At a recent demo event, Nintendo gave me and some peers the chance to try the new Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel park, which adds a litany of new features that make multiplayer mode a whole lot more fun and launches the game firmly into my best Nintendo Switch 2 games list.
Growing up as an only child, you can develop a real penchant for party games. Sure, you can only play them when your pals come over or with your parents under duress, but being that kid who has cool multiplayer games at home softens the blow of terminal loneliness.
That’s why the hit-or-miss nature of Nintendo’s more recent party games can feel so disappointing, and the regular Super Mario Bros. Wonder certainly fell into this category for those who wanted to play with friends in private online multiplayer rooms or who found couch co-op’s quirks too frustrating to navigate. With its litany of multiplayer features, the Nintendo Switch 2 finally unlocks the full potential of Mario Wonder.
New ways to play
I spent half an hour playing with industry peers, and while it was chaotic to say the least, Super Mario Bros. Wonder + Meetup in Bellabel Park breathes life into a game I’d personally written off. I enjoyed dabbling in the single-player campaign and found the Mario Kart-esque ghost online play charming, but it never felt like a must-have game to me.
The new expansion adds not only enhanced graphics and gameplay improvements to the game; there’s a whole new area called Bellabel Park, which will be your de facto social hub to play a range of minigames and generally wreak havoc upon the Flower Kingdom.
There are two main plazas for Local Multiplayer and Game Room setups, allowing you to play with up to four players locally in competitive or co-operative minigames across 17 attractions, or you can play six attractions across multiple systems online with eight players locally or twelve online.
This is where we spent our demo experience, trying out new games added in the expansion. Particularly chaotic and fun was a minigame which saw two players frantically drawing platforms using mouse mode for the others to progress through the level and defeat enemies.
Others saw us playing an equally chaotic round of Phanto Tag, wherein players could transform into and hide among flowers, or racing to collect apples to feed our baby Yoshi – there’s even a co-operative hot potato-style minigame that we miserably failed at.
We didn’t get to try many of the remote online play games, but worth highlighting in the rocket race we did try is that it opted for the same “ghost” player mechanic as the regular game’s online play. It’s probably safe to bet this will be the same across non-local games, but at least in this case, it made sense; in a race setting, you don’t really want the viewscreen to be confined to a small section of the map alongside competitors.
The fun doesn’t end there; as well as the new Bellabel Park area, up to four people will be able to play with Toad Brigade Training Camp in Camp Central, which challenges players to tackle quests in the main game’s courses. Completing these challenges will raise your Brigade Member Rank and unlock new patches. There’s even a new hide-and-seek side quest, in which you’ll seek out and battle the Koopalings to reclaim stolen Bellabel flowers.
Plus, Rosalina fans will rejoice as the character will be fully playable across all game modes, accompanied, of course, by Lum, who can also be played as a support character and controlled by – you guessed it – mouse mode. It’s a great addition to help younger or less experienced players join in the fun, and with the new Assist mode, which reduces the perils of levels, Super Mario Bros. Wonder really does feel like fun for all ages.
Flexing Nintendo Switch 2’s features
So, why now are we getting the multiplayer game room so many felt Super Mario Bros. Wonder so sorely needed? In part, it’s thanks to the hardware and software added to the Nintendo Switch 2.
Much like Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV, Super Mario Wonder + Meetup in Bellabel Park is fundamentally a showcase for what is possible using the Switch 2. GameShare allows more players to join locally without needing the game themselves, mouse mode opens up new ways to play, and GameChat will make playing online with friends much more enjoyable.
However, if you’ve tried the Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV Switch 2 Edition, you’ll know the added content wasn’t integrated as gracefully as it perhaps could have been. I wasn’t able to see how, if at all, that integration was handled in Super Mario Bros. Wonder + Meetup in Bellabel Park, which may well be the deciding factor on whether multiplayer mode is worth the upgrade for some players.
That being said, even just in the addition of Rosalina, there’s at least some new content for the main game, unlike Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV, and that already makes it feel more worthwhile to upgrade – or to buy the game outright if, like me, you haven’t already.
On the surface level, from what I’ve played, I like the freedom to choose minigames and the generally unstructured experience makes it great for a few quick rounds when you’re hanging out with friends and family.
If nothing else, it’s definitely made me reconsider my nonchalance towards Super Mario Bros. Wonder in general. Is it worth the $19.99 / £16.99 upgrade? Time will tell, so make sure to check back in once our full review is live after the game releases on March 26.
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josephine.watson@futurenet.com (Josephine Watson)
