Super Mario Bros Wonder -- Thoughts?

[MrTrust]

It's fine, I guess.  Not sure why such a big deal was made about it; feels like a bog standard New Super Mario with a little bit of weird psychedelia thrown in.

 

For my part, it's not as good a parent/kid game as they have done in the recent past.  You have the Yoshis and Nabbit who can't take damage, but the game has a lot of tricky platforming stuff that kids suck at and there's no assist for them in that respect.  Some of the other Nintendo games handled this better, such as the Yoshi or Kirby ones.

 

Will I play this on my own without the kid(s)?  Maybe a little bit.  Doubt I will stick with it.  It feels a little too tepid for me to want to try 100%ing it, although the alternative I have at the moment is Mr. Run and Jump , which is probably a little beyond what I want to commit to.

 

[Razzie.P]

On 11/4/2023 at 12:00 AM, Tanooki said:

 the swampy under area had these 2 stages, and I for the life of me can not figure out how to unlock, find, or trigger the mid-stage wonders, just got the flag one.  One in particular seems to have no tell, the other a mouthy flower near these three looking background pillars keeps whining about something being obvious, which clearly it isn't.  Shit like that is a HUGE turn off to me in modern platformers.  Why can I not just play the stage an enjoy it?

 

 

4 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Well I sure as hell have no idea how to find those 2 wonders in world 1 in the toxic under area.  I may come back to it, just rather go at my own pace forward than be superficially stuck.

 

 

I dunno, dude... if you're talking about the stages named "Swamp Pipe Crawl" and "Angry Spikes and Sinkin' Pipes," those are pretty obvious...

 

Spoiler

For "Angry Pipes and Sinkin' Pipes," just hit the those painfully obvious blue flowers.  This one in the second pic will show you something is "down" when you touch it, so when you jump on the pipe it'll start sinking and take you down to the wonder.

 

 

 

 

 

For "Swamp Pipe Crawl," you gotta move this pipe in the middle onto the pipe on the right.  Pretty simple as far as puzzles go, but you first have to push the left pipe all the way right to make a base.  Then just push the middle pipe right and it'll snap into place and a wonder will pop up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're talking about different levels entirely, then oops.  😁   Lemme know what they're called.  I'm curious to see if I got them.  I missed a lot of stuff like that, mostly because I just didn't care enough to find it, but good news is... they're not all needed to progress.

 

 

[roots.genoa]

To be fair I got stuck quite a while in a mini-level (don't know how they're called in English) even though I didn't have any trouble figuring out the pipe puzzle above, because pushing pipes is admittedly not very intuitive in a Mario game at least.

[Razzie.P]

5 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

To be fair I got stuck quite a while in a mini-level (don't know how they're called in English) even though I didn't have any trouble figuring out the pipe puzzle above, because pushing pipes is admittedly not very intuitive in a Mario game at least.

Yeah there are some "optional" stumpers, for sure, but I don't think anything impedes a main playthrough except for maybe one spot.  And moving pipes seems to be new, but I think the team did a good job showing the player "these can be moved, and this is this level's gimmick..." to help make it more intuitive well before that specific spot.

 

   

  

On 11/4/2023 at 4:05 AM, roots.genoa said:

Uh... We may not have played the same games in the 80s and 90s then... Games were full of secrets and obscure stuff (remember Castlevania 2 and the crouching on a specific spot for instance). I think it's the contrary; these occurrences are rare now. In the case of Super Mario Wonder, remember you'll get a badge to detect secrets, so maybe they kept some of them well hidden for that.

Even the very first Super Mario Bros did this, I think.   Stupid castle levels on an endless loop unless you pick the right path or taking the wrong pipe with throw you back to the beginning...  Not a huge deal normally, but when you're trying to figure it out when a timer is involved, it was annoying.    Games like Wonder still have a lot of secrets for those who enjoy that, but it's mostly not required to progress like it was back then, so the game itself seems way more straightforward if that's how the player prefers.

 

 

[+Gemintronic]

Makes me wish my Switch was modded.  Apparently a LOT of things can be changed via XML like files.  I've seen YouTube videos of adding characters and giving existing characters custom physics.

[Tanooki]

Well yeah I think it's those stages, the sinking pipes I saw landed you in the acid for an insta-kill, so I've not by intent rode one of those into the drink on purpose.  As to the others, I never saw a pipe I could move, not that I really have tried to move any pipes as i guess that's something the elephant does.  So no, that wouldn't have many any sense as a puzzle as the first is apparent suicide, and the other I didn't know was a thing.

