Super Mario Bros Wonder Sucks (Review)

In this video I review the newest 2D Mario game, "New Super Mario Bros.: Switch"
I don't enjoy it.

[@flophawk]

"hm, im starting to think this is just another nsmb game!" -while talking about green stars and progression gates, neither of which exist in nsmb 💀

[@xaviermakesart]

You're actually right, I had 3D World on the brain. It was actually even BETTER in those other NSMB games because things like the star coins just unlocked optional content and you could always play the next level no matter what.

[@GoldenSandslash15]

Counterpoint: If you want each character to have unique abilities, you can just equip the appropriate badges. Or, alternatively, for players who don’t want that, they can just not do this. In other words, optionality! Just like you wanted!

[@xaviermakesart]

Would be great if you could 1. Have multiple badges on a character at once. 2. Not play with a gimped Yoshi (or nabbit for that matter) and 3. Have different players in co op choose what badges they want, because right now everyone shares one badge. Yea, that'd be great!

[@GoldenSandslash15]

@@xaviermakesart I will fully admit that this game did fumble the ball when it comes to multiplayer. But, speaking as someone who only plays single-player, it doesn’t affect me at all. :P

[@xaviermakesart]

@@GoldenSandslash15 I respect that. For me, even for single player, I'd love more customizable options for the characters and for Yoshi to be normal even MORE so.

[@TKsMantis]

This is the video equivalent of Peter Griffin saying The Godfather "insists upon itself."

[@xaviermakesart]

This sounds fascinating could you please elaborate lol

[@varietychan]

Someone with actually good points about the game. Mario Wonder was amazing when it first launched... almost a year ago... Wow time goes by fast.

[@xaviermakesart]

I saw absolutely zero criticism of this game when it first released, it really drove me crazy

[@andersonsansonowski5644]

For the characters I have to disagree, making characters skins isn't a problem when we hae costum badges that serve the SAME thing basically

[@xaviermakesart]

@@andersonsansonowski5644 but that set up is an issue for multiplayer since all players share the same badge. It also doesn't solve the problem of Yoshi and nabbit being stuck to baby mode.

[@andersonsansonowski5644]

@@xaviermakesart that multiplayer part probrably sucks but the problem with the yoshis and nabbit could be easily fixed by simply getting them hit without punishment instead of NOT taking hits or even nerfing their stats

[@xaviermakesart]

@@andersonsansonowski5644 right now Yoshi does get hit without punishment it's Nabbit who just isn't affected by enemies. But I hear you there's a million better ways they could've chosen to do this

[@andersonsansonowski5644]

@@xaviermakesart This reminded me of a story: I was in best buy just playing a demo of mario wonder I played the game in multiplayer so the others in the line could play, a very young kid played as yoshi and he was playing the game much better and it wold have been so annoying if we had to save him every time he got hit, so I now understand why they did it like this

[@xaviermakesart]

@@andersonsansonowski5644 yea but why not just the features of Yoshi be another badge a kid like that could put on so they can use any character and not die? What if that kid wanted to be Peach?

[@Tea-zv7jv]

I think a lot of issues you mentioned are valid, altough there are some things that didn't click with me. Firstly, (this is my personal opinion) tying characters with abilities is worse compared to the badge system. It makes the characters unique but this system allows players to choose both their character and their ability. (but the badge system could definitely be reworked.) To put it in another way, If my favorite character is Luigi, I can't glide. 06:04 I don't understand the problem with Wonder Seeds and them being progression keys. They give players a reason to explore more. It doesn't matter if it's a Green Star or a Wonder Seed as long as it serves its purpose as a collectible. 06:13 Does this mean every platformer Mario game that has progression keys is the same game? 09:50 This game is much more than a reskinned Mario Bros Wii. It adds so many new enemies, new locations, a (slightly) different story, new gameplay mechanics, new powerups and cool level design. I am not saying this is the best Mario game in the franchise, but it certainly doesn't suck.

