Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Super Mario Bros. Wonder was one of my favorite games of 2023, so I was more than happy to learn about its substantial update accompanying the Switch 2 version. During a recent trip to New York, I went hands-on with the game's local and wireless multiplayer minigames included in Meetup in Bellabel Park to get a taste of what's coming in the full DLC release. Ultimately, it met my expectations, which is nothing but a good thing.

Firstly, I played the Switch 2 update, which gave the game a slight visual boost, but the technical differences are largely negligible. In docked mode, the game now has an admittedly crisper 4k resolution, but thanks to an art style that focuses on bold shapes and bright colors, the Switch version remains perfectly acceptable in 1080p. Combined with such solid framerates, Mario Bros. Wonder's performance wasn't really held back by the Switch, and while a tech upgrade is nice, it's far from the add-on's primary selling point.

The main attraction – or attractions, in this case – can be found in Bellabel Park, a new theme park-style area filled with various multiplayer minigames. Attraction Central (just one of the park's areas) is split into two dedicated sections: Local Multiplayer Plaza and Game Room Plaza for online or wireless play. The former is much more fleshed out, with 17 attractions compared to the latter's 6, so we spend most of our time there.

I sat on a couch with three others and grabbed a pair of Joy-Con 2s. Our first stop was the character select screen. Everyone on the couch hovered over Rosalina, the newly revealed character exclusive to the DLC, and politely hesitated as the Nintendo representative told us that only one person could play as the intergalactic princess. After a moment, no one had claimed her, so I decided to try her out for myself. Her character model and animations both look great, and while she controls identically to the main cast, it's always nice to play as someone new.

We only played one or two matches of each minigame, and each minigame had several stages at different difficulties. The demo's goal was to get us to play as many modes as possible in a short window of time, so we typically tried the first or second level of a longer roster. I imagine it would take an hour or so to make your way through every stage of the modes we played, depending on the players' skill levels, but that's a rough estimate.

To start, we played a game that utilizes the Switch 2 mouse controls. Two players each slid a Joy-Con 2 around on a table to draw paths of disappearing platforms (known as Donut Blocks) for the other two, who traverse the level like they normally would. It's a frantic mode that encourages communication. I got the chance to be on both sides of the game, and while the platforming worked out, I did have some difficulties with the mouse. The disappearing platforms are only one block wide per segment, but it locks you into drawing platforms in a straight line, so my diagonal staircases appeared on the screen as steep right angles. Once I figured out the game wanted me to draw flat paths, the attempt ended in victory.

Another mode has all four players playing hot potato with a golden Bob-omb. As you head through the level as a group, one of Wonder's talking flowers will call out a player's name to signal that it's their turn to hold the Bob-omb. Every second the bomb isn't held by the correct person, either because it's on the ground or being held by the wrong person, you lose time from the stopwatch at the top of the screen. If it gets to zero, you lose. In my experience, though, we lost far more frequently because we dropped or threw the Bob-omb off a cliff in our mad dash to reach the level's end. This mode was much easier with just two players, because you always know who to throw the explosive to next.

After the cooperative side of the park filled each of us with festering resentment for our teammates, we journeyed to the competitive side to work our issues out in a relatively healthy way. The first game we played armed each player with a button they could use to deploy a lightning rod. After a few seconds, it summons a bolt of lightning from the sky, spanning the entire vertical length of the screen, as well as a small area to the left and right on the ground. This stage was also made of four pillars that rose and fell at seemingly random intervals, so avoiding the hazards was especially tricky. For whatever reason, I absolutely dominated this section, only getting hit once while my opponents were each struck 3-4 times. As such, I enjoyed the mode, though it felt a little simple compared to the other ones I played, and I hope more difficult maps are more engaging.

Other modes have more indirect competition. In one minigame, all the players have a red light/green light-style face-off with King Boo. The goal is to get as many coins as possible while the ghostly monarch sleeps, but if you're not stationary when he wakes up, you're stunned and drop some of your winnings. A similar mode was devoid of King Boo, but had us each equipped with a baby Yoshi as we raced to eat as many fruits as possible before time was up. 

We closed out with some local wireless gameplay, so I transitioned to a different TV with the game running. This mode was a race where each player held onto a bouncing ball and had to maneuver across the stage as quickly as possible. Like some of Super Mario Bros. Wonder's other multiplayer gameplay, opponents are represented as ghosts on the screen and can't collide with you, so they're really only present on screen so you can see their progress. I had a great lead for most of the race, but came up against a curved wall at the very end and lost my momentum, ultimately finishing in third place.

Meetup in Bellabel Park is about what I expected based on the trailers, and that's a good thing. I had a great time in Attraction Central, and knowing there are so many more stages in each minigame has me looking forward to playing the full release with some family on my couch.