Critics Are Calling ‘Super Mario Bros. Wonder’ a ‘Total Success’ With ‘Ideas to Spare’ — Read the First Reviews

With rumors of Nintendo's next console arriving next year, Super Mario Bros. Wonder could be the last big hurrah for the Switch. Based on early reviews of the side-scrolling platformer, Nintendo is giving the handheld console a worthy send-off with one of the best Super Mario games yet.

Unlike the 3D worlds of Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Bros. Wonder returns to the platforming formula that helped make Mario a global icon, but with several new twists on the genre. These include hidden Wonder Flowers that can radically change each level's gameplay, plus a much-joked-about power-up that turns Mario and other characters into trunk-wielding elephants.

At the time of writing, ahead of Super Mario Bros. Wonder's official release on October 20, the game has a score of 93 on Metacritic—a site that collates official reviews. That's just slightly behind the 96 score for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is considered by many to be the Switch's best game. So what are reviewers who got early access to the game saying?

Polygon points out that every new Super Mario game feels like a refinement of the game that came before it while still introducing new ideas that may feel out of place at first, but eventually become a crucial part of future Mario outings. Super Mario Bros. Wonder takes that approach even further.

I can say with confidence that Wonder shares those early games’ inventiveness, and their disregard for what should and shouldn’t be in a Mario game. When playing Wonder, I’ve imagined how it came to be: In my fantasy, since the ’90s, every time a Nintendo developer had an idea that “didn’t fit the tone” or “wasn’t Mario enough,” they wrote it into a notebook. And eventually, with no space left, someone had the gall to say, “Let’s turn this stuffed notebook of chaos into a game. Because why shouldn’t Mario be an elephant? Why shouldn’t Wigglers wear roller skates? And why shouldn’t Luigi skydive?”

IGN gave Super Mario Bros. Wonder a 9/10 and compared it to Super Mario World, the fan-favorite game that came bundled with the Super Nintendo.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder establishes a new standard for what 2D Mario platformers should look like. It is colorful, it is alive, and it is joyful. It also managed to surprise and delight me in continually more creative ways thanks to its unpredictable Wonder Effects, which transform levels into something completely different for a brief while. Like dessert in the middle of the main course of each stage, they were irresistible and always put a smile on my face – as did the absolute beast that is Elephant Mario. In every way other than advanced challenges, Wonder feels like a 21st-century successor to Super Mario World, and I’m not sure I can give it a higher compliment than that.

Pocket-Lint called Super Mario Bros. Wonder a "total success" with "some of the best courses I remember Mario ever running through."

Wonder is a total gem, a brilliant platformer with varied challenges depending on who's playing it and what they want from it - it's perfect for beginners to learn with but also has some really tough optional areas for experts.

With charming music, a whole heap of options to make it play how you want, and a brilliant list of levels to conquer, it's the latest in Nintendo's seemingly neverending lineup of bangers on Switch.

With Mario movies and theme parks raking in millions of dollars, The Verge called Super Mario Bros. Wonder a reminder of why the character and the games have become so iconic.

What Super Mario Bros. Wonder does is remind us why a squat Italian plumber became such an icon in the first place. It takes all of the best bits from classic Mario Bros., remixes them, and then splashes on a hefty dose of the bizarre. Wonder is a blast from start to finish — and will make you squirm almost as much as Mario does.

Eurogamer gave the game a perfect 5/5 and described Super Mario Bros. Wonder as "kaleidoscopic platforming with ideas to spare."

Pretty much every level here has a one-shot conceit that exists outside of the Flower Event stuff. One will have needle-nosed birds that dive at you. Another will have a new kind of enemy that takes the form of a platform that slams down on you from above but may also be able to lift you to handy places. Another will have gas bag balloon animals that make for uneasy allies. Another will force you to learn how to make use of sentient boulders. Mario Wonder has no shortages of ideas.

GameSpot gave Super Mario Bros. Wonder a 9/10, and added on a reminder that 2D Mario games should never be thought of as lesser than the plumber's 3D outings.

Whether Nintendo intended it or not, conventional wisdom tends to sort modern Mario games into something of a mental tier list. The 3D Mario games like Galaxy and Odyssey are the flagship mascot platformers, and 2D Mario games like the New Super Mario Bros. series are somewhat lesser retro throwbacks. Still good, dependable, but less prestigious. It's after years of 2D games languishing in understudy status that Super Mario Bros. Wonder takes center stage--and it delivers such a knockout performance that it makes the argument, implicit or otherwise, that 2D Mario games can be just as vital to the medium as their 3D siblings.