[@xaviermakesart]

It's not that the wonder seeds or flower coins are a problem, I even say they're fine. I'm mainly trying to stress that compared to the last 2D Mario this game is not ALL that different or innovative, at least to me. I could take the characters being a blank slate but having about 3 slots to add whatever badge you want. Then your fav Luigi could glide. Thatd be better than what we have Enemies in Mario games are never of any consequence in my opinion. I'd even say the same for Sonic. And having the wonder seeds as progression is fine too, just pointing out how again, this game is not wildly different to what came before, as a lot of reviews will claim it is.

[@Tea-zv7jv]

@@xaviermakesart I guess you are right about the collectibles, but wonder seeds are at least slightly different as they make the Wonder sections of the game more rewarding. Without them, there is no goal and the effect would end abruptly. You are also completely right about the badges being limited, but this doesn't make the system THAT bad. Badges are easy to change and I guess it adds a bit of importance to your badge selection. To be honest, yes, Wonder isn't vastly different as you said, but it doesn't make the game worse because it is similar to its predecessors, as there are still things that make this game unique, in my opinion.

[@xaviermakesart]

@@Tea-zv7jv i feel like I gotta call it worse because not only does this game take steps forward that I think hurt 2d Mario as a whole, it also has way less content than a lot of the other 2D Mario's. I played this one once, and there just isn't a reason to go back to it :/

[@rhett4169]

But seriously options are good a time attack mode or score mode where you select it at the start of a beaten level bam problem solved

[@sauce987654321]

Time Attack is pretty standard in the platforming genre. Wonder was developed like a game from the early 90s.

[@ssg-eggunner]

no need for mode, it should be on the base game if i'm being honest, since that's harmless

[@user-ny8ws6lm6h]

After I played a Lil bit of mario Wonder on an emulator it just feels like new mario bros 69

[@arfodiliorite]

I agree with most of the points. I find it disappointing that they tried to make the game more suiting for a younger audience, ignoring the millions of fans that are more experienced.

[@woobgamer5210]

You've summed up every single mainline Mario game for the past 20 years, congratulations. They didn't change with Wonder, they just made it more of an experience instead of New Soup clone number 5

[@xaviermakesart]

@@woobgamer5210 I think Mario U actually struck a good balance of content for all ages, those classic game elements like score attack, and content with all the special worlds. 3D world too actually, even though that one isn't 2D Mario I suppose

[@user-hk8sd5pz8o]

I mean kids have been the target audience for years ever since the first game on the NES tho i do don't like that nintendo made yoshi a baby mode character

[@xaviermakesart]

@@user-hk8sd5pz8o I feel like Mario's appeal has always been a game everyone can play not just kids. A series for kids I feel like are the Yoshi branded games, or even most Kirby games.

[@user-hk8sd5pz8o]

@@xaviermakesart yeah while that is true Kirby can get dark and messed up sometimes like the zero 2 boss from crystal shards and don't get me started on Kirby lore

[@wantedasylum1091]

The first "sane" person I've seen who actually likes the timer, when there are SO many platformers, 2D or 3D, that didn't have a timer unless it was a time attack mode. Crash Bandicoot Warped did this in 1998.

[@xaviermakesart]

It's great you bring this up because I'm gonna be bringing up Crash in a future video where I reprimand both Mario and Sonic in this regard. Crash has a separate time attack for every stage with times SET by the devs. The devs went in and made challenging times to push the player and they also tied the rewards from those challenges to the 100% requirements. It's something they really want players to do. Crash is also a game that doesn't have "score" in the arcade sense so going fast through a stage outside of the time trial is not something the player is incentivized to do. With Mario and Sonic, that's how it's always been from the start, simply because of the era of game they are. Mario removed it here, and I really feel like it was a huge mistake. I appreciate the view!

[@wantedasylum1091]

@@xaviermakesart Maybe we really are just insane by societal standards.

[@xaviermakesart]

@@wantedasylum1091 it's a crazy world!

