Super Mario Bros. Wonder Review

Wonder is what happens when Nintendo gives the 2D Mario team permission to get weird. Every course hides a Wonder Flower, and touching one breaks the level: pipes crawl, terrain tilts, Mario becomes an elephant, a spike ball, a ghost in a sky full of stars. The game has more ideas in its first world than most platformers have in their whole run.

It's also the friendliest masterpiece Nintendo has made. Twelve characters, Yoshi and Nabbit modes for players who don't want damage, online shadows helping instead of griefing, badges that reshape how you move. My kids' generation gets this the way mine got World.

Marks against: it's gentle to the credits, the boss fights underwhelm, and veterans will finish hungry for the special world to be the whole game. A 9.3, above the critics, because imagination this dense is the rarest thing in the industry.

Imagination this dense is the rarest thing in the industry.