 

I've rarely had a chance to play the game up to this point which sucks but it is what it is.

[Razzie.P]

11 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Well yeah I think it's those stages, the sinking pipes I saw landed you in the acid for an insta-kill, so I've not by intent rode one of those into the drink on purpose.  As to the others, I never saw a pipe I could move, not that I really have tried to move any pipes as i guess that's something the elephant does.  So no, that wouldn't have many any sense as a puzzle as the first is apparent suicide, and the other I didn't know was a thing.

 

I've rarely had a chance to play the game up to this point which sucks but it is what it is.

Well, to me, touching that flower pretty clearly showed me "something's down here..." which is about as nice a "tell" as I can hope for them to add without just having a pop up saying "hey!  For this secret, you gotta stand here and ride the pipe down."   And they made it a point to show you pipes being moved a few times up to that point to indicate that's a thing, so I still think it's a pretty good "tell," and made perfect sense to me as far as puzzles and secrets go.  But it's ok to disagree, so no worries there  😁

 

 

But yeah, if you like it enough to continue playing it, be sure to watch what happens when you touch those blue/purple flower things.  Sometimes they just give coins or something, but it's a pretty common thing throughout the game for them to fly in a direction and/or offscreen to indicate there's a secret of some sort hiding there.

 

11 hours ago, Tanooki said:

 As to the others, I never saw a pipe I could move, not that I really have tried to move any pipes as i guess that's something the elephant does. 

Nah, don't have to be the elephant.  I'm not sure if "small" Mario can do it (I'd have to test) but those can definitely be pushed by big Mario. 

[Tanooki]

I don't think I was small, not sure.  But I don't ignore the flowers, but I like to just have little discoveries of the totally optional style that the old SMB1-4 had I guess, nothing even remotely cryptic or seems to buck the view of the space that would scream that's death, as a pipe slide into acid would do.  Either way when I have time I'll play it here and there, gets a bit much M-W when I end up having a 14-15hr work day.  I've poked around, even on the map to find a couple captain toads already.

[Austin]

Having played through much of the game over the last few days, I can now see why some are touting this as the best 2D Mario since Super Mario World. They overhauled just about everything and the attention to detail is off the charts. Tons of creativity is on display here as well. The Wonder Flower (or whatever they are called) sections have been my favorite parts, as the moment I feel like the game is retreading past mechanics and themes too much, it goes off the rails in the best way possible and makes me laugh out loud every time with the amount of creativity on display. Not many games these days make me do that.

[Tanooki]

49 minutes ago, Austin said:

Having played through much of the game over the last few days, I can now see why some are touting this as the best 2D Mario since Super Mario World. They overhauled just about everything and the attention to detail is off the charts. Tons of creativity is on display here as well. The Wonder Flower (or whatever they are called) sections have been my favorite parts, as the moment I feel like the game is retreading past mechanics and themes too much, it goes off the rails in the best way possible and makes me laugh out loud every time with the amount of creativity on display. Not many games these days make me do that.

Sadly I can with a 60hr work week and home stuff find maybe a couple hours a week to fiddle with it, so I'm through W1, the hub as is it for now(?), and much of W2.  What you're saying is what I was thinking and seeing too.  It really is a throwback and a revitalization of the original SMB franchise all at the same time and done just so well.  Shame it'll have to compete for time with SMRPG.

[roots.genoa]

And having unlocked most of the levels including the last one (a few are left in the volcano and in the extra world), I admit it's slightly easier than the NSMB games. It's very creative, sure, but sometimes I feel like the wonder flower mechanic is more about watching fun stuff than actually playing. 😅 Some of the short levels (I don't know how they're called in English) are great and I really wish they were longer. I agree it's better than NSMBU since it's more varied and there are very original ideas, but to me it's the best Mario since... NSMBU, since I dislike Super Mario World anyway (I hate the cape and Yoshi is half-baked imho).

[Video]

Well just collected the last standie, so got my second star in the game (first is to beat bowser natch) been wafting through the game multiple times trying for 10flower coins and missed seeds and such. I've run into a few problems that are pretty obvious once you figure them out, like the pipes with the weird tip so another pipe can slot on top, once you figure out you can push some pipes. Yes small Mario can push a pipe, but larger and elephant Mario are stronger, especially when there's one of those big hand guys that you have to compete with. One plant dropped coins, but a sparkle went off screen and I chased it nearly to the beginning of the level before it spawned a door.

