The game is frankly Beautiful. The animation, the levels, the bonkers stuff, the music which you start to notice is a major element of the game. It has that wonderful mix that you don’t see too often in non-Nintendo games now that seem obsessed with being dark and depressing out of some delusion that’s more “mature”. Those people would never get past the later challenges in this game that push your gaming skills to the test.

The game has one flaw, in that all the bosses that aren’t the final boss, are just Bowser Jr with a slightly tweaked pattern of attack. It’s honestly a bit disappointing compares to the vast VAST amount of creativity that went into the level design.

Fortunately that isn’t game breaking as it’s a single complaint rather than any major issue, it’s not going to stop you playing the game. And there is so much to see. If you’re not as confident with your platforming, Nabbit and the Yoshi’s are there as more beginner friendly options.

There is multiplayer too. While there is a local co-op. , a surprisingly good feature is the online. By connecting to the internet, you will see the ghosts of other players currently playing. This can help you find secrets as you go “how did they get there?” but also if you die while online, touching another player OR a standee they leave (something you yourself can unlock and put down) you come back to life without losing a life and having to start over.

While playing I got such a lovely feeling of people not knowing each other but helping out even though we couldn’t directly interact, only able to communicate with some basic emotes. You often hear about toxicity in gaming bases but there was none here.

Mario Wonder is an absolute delight. it’s cute, it’s warn, it’s challenging later on… in fact the final challenge level I lost count of how many times I died.. It’s well worth it. It shows how good games can be, how inventive they can be and how charming that is. Now excuse me, I’m off to listen to King Boo singing opera again.

Rating: 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