Topic: Super Mario Bros Wonder

@skywake The fact that it's an easier mode which doesn't look or feel like an easier mode is what I think is genius. They've combined accessibility with multiplayer and made them both work even though they are both kind of indirect.

I really want to do a full playthrough with multiplayer after I finish my current solo run but I'm still sad there isn't a way to do that without deleting my current run since you only get one save file per account.

Please forgive me, talking flower, for leaving you alone. I hope you can fly to a place with lots of beings.

This game is such a blast to play, but it's a bit disappointing that none of the colored Yoshis can use power ups. I would've loved to see what an elephant Yoshi could've potentially looked like

I hope they will make a free Demo on The E Shop for it. This one is on my wish list to get for Christmas.

Just about done with the game. Just grinding for flower coins to buy the last of the standees, then everything is done 100%. Great experience. Loved the environments, the new enemies and gameplay mechanics (badges, wonder seeds etc). Lots of polish and details such as the individual animations when going through doors and pipes. The talking flowers didn't feel intrusive to me which surprised me. Only minor complaint for me is bosses. The ones we got were very good, but they were few and far between.

I will probably replay this in the future, though I think I will return to other games for the time being.

Just got the credits and 100%-ed most things. Still have special world. This is definitely the fastest I have ever beaten a Nintendo game. 😝 I just couldn't stop playing.

This was something I didn’t like about the game from when the characters were travelled. Nabbit was already there for an easy mode, why make the yoshi’s easy as well?

I know NSMBU is getting a ton of hate now with Wonder's massive showboating above and beyond anything it had to offer.

But I still feel like, despite the NES-era animations and rather lifeless quality, the similarities to 3 previous New series entries and all around "play it safe" aspects, I still think NSMBU is a wonderful game, and one of the best 2D platformers ever made. Which goes to show, even when Nintendo doesn't innovate or even really try to do anything more than status quo, they still make the best games in the world.

That said, it's nice having Wonder. And, it does highlight the shortcomings of NSMBU all the more.

@JaxonH NSMBU Deluxe is a great game. I honestly hope Wonder copies some of their DLC ideas. Deluxe really packs in tons of content just by messing around with play modes and special trials; I would love that type of thing in Wonder - Wonder is the better overall game, but it could use more post-game content so is ripe for DLC.

I got to the third kingdom(?) and the game's starting to grow on me. I think it falls into the trap of making the first handful of hours way too easy (Monster Hunter has been doing this too recently) but some of the challenge stages mitigate the tedium.

Some of the Wonder parts have been very creative and the game does a good job of adding new enemies and obstacles so as not to make it feel like it's dragging on. The length of the stages tend to hit the sweet spot of fully exploring its theme/gimmicks while wrapping things up before it grows stale.

I think my point still stands about the wacky stuff being gated off, but of course whether or not that's a bad thing is open for debate. That said, some of the challenge stages are really fun and surprisingly, yes, challenging. The game's structure (in terms of how the map is laid out with levels and bonus stages) reminds me of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which is definitely a plus.

Most of the game is pretty easy, but world 6 has a few decent challenges. Beating levels in pretty much all Mario games is easy but this game decided to make most of the collectibles natural rather than challenging. On the one hand, it makes it a bit easier to 100%, on the other hand it is so satisfying to investigate some random thing and suddenly find the last coin or a secret exit just while playing through a level the first time.

I would say the layout takes after 3D World, but, yeah, Kirby vibes also. I agree a lot of the challenge stages are fun — I want DLC with a ton more of those.

Just beat Wonder tonight, with only a handful of levels left. While I loved the game, and it's the first time I've grinded through a game in just a few days, I can't in good conscience give it a 10/10, or declare it as my GOTY (Gravity Circuit reigns supreme, and probably will because I'm not getting to Tears of the Kingdom anytime soon). While so much is excellent, I think the writing is kind of a mixed bag. The Talking Flowers are genuinely funny at times, but a lot of the other dialogue just felt lacking, especially the early-game portrayal of Bowser. I get Mario games are aimed at everyone, but they reduced him to the level of a campy villain in a show for preschoolers before suddenly getting him back on track for the endgame. The sound design was also lacking in some ways - the menu sounds just didn't sound polished, while the horns accompanying the Elephant powerup are pretty poor in quality. I also found a few of the later levels to have some elements that weren't intuitive, while others stuck out in a bad way because they just felt like Mario Maker stages instead - using a bunch of square tiles instead of more organic shapes. The Wonder Effects also repeated a lot more than I expected (though in most cases, they justified it, and I can't really say I'm disappointed on that front). The most egregious thing, though? As I fought the final boss, the game just...stopped doing anything for a good few minutes before the final phase kicked in, which really soured my view of it. (In general, the bosses are a weak point - at least they're not all 3 hits, but the fact not even Kamek got anything is baffling.) Still an excellent game, but I'd have to give it a 9.5/10 with how my nitpicks add up.

@PikaPhantom
I’m not saying it’s not a good criticism, but I never thought I would see the day where the writing was a point of criticism in a 2D Mario game.

That's Bowser's character by design, is it not?

Oh my gosh, the multiplayer in this game is phenomenal!

I just encountered a Daisy in real time throw up a puzzled icon as I skipped to the foreground for a secret exit. So I went back, signaled them to follow me, and led them to the secret exit. We're both spamming happy face icons as we run across the foreground to the secret exit.

I've never experienced anything like that in a game before. I suppose Dark Souls comes closest but most ppl are just trolling in that game

The online stuff is neat, yeah. It feels like they were paying attention to Dark Souls and Death Stranding.

It's also satisfying to come in first place or get through a section everyone else is stuck on. I'm roflstomping these noobs left and right. Then again a very large portion of players are under the age of 10, so,

@PikaPhantom For most of the game I was impressed by how much the Wonder effects didn't repeat. But then they used just the one over and over in late game (you know which one). Although it was fun enough, I found that an odd choice.

Curious about your comment on the final boss because I didn't notice anything like that. Although making the whole boss just be a rhythm game was also an odd choice.

@moomin Maybe it's a weird nitpick, but I thought him blabbing about how he's the castle and the castle is him and how he's getting more and more powerful so he can do a big Wonder was really childish even for him. Like, you could basically copy the dialogue over to Jr. and it'd work. The endgame got him back on track for sure

@FishyS Regarding the world map layout, 3D World's simple maps felt like a prototype for the semi-explorable map Forgotten Land had; World feels closer in spirit to Kirby in that regard (especially with the self-contained challenge stages). It would be cool if they expanded on this kind of hub world by making it a puzzle in and of itself. Imagine how fun it would be having to use unique abilities to discover hidden areas/stages.