Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a newer 2d platformer released by Nintendo, and while it may not be perfect, it does have several good qualities. If we were talking about the perfect 2d platformer it would have five main things that would make it great. It would have a reasonable amount of difficulty, an appealing art and animation style that keeps the player engrossed in the world, sound design that lures players into the world and keeps them immersed, interesting and diverse boss fights, and good replay value. Wonder hits many of the criteria, but it could do better in other spots.

In terms of difficulty, Super Mario Bros. Wonder does an excellent job of hitting the sweet spot of difficulty. As you go through the seven worlds, the difficulty ramps up at a reasonable pace that lets the newer players not feel to challenged and the more experienced ones not feel as though the game is extremely easy. The game can keep this balance by only needing a certain number of levels to be completed and allowing the player to choose what levels they do, allowing them to choose if they want to go for the harder extra point in the level or if they want to just keep it easy. By having this system, it lets the players the option to avoid the tougher levels entirely and just stay in their comfort zone, or for those looking for a challenge, go for the harder parts of levels that may require them to spend hours of their time completing. Overall, Super Mario Bros. Wonder does an amazing job at keeping the sweet spot of difficulty, by allowing the player to choose their path and if they want to do the harder sections for the reward of extra points to unlock the boss to move on than the other sections.

Wonder also has an amazing new art and animation style that is fun to look at and keeps the player engrossed. An example of this is when the player takes damage from various sources such as getting struck by lightning. When struck the character goes through an animation dedicated solely for that, losing whatever power up they had at the time and playing a different animation depending on what power up was lost. This lets the player see the dedication the developers put into the game and having an animation of something so inconsequential as the character reacting to the damage source in diverse ways, it keeps the player immersed in the world. But it is not just the animations that keep the player engrossed, but also the amazing art style that makes the game appealing to look at. An example is all the backgrounds in the game, which makes the world look more alive. The game uses CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), which lets the designer make the world look more alive than the earlier games, which looked more fictional having giant weird pillars with dots, while this game has sprawling plains with some mountains and trees. Overall, with the new art style and new animation technique and dedication Super Mario Bros. Wonder does a wonderful job of keeping the player immersed and fascinated by the world of the game.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder takes the sound design from the previous games, and takes it in a new, very welcome direction. The music in this game, like the title, instills Wonder in the player. It uses more acapella singers as how you hear the songs and has a jazzier feel than previous games. An example is how there is more guitar or sax-based instruments in the songs while in games such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii, they seem to focus on having instruments such as keyboards, harps, xylophones, and the like be the focus. But Wonder does not just get rid of some of the classic songs, they also improve on them, bringing back fan favorites such as Metal Mario, Athletic, Airship, and many more. Now, to focus on other parts of sound design, let us talk about the smaller things such as entering a pipe, or collecting a power up. For these parts, instead of changing the instruments only, they take what was used for the original sounds, and add more, to make a more Wonderous feel and not interrupt the groovy sounds of the regular game. An example is how in the original game, they only had a keyboard play when you collected a power up, but now they have added a sax to play the little jingle, and this little addition helps not stick out and keep the game feeling cohesive. All these additions combined make New Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s sound design be better than the older games and stand out more compared to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps4NTPN4OYs&list=PLLnEF-LrsjNSJXrUvsrqQQUxUf8aEj5a-&index=5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyFwRZm4AUA&list=PLE46B81D4430D3556&index=15.

In terms of bosses, Super Mario Bros. Wonder does not do the best it could have, leaving the player wanting for more. At the end of each world in the previous Mario Games, also having one at the halfway point, you would fight one of the Koopalings, all who had unique gimmicks during their fight which gave the player a challenge, and all had their own individual personality. In Super Mario Bros. Wonder meanwhile, there is only one boss that keeps showing up and throwing new or sometimes re-used, gimmicks at you. This boss, Bowser Jr., has no personality, is easy to beat, and overall, his fights get stale after the first two battles. An example is that Bowser Jr.’s only reason of fighting you is because you just showed up somewhere and he just so happened to be there. The fight then starts after Jr. gives a few lines of dialogue that all say similar things being, “Wow, you came all the way here just to play with me? Well, I can’t let you down, so I’ll fight you” the fight itself is not to challenging, after jumping on him once, he pulls out the gimmick of the day, which can go from actually interesting gimmicks, such as changing the size of him and the player, to dull gimmicks which offer little to no challenge, such as making the player not be able to see that well by making it dark. After Jr. implements the gimmick, you must jump on him two or three more times depending on the gimmick, and then the fight is over, you grab the Royal Wonder Seed and leave. Overall, compared to older games, which had gimmicks such as making a giant enemy help a Koopaling fight you, or having the boss moving around the room via giant pipes, Super Mario Bros. Wonder leaves a lot to be desired in terms of boss fights, which are supposed to be challenging, and have unique personalities.

Back on a more positive note, Super Mario Bros. Wonder has a lot of replay value, giving the player many options to beat levels, and letting them go back to the levels to collect hidden collectibles they may have missed. An example of how Wonder excels at this is the many badges in the game. With the badges, it can change how the player plays the game entirely and can either make levels harder for the player or easier. An example of one of these badges is the Jet run badge. The Badge lets makes you move at top speed as soon as the player moves in any direction. The badge also gives them have a short window of time to jump after running of ledges, at the expense of not being able to stop moving unless they find a wall. This badge can make easy levels quite challenging because while being able to jump midair sounds amazing, not being able to stop moving at top speed makes the platforming and avoiding of obstacles extremely hard. An example of the opposite of this badge is the parachute cap, which lets the player be able to press a button and slow their downward momentum, extending horizontal movement. This is already big, but if you combine this with the fact that because of this decreased falling speed the player able to do one-sided wall jumps, this opens many possibilities in level, which may also make harder to collect items much easier. With the badge system, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a game that can be played many times without the player getting bored.

Overall, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a phenomenal game, and while not perfect it does extremely well at being enjoyable. By giving the player the option to do easier or harder levels, the game lets the player have a challenge that fits their play level. By having an appealing art and animation style that lets the game feel alive and keeps the player immersed in the game. With cohesive music, and sound effects that blend as to not interrupt the vibe of songs, the game keeps you hooked, and your ears pleased. By having amazing replay value via its badge system, it lets players who beat the game normally options to experience levels in entirely new ways. But because of its boring and repetitive boss fights, it leaves the player dissatisfied with the. With these reasons, it makes Super Mario Bros. Wonder an amazing game that takes the series in a wonderful direction, but with some small flaws, like most games it is not the perfect 2d platformer.