It's been a long while since Super Mario's had a new 2D platformer entry in the series, and I feel I should let out a few disappointing things about the latest game, "Super Mario Bros. Wonder". Didn't play the game, but, kinda wanted to unload what I think from my mind, anyway.
(Spoiler warning for those who haven't played the game yet)
As the game shows, it takes place in another new kingdom, the Flower Kingdom, neighbored to the Mushroom Kingdom, and Mario and his brother, Luigi, and his pals are there for a visit to display its potential and majesty of its amazing locale, and the Wonder Flower's brilliant potential, but, just as we expected, the evil King Bowser...
and, I do say AND mean KING Bowser. K-I-N-G, king. (quoted a little nod, here. A
different nod, to say.)
...showed up to cause trouble for Mario, as usual, and seeks to confiscate the Wonder Flower for his plans, but, unexpectedly, the flower melded him, his Koopa Clown Car and the Flower Castle, and gave rise to Castle Bowser, and warped him with Wonder Power to cause crazy mayhem all across the kingdom, and with his son, Bowser Jr. and Kamek in tow, along with his new additions to his ever-expanding army of monster minions, Bowser commences his newest conquest scheme of the Flower Kingdom, but Mario and his pals are up to the task of stopping him and separating the power from him and saving the kingdom by collecting Wonder Seeds and Royal Seeds to continue their newest, heroic quest.
Yes, Princess Peach is joining in on that adventure instead of being kidnapped again. At least.
Now, to the disappointments...
Out of the disappointments the game gives, I do have a strong one, but I'll go with those others have experienced.
I'll even leave you a video link about some disappointments in "Super Mario Bros. Wonder" made by PK Sandstorm here, just so you can watch -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE4C1HfPu2sDisappointment #1 - Lack of New Power-Ups
One thing we should usually expect out of a new Super Mario Bros. game is new power-ups to help traverse through all-new worlds and courses, but Wonder only gives out 2 new power-ups alongside the classic, usual power-ups. The two new ones are Elephant Fruit, that changes whoever plays the character into their Elephant form, and the Bubble Flower, another Fire Flower recoloration to suit the bubble aesthetic.
I'd kinda expected more, such as having the ability to zap through courses more quickly and perhaps bypass tough obstacles, or cause stronger ground-pounds to send enemies flying away via seismic shockwaves, or even cause whirlstorms to clear blockages to paths or uplift bigger enemies, but only 2? I find it quite disappointing. And I'm not counting the Wonder Flower being one. It only changes specific courses to a more surrealistic state, and I don't mind it. Would've been more purposeful for it.
Disappointment #2 - World Amount and Course Length
As people usually expected, 8 Worlds would come up to a Super Mario Bros. game, and they'd be completely all-new locations coupled with amazing new aesthetics and locales to better distinguish other games' past locations. New Super Mario Bros. U did it, so I'm not complaining about that, there. Wonder does gave out lovely new worlds that stood out across many, and I love seeing crazy new worlds sometimes.
However, the amount's dropped down to 7, and there's no Bowser-themed locale that could've depicted his far more twisted nature caused by his misuse of the Wonder Flower's power, not even giving out some cool colored, Wonder Flower induced lava to stand it out across prior places that hold the usual red-hot lava. And, there's not much of a super-massively-huge-fortified new fortress to station Bowser there for his plans. Disappointing to say. We could've had maybe about 9 Worlds or 10. And the game's price point? Please! Could've been more worth if it had been a few worlds longer than that, and more.
And, the courses' length are still no closer to being longer than many past games' courses. They all still last no more than a few minutes or less, even to skilled players that STILL expected more longer, and sometimes, challenging courses.
I mean, come on! Sure, for game devs, its nice to, for many reasons, compress games' sizes down by different means, and still have crisp, clear audio, stylishly cool graphics, regardless of choice being 2D or 3D, and loads of voice acting, but the courses could still stand to be more longer and complex than many.
