Super Mario Bros. Wonder never stops surprising
By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.
When a Super Mario game gets really good, you can’t help but move around in your seat. I find myself leaning into jumps as if it’ll give me an advantage and ducking my head down to avoid flying enemies. Even after a few decades of playing these games, it’s an instinct I can’t seem to avoid — and I was never sitting still while playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder on the Nintendo Switch.
Wonder is the first brand-new side-scrolling Mario game in over a decade and the first mainline entry in the series since Super Mario Odyssey in 2017. It’s also one of the best titles in the franchise to date. Wonder manages to pull from classics like Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3, while firmly updating the formula with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of wild new ideas. Wonder, it turns out, is a very fitting name. It’s a feeling that you’ll experience plenty of while playing.
Like the best Super Mario games, there’s only the hint of a story here. In Wonder, you’re once again fighting off Bowser and his forces, but instead of kidnapping Princess Peach, this time around, he has… turned himself into a giant evil castle. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but then again, it doesn’t need to. Mostly, it’s just an excuse to get really weird.
The basics are still here. Mario (or whichever character you choose) mostly moves from left to right, still gets big when eating a mushroom, and finishes (most) levels by sliding down a flagpole at the end of the stage. You still stomp on Goombas and collect lots of coins. But there are also many updates to the formula that
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