Super Mario Bros. Wonder Review

After a decade of the same recycled assets and the same music, this is the series remembering that it is allowed to be strange. The wonder flower is the mechanism: touch one and the stage transforms, so pipes start crawling, the camera flips to a top down view, the whole level becomes a musical number or Mario turns into a ball, and because each transformation is used once you never learn to anticipate them. The art direction changed with it, with expressive animation and a warmth the previous entries had sanded off.

The badge system is the smartest inclusion, letting players attach a movement aid or a challenge modifier, which handles the difficulty question without splitting the game. Talking flowers are the divisive part and can be turned off. Weaknesses are real but modest. It is easy until the special world, several badge stages are one note, and the online play is a passive ghost system rather than genuine co operation. Inventive, funny and the best sidescrolling Mario since the Super Nintendo.