Highlights
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder's gimmick of the Wonder Flower elevates the game, creating exciting and unique challenges that keep players guessing.
- The Wonder Flower transforms stages in various ways, from warping the environment to guiding players down new paths, making the game truly distinctive.
- The Final Test: Wonder Gauntlet showcases the Wonder Flower's effects in one intense level, proving how a good gimmick can enhance gameplay and maximize creative potential.
The Wonder Gauntlet of Super Mario Bros. Wonder elevates its titular gimmick to the extreme, showing how well it carries the game. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is easily one of the most gimmicky games to date for the series, yet it works strictly to the game's benefit. One of the game's final stages goes even further, showing how far the Wonder Flower and its effects can go to create an effective challenge. The end result is one of the most exciting Mario levels that one could find, and serves as proof of how successful a game's gimmick can be.
Being the game's namesake, the iconic Wonder Flower of Super Mario Bros. Wonder is its main gimmick, and a rather interesting one at that. Nearly every stage features a Wonder Flower, which transforms it in various ways. This can involve simply warping the environment, or setting players down an entirely new path. From singing Piranha Plants to launching Mario into the sky, it's always a treat to see what the Wonder Flowers will do next. While not the only factor, it's one of the main reasons why Super Mario Bros. Wonder is so unique in the series, and it's difficult to imagine the game without it.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder's Wonder Trial Shows the Best of Its Signature Gimmick
The Final Test: Wonder Gauntlet is one of the last levels in Super Mario Bros. Wonder's Special World, and it lives up to its title. The stage combines several elements of previous Wonder Flower effects into one stage, including:
- Crawling pipes
- Poisonous water
- Moving and disappearing platforms
- A rain of Super Stars
Most of what takes place in the Wonder Gauntlet is taken from previous levels' Wonder Flower effects, reworked to fit a single long sprint. Despite the differing effects, the stage transitions well from one section to the next. The level's design makes it an excellent last hurrah for the game's Wonder Flower effects.
Despite its name, The Final Test: Wonder Gauntlet is not the final level in the Special World. That honor goes to The Final-Final Test: Badge Marathon.
With all of its wild and wacky effects, it's easy to argue that The Final Test: Wonder Gauntlet is one of Super Mario Bros. Wonder's best levels. After all, not only does it celebrate one of the game's most distinctive qualities, it shows off exactly why it works. One key aspect of Wonder Flowers is that they always keep the player guessing as to what will happen next. While some levels hint at its effects through their name or gimmick, most of the time, the Wonder Flower's powers are a surprise. This follows through to the Wonder Gauntlet, as it keeps up the surprise by chaining effects together.
The Wonder Gauntlet also plays the important role of showing how much a gimmick can add to the game. While throwbacks to levels like Super Mario Bros. Wonder's Rolla Koopa Derby are a fun addition, they also show how important the Wonder Flower is, as it significantly increases the amount of content that each level has via its effects. While a bad gimmick can take away from a game in order to make itself more prominent, a good gimmick will elevate a game through its effects on gameplay. The Wonder Flower does so throughout Super Mario Bros. Wonder, with the Wonder Gauntlet serving as proof.
The Final Test: Wonder Gauntlet was a great note to send off the Wonder Flower, and a highlight of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. If the Wonder Flower comes back in another Mario game, then it would be best used similarly to its debut. Super Mario Bros. Wonder used the Wonder Flower to maximize the creative potential of its levels, and it showcased this throughout the game. The Final Test: Wonder Gauntlet spotlighted this attribute, and showed how future games in the series should look to Super Mario Bros. Wonder when it comes to using gimmicks properly.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
A return to the franchise's 2D side-scrolling roots, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a Nintendo Switch exclusive. Supporting up to four-player co-op and featuring playable characters like Princess Peach and Luigi, Super Mario Bros. Wonder revamps a classic formula with fresh twists, including a mechanic called Wonder Effects that cause stages to come alive.
