15. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023)
- Final score: 27 points
- Total placements: 4 lists
- Highest placement: #9, Joe
Casey writes:
With the press cycle in full swing for the Super Mario Bros movie in 2022 and early 2023, rumors started to circulate that Nintendo would be releasing a new Mario Bros game side-by-side with the movie, to capitalize on a new generation of young fans who may have been intimidated by Mario Odyssey’s vast scale but grew up demanding their parents play it for them and would be no doubt watching the movie on repeat. People suggested that in order to connect with the movie, the game would feature an art style that embraced the movie’s aesthetics.
The release of the movie in theaters came and went in April 2023, and then, at a Nintendo Direct 2 months later, Nintendo did it–they announced a new main-line Mario game, the first all-new 2D entry in the series since 2012’s New Super Mario Bros U. But to the surprise of many, the game leaned into a sort of acid trip aesthetic, one where Mario wields the power of the “Wonder Flower” to reshape the world into exciting and terrifying setpieces that more often than not send you hurtling through a spectacle of subverted Mario Bros tropes towards a familiar fortress-and-flag goal line. The game came out less than 4 months after it was announced. Super Mario Bros Wonder is delightful and weird, it supports drop-in/drop-out multiplayer, it has optional levels that occasionally provide decent challenges, and yet it still only barely beat an obscure indie Metroidvania. This game probably deserves a higher ranking, but on a platform with a catalog as stacked as the Switch, what can you do?
Schnei writes:
By now I feel like “oh of course.” Why can’t anyone else make platformers this good? There’s a whole series of Mario games to learn from!