot of repetition. The music may be up their with some of the series' best.

As much as I love this game, there are a few parts that could've been improved upon. Most of the stages are suspended in air and you can die by falling off the sides. This wouldn't be an issue so much if it wasn't for the fact that the camera angle sometimes make it easy to point your character at the wrong angle and have him or her fall off the edge. Luckily, this issue doesn't pop up too much. 

The game requires you to collect stars hidden in each level in order to get past points. I find it unfair when they force you collect things in a basic platformer, if you aren't into the extra stuff and just want to play through. Plus, I just think it makes things harder for the kids.

The mushroom houses, where you can get bonus items, are the most uninspired, basic ones I've encountered in this series. They just lack the fun found in previous entries.

Although there are a lot of differences between this and 3D Land, I do think they were parts that were too reminiscent of the previous game. The mini-bosses Boom-Boom and Pom-Pom are brought back, and though they are fun designs, they don't really add anything new. The timer, in which you have to complete the level before the clock runs out or you die, returns, and I still don't see the point of using it out of nostalgia for the classic games. It doesn't make sense when you're also encouraged take the time to find hidden stars and other items. I'm also tired of each stage ending with the flagpole as a goal. I remember back when they would come up with a new goal for each game, and I miss the innovation.

Bowser's Fury:

Bowser's Fury takes the game play of 3D Land but puts in in an open collectathon world. The story involves Bowser being transformed by magic black paint into a giant rage monster. Mario teams up with Bowser Jr. in order to collect enough cat shines from the various islands in Lake Lapcat in order to free Bowser from the curse.

The game isn't too long. (I beat it in three or four hours.) But A LOT of of diverse gameplay is squeezed into this. 

What makes this game distinct is that it that it incorporates the old-school platformer format for power-ups into the open world. In the past, the power-ups were frequently intended to be used for specific tasks in limited capacities. Here, you can use fire or flying powers all over the place. Plus, I loved what they did with the item system. In 3D world, you can hold one power-up in reserve. Here, you can hold a whopping total of five items in reserve for EACH DIFFERENT TYPE OF ITEM!

Understand that this is only two players, unlike the four player availability in 3D World. Mario is player one and Bowser Jr. is two. I haven't played the latter, but he's a good assisting, computer-controlled character for single players. The best part is that you can make him very helpful when it comes to attacking bad guys, or if you don't want the handicap, you can have him let you do all the work.

Loved the design for Bowser in this. Though the idea of him becoming giant-sized has been done before, fury-mode Bowser is one of the more visually interesting versions. He's more menacing than he has ever been. (Plus, who doesn't like fire hair.) You fight him several times in this. These are definitely some of the easier battles with him in the series, but they're also some of the most fun. Throughout the game, Bowser will appear (separately from the boss fights) and rain fire destruction on the island for a brief period of time. It's an interesting idea that shakes things up and add a dramatic flair to the game. However, this can be a real pain since a lot of the gameplay is focused on precise movement and having Bowser show up and causing you to fall off a platform and have to start all over again is pretty frustrating. Also when you get really close to finishing the game, the attacks become unrelenting, which is  just a pain.

There are a couple weak spots in this. When you obtain one cat shine on an island, another challenge usually becomes available. However, the game doesn't always automatically set up the next one. You have to walk around a little before it comes. The game gives hints as to the next task, but they only show up when you enter an island's gate. This is frustrating since you have to walk back to it if you can't remember what to do next.

This is a visually distinctive Mario game. I'm not quite sure whether I like the look or not. You've got a blue lake surrounded by blue sky and blue . And there are stark grey or white color schemes in a lot of areas. It gives the game a weirdly sterile feel, but it does leave an impression.

Conclusion:

This is just a great collection. Both games are a lot of fun. Recommended to all ages.