I’m really amazed to see how good this game turned out because 2D platformer games aren’t as popular as they used to be yet with this one they continue to make a comeback and for many reasons:
The animation team did an amazing job making the game look as alive and immersive as possible, every single character had a different feel to them even if they were the most simple from the beginning! The way that Mario and Luigi come back for their hat when rushing into a horizontal pipe, the way that some of the enemies smile and laugh when they attack the player, the way that the elephant characters struggle when entering a pipe on the top, they added so many different details to the game that made it feel so alive! I also love that when you have the elephant power up and there’s still water in the character’s trunk, when you complete the level you can water the Popplin’s head and petals will sprout out! Even when Mario’s running, his feet become all faded like in cartoons which is essentially what this was made out to be, a cartoon! I mean when I look back at the reused New Super Mario Bros Wii sprites and animations, they look so dead and robotic compared to Super Mario Bros Wonder!
The voice actors actually did a pretty good job especially since it’s their first ever time playing the character in an official game! Charles’ version of Mario sounded confident and proud while Kevin’s version of Mario sounded more excited and young which I really liked, I really am going to miss Charles Martinet since he was “The Voice of Mario” and always will be “The Voice of Mario” but I have to admit that Kevin’s Mario is also really good! Even though it’s quite clear that there’s a difference between the two, it doesn’t sound that bad by any means and like I said, he did a pretty good job doing so! They both sounded like they were having so much fun voicing Mario and it makes me really happy!
I’ve seriously never been this excited for a platformer since New Super Mario Bros U and I had the same amount of fun I did with this game as I did with the Wii U game! I look forward to getting a lot of games but it’s not usually as fun as it was when I was a kid, however when I did my second playthrough of the game while trying to 100% it I felt the exact same emotion I did when I was young! It felt so good to feel that way again and when I realized what I was feeling and how it compared to when I was young I felt so happy and I enjoyed it a lot!
The only problem that I have are the bossfights, I kind of liked it when it had different types of fighting styles but platformer bosses were never really that special, it’s the same old “Stomp on Them Three Times” but it would’ve been kind of nice if the bosses weren’t Bowser Jr. 6 times and the minibosses were actually minibosses rather than a button you have to push.
Overall, this game wasn’t a masterpiece but it was relatively enjoyable and exciting, I love how every wonder effect is such a surprise and so unexpected as well as even the power ups which were also so fun to play around with: 4/5 Stars! 8.3/10 Rating!