[@ssg-eggunner]

i feel like that timer with score reward doesn't work really well outside of like specific time challenges because of two things: bricks and enemies considering how mario levels are designed, it's not possible to defeat every enemy or break every brick whilst having all time score so instead of having a goal for completionism on levels, you're left with 3 choices (break and destroy everything, rush through the stage like a speedrunner, or find the inbeetween which is the most ideal, but too hard) it's possible to achieve very high scores, but it's impossible to truly complete and perfect a level

[@sauce987654321]

It’s not just games like Crash that have time trial modes, today. It’s a platforming genre staple that’s in most platformer games. So it’s kinda lame that Wonder didn’t bother to include this mode when majority of platformers include this.

[@lightninja4795]

Agree with some points and disagree with others the thing I disagree most with is the removal of the timer being a bad thing. It’s not sonic it’s Mario. I want to take my time in Mario and not be rushed and the timer did exactly that if I want to play a game that encourages speed influence than I’ll play sonic. Removal of the timer was the best change for me. Overall I do think your being too harsh and I would say I think I would rather play new ds or u over wonder but I would definitely rather play wonder over new Wii and new 2. Great video even if I don’t fully agree with you.

[@lightninja4795]

Also think the multiplayer was improved but to each of their own.

[@xaviermakesart]

First thanks for watching, second let me ask ya this? Did you grow up with arcade style games? I'm genuinely curious

[@lightninja4795]

Was not born until 2002 and first 2D mario I played was land 2 later when back and played 3 and world through the all stars collection on wii. I just dont think the timer fits mario as mario is not about going on fast as possible and beating the level quickly thats just how i feel. Wonder worse than new and new wii but better than new 2 and new u. Also have you heard of newer wii and ds mods as I think they are better than the official new wii and ds as they are far more creative plus hammer suit.

[@ms.awesome]

it's honestly baffling that Wonder has the deepest settings menu out of every Nintendo game ever I think. that's always the thing, they could just have options so people can play how they want to and yet they don't do it. I wanted to like Wonder but I didn't really and I didn't really know why although I'm more of a celeste is the best platformer person myself

[@xaviermakesart]

I see Celeste as more of a puzzle platformer but I hear you. To me Mario and Sonic are the only ones really holding down classic arcade style 2D platformers, and seeing Mario choose this route is just disappointing

[@ssg-eggunner]

fr celeste is one of the best 2d games ever in terms of game design and gameplay it's challenging but has no BS inherited from arcades that don't make any sense in its context

[@ms.awesome]

@@ssg-eggunner all that and having one of the best stories and the best characters evder.. Absolute peak video game

[@geschnitztekiste4111]

I agree that the characters could be handled better. I like the use of customizable badges, but when in multiplayer everyone is forced to use the same one, it loses a lot of potential. I also agree that the lack of player interaction is kind of lame, and that the camera doesn't zoom out anymore when players are far apart. I also think they should just get rid of lives like in Odyssey, they don't mean anything anymore, when you lose all of them you lose your checkpoint at worst, what's the deal with that? They only made sense in arcades when extra lives meant you didn't have to invest an extra coin to keep playing just yet. I feel similar about the score and timer, they all make more sense in an arcade where other people are waiting and where you share your core with your friends or whatever, who actually competed for score in a Mario game, like ever? And the timer was always quite forgiving anyway, If you played normally it's hardly noticable, just when you want to explore it says nuh-uh. It's just annoying, not challenging. I do think the unskippable scenes during the game where the characters keep yapping about nothing are stupid and keep me from replaying the game tho, 2D Mario really doesn't need that. (The Sonic glazing is crazy tho, not even the fan-favorite 2D games are all that well designed imo. I love running into a spike appearing within a split-second because I'm not a damn psychic and I'm also forced to run fast because I have to pass one of these loops. Yeah sorry, but there's a reason most Sonic fans grew up with it, they've played it lots because it was all they had as children and now they know all the stage layouts so they're actually allowed to pull off crazy movements. Their nostalgia tells them they have always been fun, but new players are unfairly punished for playing the game and can't get into it. The reason why Mario games are superior is simple: they allow everyone to play at their own pace.)

