Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park Review (Nintendo Switch 2)

Nintendo has always loved revisiting its biggest games whenever new hardware launches, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder is another example of that philosophy on Switch 2. After seeing the trailers and hearing about the extra content, I wasn’t convinced. I honestly thought the $30 upgrade price seemed a bridge too far. This is also after I have had the experience of reviewing a few of these Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades. With my expectations in check, all I thought it would be is a cleaner, upgraded version of Wonder with a few bonuses thrown in. What I didn’t expect was just how much extra stuff Nintendo had packed into this release.

Back on the original Switch, Super Mario Bros. Wonder already felt like Nintendo finally breaking away from the tired New Super Mario formula. The Wonder Flower completely changed the way we experienced Mario games, bringing a huge dose of unpredictability in levels, animation and gameplay. Nintendo gave every character personality, and the multiplayer focus made it feel more social than almost any 2D Mario before it. The Switch 2 Edition doesn’t reinvent the experience, but it absolutely feels like the definitive version of the game now.

If you never owned the original release, this is easily the best way to play it. The presentation is sharper, load times are noticeably faster, and the entire experience just feels smoother overall. It’s not a dramatic remake or overhaul, but the extra content, added modes, badges, bosses and multiplayer additions help justify the existence of this version beyond just technical upgrades. I will touch on some of the original content as well as the differences included that make it all fit into the bigger experience. 

The story for the base game, as most Mario games go, is very simple. Bowser absorbs the power of the Wonder Flower and transforms into a giant floating castle, leaving Mario and friends to travel across the Flower Kingdom to stop him. It’s classic Mario nonsense, but the game’s charm comes from its creativity and energy rather than deep storytelling.

Presentation remains one of Wonder’s strongest aspects. This is probably the most expressive Mario has ever looked. Characters sing, panic, dance and react constantly to the chaos happening around them, while the backgrounds and Wonder effects make almost every level feel visually unique. On Switch 2, the cleaner image quality and steadier performance make the colours and animation pop even harder, especially during the more surreal Wonder sequences. 

Technically, the game now runs at 1080p in handheld mode and 4K while docked, alongside HDR support that makes the already colourful art direction stand out even more. Some UI elements and fonts still appear lower resolution compared to the rest of the visuals, but overall, the cleaner image quality and smoother presentation make the entire experience feel more polished on Switch 2.

The new single-player additions were honestly the biggest surprise for me. Rosalina and Luma are a great addition to the roster, even if she plays mostly the same as the other core characters, and the new flower pot transformation is genuinely fun to use. The new Koopaling boss fights are also a massive improvement over the base game’s repeated Bowser Jr encounters. Every Koopaling battle feels unique, over the top and powered by Wonder effects in ways that the original bosses frankly should have been from the start. They aren’t difficult, but they’re much more memorable in a way that the base game bosses often weren’t.

Then there’s the 74 Captain Toad Brigade challenge content, which completely caught me off guard with how much was actually there. Integrated in the core game, at first it feels like simple bonus objectives, but eventually the difficulty ramps up hard. Some of the later five-star challenges force you to combine difficult badge mechanics with tight platforming under brutal time limits. Sweaty palms on the same level as playing a Dark Souls game. In the final stages, it feels like Nintendo deliberately made content for veteran players who thought Wonder was too easy, and honestly, I respect this. Sometimes Mario games are way too easy.

Bellabel Park acts as the brand-new multiplayer hub featuring Local and online plazas packed with attractions like races, bomb relays and competitive mini-games that further push the game’s multiplayer focus. At times, I forgot I was playing Mario Wonder; I genuinely thought it was just a 2D Mario Party. It’s a great mode, especially if you regularly play with family and friends. Apart from the local sessions, the game’s fun was short lived that really didn’t hook me in for that ‘one more round’ moment. The online component was also hard to find others to play with. But Nintendo games have always been hit and miss with their online capabilities.

At the same time, Bellabel Park gave me some of the funniest moments I had with the game because I ended up playing mostly with my 4-year-old son. The Boo levels especially became instant favourites for us. Watching the stages suddenly twist themselves apart, lights flicker out, and a giant boo appears during Wonder effects had him absolutely losing it, laughing. In fact, as I mentioned before, this expansion reminded me so much of Mario Party in the way the game almost feels designed around creating memories and chaos with other people rather than purely focusing on precision platforming. That social aspect won’t work for everyone, but it definitely gave the game a different personality compared to older 2D Mario titles.

Gameplay overall is still where Wonder shines brightest. The controls are incredibly tight, movement feels fluid, and Nintendo constantly throws fresh ideas at the player before they can become stale. Between the badge system, Wonder Flowers, multiplayer chaos and new Switch 2 additions, the game rarely stops surprising you. Even when it occasionally feels more iterative than revolutionary, it’s still one of the best modern 2D platformers Nintendo has made.