Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the culmination of decades of evolving 2D Mario design ideas and platforming polish. It’s full of neat mechanics and new powerups as well as impressive visual set pieces each rapidly discarded one after another like veteran musicians riffing on their greatest hits who have nothing left to prove but keep throwing out new surprises anyway just for kicks. Fitting, then, that some of the game’s most memorable moments are elaborate musical numbers that bring out the platformer’s inner rhythms and make them sing.
It’s a crowd-pleasing victory lap that held back only by its occasional conservativism. Limiting the risks limits some of the payoff, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder never quite reaches the envelope-pushing heights of the best games in the series, but it’s excellent nevertheless. — Ethan Gach
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