[@xaviermakesart]

@@geschnitztekiste4111 firstly thanks for watching. I agree with you on lives for the most part, although it can be nice collecting as many as you can in a game you're really familiar with just as another way to show your growth as a player. As a kid I could barely beat Sonic 1. Now I can beat it with like over 10 lives and a bunch of continues. It's neat. Regarding Sonic, I love that series and there's sooooo much I could say here about what you said but you're just gonna have to wait for the Sonic video for my breakdown on that. I think you'll find it very interesting. Subscribe so you don't miss it! Now, when it comes to the timer and score, both score attack and time attack for Mario games are pretty popular things with community's around them. It's also just straight up replay value. With Wonder as it is right now, I have no reason to play it again. But, if every stage had an optional time trial to complete, and if every stage had my best time and best score saved, you can bet I'd come back and go for fast times or higher scores. For a guy like me it only helps the game live longer and if you've never tried it before, playing for score in Mario is a lot of fun. It gets you to think about the game in a way it sounds like you never have before, so tbh I recommend you give it a try in your 2D Mario of choice. Just not Wonder I suppose 😅

[@geschnitztekiste4111]

@@xaviermakesart What you said at the end of the video is true, they should make it a toggle. Regarding Sonic again, I don’t want to straight up shit on the series, since there’s cool things about it, the sprites are neat and the music is nice, but the gameplay is just horribly unfun for me. I also can’t imagine how multiplayer is even supposed to work in these games, I tried it out once in Mania, and the other guy kept getting off-screened lol

[@xaviermakesart]

@@geschnitztekiste4111 with my Sonic video, I hope I can make you a fan. Stay tuned!

[@ssg-eggunner]

@@xaviermakesart some stuff has to change, but i'd have preffered if they implemented crash style time attacks

[@sauce987654321]

When Sonic Mania released, loads of non-Sonic fans played it and most of them enjoyed it. There’s a reason it has high scores across the board. Assuming people only enjoy it because they’re nostalgia blind is pretty silly.

[@user-sf7cz2eb9q]

As soon as I saw the title I clicked on... I purchased Mario Wonder about a week after it was released. Completed it in about 3 days. Another 2 days to 95 percent completion. Didn't get to 100 percent though... this is very difficult to describe but the game is good but it sucked exactly like the title of this video says... 1st of all it's waaaaaay too short. 2nd it's waaaaay too easy.next ....the elephant sucks. Last...it feels like this game could have been on the Wii. It feels dated .Mario Odyssey is waaaaay better .

[@xaviermakesart]

@@user-sf7cz2eb9q the elephant DOES suck you're so right

[@adrianelice9871]

Just stumbled upon your video and really enjoyed. Your critique for options is valid like hell! However you seem to completely skip over strengths of the game! I dont know if its fair to call your video a review! Its just a criticism video which is totally fine but then dont put the word review in the title!

[@xaviermakesart]

Thanks I appreciate it. I'm curious what good parts of the game I glossed over? Story is par for the course, I mentioned the game looks great and even in the intro I flat out say it's not a bad game at all. I just have my personal gripes with it and would like a few more gameplay options.

[@woobgamer5210]

@@xaviermakesart Probably the entire gimmick of the game, the Wonder segments? Those are so inventive and creative, and enrich the experience instead of just being 'New Soup Clone Number 5'

[@xaviermakesart]

@@woobgamer5210 like I said in the review, they're more visually interesting than they are to actually play. Half the time your platforming isn't changed all that much, and I don't think every single wonder segment is a home run either.

[@Gonner-cd6xn]

While i disagree with most of your opinions, one thing i can say that i don’t like about the game is the talking flowers. They say nothing interesting. All they say is, ‘hi there!’’ Or, ‘’that was something!’’ Can they say something original?

[@xaviermakesart]

@@Gonner-cd6xn sometimes they help point out secrets!

