The original Super Mario games stand amongst the most important and influential video games ever created, but after the series shifted to the third dimension, Mario’s side-scrolling adventures never quite reached the same heights. Now, for the first time since 1995, at least in my opinion, the magic of 2D Mario lives again in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
This magical adventure perfectly encapsulates everything that makes Mario great – top-tier platforming gameplay with exceptionally creative level design paired with beautiful visuals and a catchy soundtrack. It looks, sounds and plays like a dream – but you could arguably offer similar endorsements of Nintendo’s successful New Super Mario Bros series, which enjoyed four entries across multiple platforms and sold millions. These are good games, but for some of us they never fully clicked.
Therefore, today I’d like to explore Super Mario Wonder, both on its own merits and in contrast to what came before, to hopefully demonstrate why I think this is the best 2D Mario adventure since Yoshi’s Island. Of course, we’ll cover the technical landscape as well – this is Digital Foundry after all.
