Wonder is an increased focus on narrative. The first thing you’ll notice about Super Mario Bros. Wonder does that makes it so much better than anything in the last twenty years of 2D Mario, isn’t to be more like Super Mario World, but rather to stop trying. So why does all this matter? Because what Super Mario Bros. series existed entirely as an echo of what had come before, rarely branching out with new ideas. Throughout all of this, each game struggled to find its own identity. While that branch of 2D Mario certainly improved over its four games, I’d argue that it never really did hit that goal. series which spanned from 2006 to 2012 (barring a Switch port of the final game in 2019) spent its entire run desperately clawing its way to the level of Super Mario Bros. The entirety of the New Super Mario Bros.
For nearly two decades, 2D Mario has been developed with a goal of living up to what came before. Wonder represents a major shift in Nintendo’s approach to 2D Mario.