 

Anyhow, over all I found the game amazing, and even after (or if?) I 100% it I will definitely go play through many times in the future. Its rare for a new game to capture the feel and magic of original, and better sequels, especially multiple decades old franchises like Mario, but imo, wonder definitely does that.

 

I've gotten most every seed and flower in the game, it even pops a message up when you collect the last seed (and gives you 100 flower coins, why I've got all the standies) you can pull up a map (left bumper) and it shows each level, what seeds, flowers, and flags you've gotten, and a checkmark for 100%, if you don't get the checkmark, look hard, there's probably an alternate exit to find, and the fourth seed and second flag don't show up on completion records until you finish that level. Well, a second flag never shows up.

 

Anyhow, I've got some special world stuff left, and that's about it. I may reset it, or make a profile and start again soon, its really a lot of fun. Maybe play as other characters, though outside yoshi and nabit who take no enemy damage, not sure there's a difference from playing as Mario, outside cosmetically. There's no extra save slots, so its restart or new profile.

[roots.genoa]

I didn't manage to beat the second invisibility badge level (the one in the volcano) last night... 😰 Too bad you have to beat it to access to the following levels. 😔

[vagabondartist]

This game is a much simpler New Super Mario Bros with the saltbae gif guy coming in and sprinkling Ayahuasca on it at random.

 

This isn’t really what I want from a 2D Mario game. I’m not upset I checked it out, but I find it all pretty forgettable and dull and trying too hard to show everyone how ‘creative’ Nintendo can be with the little wonder flower segments. I bet the port of NSMB ultimately outsells this on switch, as the actual gameplay in that is better than this.

Edited November 21, 2023 by vagabondartist
Misspelling

[MrBeefy]

We haven't got this yet, but we probably will. It's the first 2D Mario I've been interested in since the first NSMB. 

 

I've come to accept that the challenge has been nerfed in Mario. But that raises a good question of how people would react to a modern Mario game that after their lives ran out had to go backwards and redo levels and worlds? 

[vagabondartist]

9 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

We haven't got this yet, but we probably will. It's the first 2D Mario I've been interested in since the first NSMB. 

 

I've come to accept that the challenge has been nerfed in Mario. But that raises a good question of how people would react to a modern Mario game that after their lives ran out had to go backwards and redo levels and worlds? 

I think it’s worth checking out. If you like collecting everything in 3D Mario there’s a lot to like here as there are similar design principles being used.

 

Curious what you think of it.

[MrBeefy]

4 hours ago, vagabondartist said:

I think it’s worth checking out. If you like collecting everything in 3D Mario there’s a lot to like here as there are similar design principles being used.

 

Curious what you think of it.

I'm not big into the I must collect everything. I just played 3D World with my kid and found the bosses being behind collecting stars to be slightly tedious. It was a good game otherwise.

[Video]

I don't know, I liked the variety of wonder flower segments. It reminds me of the special segments in super Mario world 2, which admittedly many may not count as "Mario" (being you play as yoshi) but its a very similar idea to helicopter or tank yoshi segments in that game. So even that isn't "new" in Mario games.

[MrBeefy]

On 11/24/2023 at 4:11 PM, Video said:

I don't know, I liked the variety of wonder flower segments. It reminds me of the special segments in super Mario world 2, which admittedly many may not count as "Mario" (being you play as yoshi) but its a very similar idea to helicopter or tank yoshi segments in that game. So even that isn't "new" in Mario games.

Yoshis Island was great. Segments like that could be fun.

[Shawn]

I got this game for my birthday recently. I absolutely love it! They keep on finding new gameplay elements to add to the tried and true mario formula after all these years. What a great game. Interesting to see mario move up from shrooms to acid. Drugs are a slippery slope kids lmfao.

[Razzie.P]

5 hours ago, Shawn said:

I got this game for my birthday recently. I absolutely love it! They keep on finding new gameplay elements to add to the tried and true mario formula after all these years. What a great game. Interesting to see mario move up from shrooms to acid. Drugs are a slippery slope kids lmfao.

His Next Gen cocaine habit is gonna be unreal!  Probably play like one of the modern Doom games.

[Tanooki]

So that's the natural progression from shrooms?

[Shawn]

On 12/11/2023 at 12:37 PM, Tanooki said:

So that's the natural progression from shrooms?

 

As far as the Mario Brothers are concerned it seems to be. 🤣