[@ssg-eggunner]

imagine if those talking flowers were written by marvel like "upward and onward, ehrm that sounded better in my head 🤓"

[@ssg-eggunner]

this intro of this whole thing has to be bait 3:32 one thing i got to clarify, the idea of badges existed because devs wanted players to have any ability regardless of character (as evidenced by interviews and by the fact physics that are altered by badges can be changed per character or might just be a consequence of the framework being very flexible), however i do understand your sentiment, and i kinda feel like having nabbit and yoshi with their abilities is a bit ironic, even if they're supposed to be easy mode anyway 4:30 yoshis have the same issue as toads, where the only difference are colors, and should've been turned into a single character, just with alts system like you said, which would bring classic toad back too 7:07 if i'm being very honest, i'm glad that they didn't bring timer back, since it the player set their own pace, timer is just a game design piece that is inherited from the arcade era to make it a viable business, and doesn't make sense outside of optional challenges and postgame stuff, so timers could be implemented in stuff such as badge challenges, or heck maybe instead they should've implemented a time attack, akin to the sonic games, tough, if you wanna challenge yourself in terms of speed, just use a speedrunner counter however i do agree with score since that adds replayability 8:30 i feel like they should've given multiple options for player interaction like, no interactions, nsmbwii style interactions and friendly fire, sometimes interactions can be annoying but sometimes they can be fun 9:05 at this point, everyone should just adopt split screening 9:34 i feel like wonder did some steps in terms of options (it lets you mute talking flowers for example, and more) but we ain't just there yet

[@xaviermakesart]

@@ssg-eggunner great comment, but regarding the timer that's not all it was for. The timer was a mechanic that worked with the score mechanic and incentivized the player to replay stages faster while collecting as much as possible. Without a timer and score, the incentive is gone, and at least for me, the replay value is gone

[@ssg-eggunner]

@@xaviermakesart then the ideal solution would be to adopt crash style time attacks but instead of just rewards like crash's crystals, the game would calculate your score relative to the highest time value and convert it to score, so on that way it'd simulate that same downward timer system without having to kill the player

[@mk8-mkwil117]

@@xaviermakesartwell to me it does take replay value out but the time just puts more pressure on the player itself including my self especially when I play NSMB I never come back to it because of the timer pressure so u can’t really explore level and find secrets because u have to replace a level and I found that not really fun at all especially the low visibility level and underwater levels.

[@xaviermakesart]

@@mk8-mkwil117 what's interesting is you are describing a sort of "I'm gonna play this level ONE time and one time only so I don't wanna be rushed through it " mindset Back in my day, we would actually replay stages! And games as a whole!

[@mk8-mkwil117]

@@xaviermakesart I used to do that to and sometimes rage quit and come back to the game several months or years later

[@rhett4169]

You are right I am always right because even when I’m wrong I could have been right so I’m still right 😘😂

[@tuckerbass2196]

I get were your getting at but, you been giving away some events that your a die heart sonic fan. And you should that this is basically a game for all ages from 6 to 60 year Olds. But hey if you didn't like it, don't play it then.

[@xaviermakesart]

Very fair, and you're right. I'm not playing it anymore. I normally play all these 2D Mario's with my fiance in co op and this one just did not hit for either of us. Thanks for watching the video!

[@tuckerbass2196]

Thanks for being respectful to me. But if you didn't like the game was it really that necessary to say it sucks, even though we both know a lot of other people don't think that, because that's a bit much to me.

[@xaviermakesart]

@@tuckerbass2196 well that's the thing, this life has room for all kinds. There are plenty of people glazing this game on KZbin but I just think this game deserves way more criticism and I want to see Nintendo do better than this for 2D Mario. Both him and Sonic need to lead by example in this space. If Sonic drops a new game with no timer you'd bet I'd give him even harsher criticism! He's gotta go fast, after all. This game isn't bad, but to me, it's just not too good either. There's something pivotal missing and it needed more content / replay value.

[@tuckerbass2196]

Ok I get it it's great but not perfect, I mean no game is perfect like how we're no perfect.

[@xaviermakesart]

@@tuckerbass2196 this is very true my friend. Thanks for watching!