I mean, hello, Nintendo? When it comes to stage/course length and design, get with it from other gaming companies and pour more thought and heart into them! Even indies! Its not the days of short courses from NES days anymore. We're already used to longer levels in games, and will still be as they keep on getting longer by gradual adaptation. Sure, short levels are not so bad now and then, but still, not too crazy short and such like that. Very disappointing to say, too.
Disappointment #3 - COMPLETE LACK of Boss Variety
We have seen past Mario games that have original bosses since Super Mario Bros. 3 at the end of each world(not counting Super Mario Bros. 2/Yume Kojo Doki Doki Panic being that game/those games), and Yoshi's Island about mini-bosses in each world, where their variety stood out, but Wonder... I'm extremely disappointed to see that there's not be a single new original boss ever in the entire game! NOT A ONE. Not even a enemy turned boss variant, even by the Wonder Flower! All the bosses the game's got are repeats of Bowser Jr. messing around with Wonder Power over and over again, and not even giving the idea of kicking his imagination on overdrive for it! It could've been far different for the game to have towers with a few new mini-bosses or each unique, but there's none to be fought at all.
Bosses from key past Mario games did have more than 3 hits to defeat, so it never hurts for them to put a bit more thought into that, and adding a different attack pattern or two as they kept taking damage. Leaving bosses with the same amount of hits over and over again really feels too repetitive. And trying to cram so much danger in so very little hits won't make any difference until they get increased to make it a bit worthwhile, but not too crazy on the danger in it.
And, the final boss is, of course, Bowser, and he could've done a far better job at causing the final battle to be more tougher than such past battles. He'd at least took on a different form as a phase to his final battle, or two.
And Kamek's not even stepping up to do his job of hindering our heroes with his magic that pumps up enemies to be bosses, or create new original monsters to be all-new bosses, even mini-bosses, too. The Koopalings, they could've been additional bosses, maybe, but they'd have been for Bowser's additional defense lines to his fortress, too.
I mean, it can be very easy to create batches of new enemies in any new game, but creating rosters of all-new, original bosses, even if its major and mini-bosses, should not be hard to do for any game dev, programmer, and artist. Wonder gives us almost 70+ new enemies, aside throwing in many past enemies, like the Goombas and Koopas, but Nintendo's dev teams didn't even think of sparing some effort to create a single new boss in there, not even stationed in each world's end. EXTREMELY disappointing. No brevity on that for Wonder, too.
We're still used to seeing all-new enemies and all-new bosses in games because they help stand them out and keep them from being repeatedly boring. Past enemies, not bad now and then, but not every single time.
If we even had SOME new, unique bosses in Wonder, it'd been at least worth it to fight them. At least. Nintendo could've stepped up the imagination and brevity about that, there.
Disappointment #4 - Lack of Unique New Rewards
What people expected of any new Nintendo game, even a platformer, are new, unique rewards for beating the game at about completing specific tasks and/or getting up to 100%. We could've gotten something far more cooler than what we had in past games that were completed at 100% and/or above.
At what could've been more enjoying about completing them out of said rewards are a hidden world and new, far more tougher courses than prior courses with a true final boss to fight at the end to see the game's true ending to conclude its story. So far, no Mario game gave out a true final boss, which could've been a new villain serving as the true mastermind to whatever Bowser was planning in that kingdom and overthrowing his role as the main villain and putting Mario and his pals' skills to the greater test to overcome the greater evil and saving the kingdom for real. Disappointing that we didn't get to see that in Wonder.
I know there's a couple more minor annoyances in the game people discussed, but I don't feel like talking about them here.
Despite the game doing well for many, at least, so far, I can obviously see and state out reasons of what Wonder lacks here and there, and what other game companies and devs can do to avoid repeating key disappointing steps and decisions that keeps people away from playing them.
Any in the community feeling the same, here, feel free to express your key disappointments about what really lacks from Wonder.
