Reviews for Nintendo’s next major 2D Mario platformer, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, dropped overnight and it’s proven to be a hit with critics.
With 80 critic reviews at the time of writing, it’s currently sitting on a Metascore of 93, earning it the coveted Metacritic Must Play badge and beating the other big AAA game release this week, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, by 3 points.
Of course, that’s comparing Elephant Fruit to Spider Suits, so a more appropriate benchmark is the rest of the Mario platforming franchise, and Wonder has held up incredibly well against its peers. It hasn’t quite pipped the untouchable trio of Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario Odyssey, but its cracked the top 10 (with the advantage of some banger classic Mario games predating Metacritic) and completely eclipsed any of the New Super Mario Bros. 2.5D platforming entries.
On the local scene, GamesHub scored Super Mario Bros. Wonder a massive five stars, saying, “Super Mario Bros. Wonder is pure joy, through and through. From its expressive aesthetic to its whimsical stage designs, it delights you at virtually every step.”
As did the folks at Vooks, calling it “…one of the best 2D Mario games alongside Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3. It’s the visual refresh, the exciting new ideas and the polish we’ve needed for a while. If only there were an adjective to describe it in one word.”
Meanwhile Checkpoint Gaming awarded it an incredibly respectable 9/10, saying “Super Mario Bros. Wonder is yet another magnificent showing from Nintendo. To take a concept that’s so well understood but still find new ways to impress is no easy feat. Yet Mario Wonder excels in this field thanks to incredibly dynamic gameplay, headlined by the imaginative amazement of the Wonder Flower. It’s hard not to fall in love with this new release, a game that’s packed to the brim with charm and zest.”
In our own review of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, we scored the game a huge 10/10 and said, “Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just that. A wonder. It leverages tight and concise platforming with a robust set of power-ups and skills to offer a degree of flexibility to players like never before. While it’s still slightly easier than I’d like, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an incredibly engaging Mario game and one of the best platformers available on the Switch, if not ever.”
Super Mario Bros. Wonder releases on October 20th exclusively for Nintendo Switch. Amazon has pre-orders of the game for $69 with free shipping.