[@chrisbeach423]

Wonder was going to be named “Super Mario Bros 4” which i found disrespectful to Super Mario World. SM World is better than Wonder but you saying this game sucks? You just trying to rage bait views and comments. You know this is a good mario 2d platformer, but its definitely not the best. You know deep down this is a great game

[@chrisbeach423]

And a lot of your points are dumb and something a lot of people would never even think of while playing. Maybe it just took you a year to come up with stuff to hate about this game 💀 the main issue is boss battles but otherwise this game is just fine 🤣

[@xaviermakesart]

Ya gotta play the algorithm game. But yea I even say at the beginning the game isn't bad on paper. For me though, I'm really glad they didn't call this Mario 4 if that's true. For me this game is super disappointing.

[@legoboy7107]

Wait, they were planning to call this Mario 4? Is that real? You not confusing it with Super Mario World? Because Super Mario World was going to be called "Super Mario Bros. 4" (I think it even was to some extent in Japan), that's a well known fact, and that was the same guys at the head (and lesser known fact, Yoshi's Island was Super Mario Bros. 5 in development). If they were thinking of calling THIS Super Mario Bros. 4 too, that would be REALLY bizarre and weird and make no sense.

[@ssg-eggunner]

what's the source on smbw being called smb4

[@robb1759]

Nitpicking

[@xaviermakesart]

@@robb1759 100%

[@hectorthecartoonandvideoga9328]

Feeling’s mutual

[@skateplays8880]

Here before you get bombarded by Mario fans for this vid😂

[@xaviermakesart]

As a Sonic fan, I'm prepared for the worst.

[@sauce987654321]

Personally I liked the level design more in NSMBU. I feel like Wonder, while flashy and cool looking, is a little too brain dead easy and is too light on content. IMO each level should have a time trial, and there should be a challenge mode that makes use of the badges similar to NSMBU. Wonder is good, but I hope this isn’t the direction they keep taking 2D Mario. 2D Mario can be a lot more than a breezy 8 hour experience with little replay value.

[@xaviermakesart]

See this guy gets it. Imagine a secret world where each badge had 3 special levels that were all about it and used them in creative ways. Thatd be pretty sick. What hurts the most is the lack of a timer and score though, at least for me

[@legoboy7107]

@@xaviermakesart I saw a lot of people saying "Yay the timer's gone" thinking it was just some stupid leftover relic of the arcades that they somehow forgot to remove for every single game until Wonder or some crap (except they DID remove it in Yoshi's Island and specifically spoke about why in interviews, meaning they were aware of it and intentionally added it back in for later games, and that counts because Yoshi's Island was indeed developed with the intention of being the next installment in 2D Mario, that "Super Mario World 2" title was not a mere marketing thing like KZbinrs like to baselessly parrot, but I'd be here forever if I went into the details supporting my claim here), and were saying things like "imagine defending the timer, how could you defend that?" And I always felt like these people simply don't understand the purpose of why the timer is there in the first place, it's there for a reason (and the score relates to that too though I'd say it's less important). But it seems a lot of regular Mario fans don't get it, and just say "timer bad" because it "just gets in the way of exploring the levels," when...maybe exploring the levels isn't the only point and objective of the game? I mean it certainly wasn't in Mario 1 because there was barely any exploration to do there in the first place. They miss a whole second component of 2D Mario beyond mere exploration.

[@xaviermakesart]

@@legoboy7107 love your comment! Let em know what it was like back in the arcade days!

[@ProjectionProjects2.7182]

@@legoboy7107 Okay? Then whats this "second component"?

[@ssg-eggunner]

@@legoboy7107 keep in mind that games must have 3 important pillars of game design competence, autonomy, and relatedness when you take something like a timer and turn it into an optional challenge, you leave the option to play the game by blasting through everything or by exploring, making the autonomy aspect stronger autonomy is something mario had in many games, hence why challenges such "beat the game without collecting coins" for example, are come up with and increases replayability further on the same way "beat the game as fast as you can" does, even if those goals aren't the point heck, taking time is not just for cautious platforming, and exploring, theorically i could use all the time to defeat every single enemy possible and every brick possible (which would've been nicer with a score counter) as xaviermakesart said in the video "give us options" so instead of getting rid of time challenges altogether or forcing it in, give players the option to do time trial challenges akin to the crash bandicoot games and if i'm being very honest, downward timers only work in arcade, it doesn't have to be old and new