Super Mario Bros. Wonder hands-on: A delightful reinvention of a classic

engadget.com:

It’s hard to believe that the last brand-new 2D Mario game came out more than 10 years ago. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate updates to classics like Super Mario 35 or remixes such as the Super Mario Maker series. But without a fresh entry to the franchise, it felt like there was something missing. However, after getting a chance to go hands-on with Super Mario Bros. Wonder ahead of its official release on October 10th, it feels like the magic is back.

By shifting locations from the Mushroom Kingdom to the Flower Kingdom Nintendo gave itself the freedom to update practically every aspect of the game, while staying true to the core formula that is running, jumping, smashing blocks and collecting everything in sight. There are power-ups like the new elephant suit that lets you bash enemies with your trunk. And while classic items like the Fire Flower are still around, there are refreshing twists like the Bubble Flower that give you the ability to both attack and reach new heights by jumping on the orbs you shoot out.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder also boasts the largest roster of characters in any Mario sidescroller yet, including the 2D return of Daisy along with, Peach, Luigi, Toad, Nabbit and multiple colors of Yoshi (the latter two having some important gameplay implications). Unlike the others, Yoshi and Nabbit can’t transform, but they also don’t take damage from enemies, projectiles or even the environment (like falling debris). Not only does this provide an easy way to adjust game difficulty on the fly, it’s also the perfect way to introduce 2D platformers to a new generation. After all, think about how many kids whose first glimpse of Mario might have been in a movie theater instead of on an 8 or 16-bit console. And