Super Mario Bros. Review Wonderful entertainment for the whole family

You may not realize it, but it’s been over ten years since we last released a new Super Mario 2D game. While the 3D games starring the popular mustachioed plumber are also excellent and very successful, there’s something pure and extremely accessible about the classic 2D treatment. In this particular case, it is further enriched with a large portion of new ideas, be it individual mechanics and gameplay elements or the overall design of individual levels. It’s as if the creators looked at the creations of Super Mario Maker 2 players and took it for granted. Wonder will captivate you primarily with its variety and imagination, but beyond that it also has excellent audiovisual processing and, of course, excellent multiplayer for local and online play with family, friends or random teammates.

• Platform: Switch
• Publication date: 10.20.2023
• Manufacturer: Nintendo (Japan)
• Genre: platform game
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: locally and online, up to 4 players
• Download data: 3.5 GB
• Game time: 10+ hours
• Price: CZK 1449 (Nintendo)

Miracle means amazement

At first glance, Wonder may look relatively traditional – you have a game map divided into several themed regions that you navigate between levels. You look at the game map from above, the levels are traditionally located on the side. But already here you will encounter all sorts of “kinks” when, for example, certain parts of the map do not contain a rail for linear movement between levels, but you can move along them completely freely. The creators used this to surprise you here with all sorts of hidden corners, mechanics and ideas. In short, this is a game where every part of it is worth exploring – in some cases, it even hides invisible things that you only discover with the right item.

However, all this is applied a hundred times as soon as you climb one of the levels. You can get through most of them with relative ease, but at the end you’ll find yourself missing some collectibles. So you go back and start exploring again. Often you’ll find that there was not just one, but several possible paths on the map, including some really cleverly hidden ones. This is further supported by new power-ups (items like fire flowers, with the exception of some that turn you into an elephant or let you shoot bubbles) and new deployable “badges” that can permanently change, for example, the height of your jump, add windage, or even affect yourself levels or on your enemies.

This is a game where every detail is worth exploring.

But the biggest craziness comes from the “Miracle Flowers” – there are usually two of them in levels: one as a reward at the end and one carefully hidden somewhere in the level. If you find and collect what’s hidden, the entire level will transform (including the visuals and music) and add unique wild mechanics, sometimes even transforming you. These changes include, for example, “blacking out” and seeing everything as silhouettes or a herd of wild animals running up, and he has to jump over them. Miracle Flowers also serve as a condition for unlocking further progress – you must collect a certain number of them to unlock further levels and regions. Of course, the regions culminate in a boss fight, which understandably revolves around Bowser.

Almost flawless performance

Of course, you can play through the entire game on your own, offline. If you grew up playing Mario in 2D, you’ll probably want to play through the game as him, which in single-player means keeping track of your life total and overcoming obstacles with some pretty wild difficulty spikes (the levels are stellar). are ranked by difficulty, with harder ones mixed with lighter ones continuously, not completely – but some are optional). But playing with other people is even better. There are ten classic characters to choose from, some of them (like Yoshi) intentionally immortal so that even the youngest or non-gamer in your family can enjoy the game. In multiplayer there are also all sorts of methods of assistance, when you can revive a fallen player, etc.

Some game characters (such as Yoshi) are intentionally immortal.

In terms of processing, the game is also excellent – although you move through the level environments in two dimensions, the graphics are 3D and create a tactile feeling, as if they were living plastic toys or living clay. At the same time, individual regions are full of colors and special effects, among other things, sometimes you can switch between the environment in front and behind. It probably won’t surprise you that everything is accompanied by great music, remixing classic tunes and introducing entirely new ones. After Metroid Dread, we have another 2D game that will blow your mind even on a big TV, let alone if you’re playing in handheld mode. But even here the designer’s sophistication was reflected, so the game never confuses thanks to all the colors and effects. In any case, it is difficult to describe in words and screenshots will not work either – for a better idea, play the demo in motion.

It’s not easy to write more about a game whose charm lies so much in the joy of discovery and playing for yourself. If I had to mention a weak point, I could only remember the slightly chaotic difficulty of individual levels in places, but this is often due to the optional ones, and you always have tools to make things easier. For some, despite the great new coat and many new mechanics, the downside may be that underneath it all it’s still “the same classic Mario”, but for other players, on the contrary, this will be the best thing in the whole game. . As usual, you can come back after finishing the game and discover more and more hidden bonuses. If I had to choose a multiplayer game for a party with family or friends this Christmas, I’d probably pick this one.