Hello! Welcome back to Game Over Gimmicks! It’s been quite a while since a game review was posted. Game Pass Gems was a series about the hidden gems of the best subscription service in gaming: Xbox Game Pass. Bugsnax, Firewatch, and Boyfriend Dungeon were a few of the lucky suspects chosen for the highlight to play. Please play Firewatch, by the way. It’s incredible.
This is a new series called “When the Credits Roll.” Game reviews need a refresh from simple Metacritic scores with some arbitrary number out of 5, 10, or 100 if you’re super weird. Games are art forms, and art is subjective with no place for gradation. So this game review series is all about aspects of a game we remember, good or bad, when the credits roll.
First up, let’s talk about Mario.
The most successful plumber in history has had an incredible year. Everyone knows who Mario is, but 2023 brought about a resurgence of unforeseen proportions. The Super Mario Bros. movie was a nostalgia-laden monster hit that was fun for everyone. To the response of wondrous acclaim from fans who longed for it, Super Mario RPG made its return with a great remake that encapsulated the original’s magic. Nintendo truly doubled down on the face of their company this year. Mario hasn’t been this popular since he figured out three dimensions.
The perfect way to cap off the year for Mario was to return to his side-scrolling roots with Super Mario Bros: Wonder. It’s a perfect game for the whole family while being a great advancement of the franchise. It’s a fantastic addition to the Mario library and one of my favorite platforming experiences in recent memory.
Move over Mushroom Kingdom, there’s a new kingdom in town! Mario and friends are out to harness their best Flower Power to save the Flower Kingdom from everyone’s favorite Peach admirer, Bowser. The game truly sets the wacky tone off the bat by turning Bowser into a castle ship. Yes, you read that correctly.
And this wacky tone continues throughout the game and truly sets this game apart from the Mario universe. Mario games will always have a set number of things: Bowser as the antagonist, tight gameplay across numerous varied levels, and a linear story where Mario saves the day. The usual elemental suspects for world types are also there, with a couple of fun surprises too. A Mario game being a fun time isn’t surprising, but the wacky nature of Wonder is what sets this game apart.
Everything in this game comes back to the word “wonder.”
A world of wonder is what this game is built upon. At the heart of the Flower Kingdom is the Wonder Flower, a power-up central to the game’s mechanics and story. The skeleton of your run-of-the-mill Mario game is here, except the Wonder mechanic turns the game upside down whenever you find a flower hidden somewhere in the level. This mechanic is wonderful. It keeps the player on their toes by flipping the script mid-level. The whole level could stop for a nice quiz, or maybe race across a level on a zip track. The player has no idea what’s coming next, and that’s what this game does well.
That’s not to say that the levels themselves are boring. They are perfectly designed and memorable without the Wonder parts, but adding them changes the game. Finding wonder flowers becomes an exciting discovery and makes the player crave the next one.
It keeps the player in a constant state of wondering what’s next.
It must not be easy to find ways to innovate in the Mario franchise. Might I suggest more exploration into the Flower Kingdom and the wonder mechanic? There are endless possibilities! They turned Mario into an elephant for absolutely no reason outside of the fact that it’s wacky. More of that! Games should embrace that unpredictability. Don’t be afraid to buck a trend and infuse a little creativity into lasting franchises. That’s what Wonder is all about.