Every newSuper Mario Bros.title comes with its own key mechanic, or marketing gimmick, if you’re feeling less charitable. New Super Mario Bros. had the Mega Mushroom, New Super Mario Bros. 2 had the Gold Flower, andSuper Mario Bros. Wonderbrought what is perhaps the most substantial addition yet with its game-changing Wonder Flowers.
The majority of the game’s levels contain one of these psychedelic plants, which shift and warp the world around them into often dazzling new forms. Some of these changes are minor, but some push things farther than any Mario game has gone before, be it visually or mechanically. Today, we’re taking a tour of the most far-fetched Flowers in the Kingdom.
10Stretching Out Your Character
Sproings In The Twilight Forest, Pipe-Rock Plateau
Sproings in the Twilight Forestis already a refreshing break from the early-game norm, shrouding all of its assets in a darkness that conceals coin and foe alike, but its Wonder Flower adds another, extra-thick layer of novelty. Upon grabbing it, your character will stretch up to ludicrous proportions, mirroring the springs themselves in their newfound verticality.
It’s not just a visual change, though. In this new form, the dynamic of your jumps changes, and you can crouch to temporarily return to normal size, dragging down coins and collectibles from the ceiling in the process. It’s a change that adds great visual and mechanical novelty to the stage: the ideal Wonder Flower, in other words.
9Switching To Top-Down Mode
Condarts Away, Fluff-Puff Peaks
Some Wonder Flower twists are fairly subtle, recontextualizing the level you’ve been playing so far instead of adding dramatic new content. TheWonder Flower in Condarts Awayis firmly in this camp, suddenly shifting gravity so that you’re walking on the stone walls you’ve been seeing in the background throughout.
It’s reminiscent of the renowned Clockwork Ruins Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy 2, and does a similarly good job of reusing stage hazards, such as those pesky Condarts, in new and interesting ways with the new gravity setup. It’s not visually flashy, but this Flower is mechanically excellent.
8Entering Hoppycat Form
The Midway Trial: Hop To It, Shining Falls
Many Wonder Flowers allow you to assume a new form, serving a similar role to temporary, stage-specific power-ups in Mario’s past. The Midway Trial in Shining Falls hosts one such Flower, giving you the chance to step into the spiked shell of a Hoppycat, the irritating enemies that jump whenever you jump.
Thankfully you’re not bound by the same restriction while in this form, and can jump as you please, to an absurd height too. The section where you use this form is a huge vertical platforming corridor, giving you ample moments of catharsis as you pierce through columns of coins and enemies on your way to the Wonder Seed.
7Raiding A Desert Tomb
The Desert Mystery, Sunbaked Desert
One of the best aspects of the Wonder Flower system is its flexibility. Someact as glorified power-ups, while others serve more of a narrative purpose, tweaking their respective stages to tell a story. The Desert Mystery is a fantastic example of this, opening up a whole underground pyramid for you to raid, Indiana Jones style, upon picking up its Flower.
You’ll dash through corridors, evade towering Mumsies, and outrun approaching spiked walls as you pursue the temple’s treasure: the Wonder Seed. While the Flower itself doesn’t add any new gameplay wrinkles, the question marks in the background and the dramatic new music lend the chase a Hollywood intensity all the same.
6Becoming A Goomba
Maw Maw Mouthful, Petal Isles
Goombas have always been a ‘love to hate’ kind of enemy, too cute and hapless in appearance to escape the realm of the marketable plushy, regardless of their dastardly deeds. Super Mario Bros. Wonder taps into this existing fanbase by giving you the chance to become a Goomba yourself.
This is a rare example of a Wonder Flower that actually reduces your power, letting you feel just how ultra-vulnerable your most common foes are by forcing you to walk in their stumpy little shoes. Owing to the terrifying, titular Maw Maws, the level takes on a stealth aspect while you’re in Goomba form, with drop-based platforming more reminiscent of Captain Toad than traditional Mario.
5Taking The Taily Quiz
Taily’s Toxic Pond, Fungi Mines
By the time you’re digging into Fungi Mines, the fifth main world in the game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder has thoroughly established a pattern of surprises within its Wonder Flower lineup. That said, even the most jaded players likely weren’t expecting to be dropped into an impromptu game show in the middle of the Taily’s Toxic Pond stage.
The quiz consists of a series of multiple-choice questions, the answers to which are assigned to three different coloured Tailys. You’ll need to defeat a Taily by pulling it to select its answer, which adds a layer of physical dexterity to proceedings, since they move around constantly while you try and choose.
4Enjoying A Night At The Opera
Light-Switch Mansion, Fungi Mines
A surprising number of Wonder Flowers trigger auto-scrolling musical sections in their stages,Piranha Plants on Paradebeing an early standout example, but the format saves its best track for later on in the album. In the depths of Light-Switch Mansion, the game’s only Ghost House level, you can experience an operatic performance by King Boo himself.
This is a delightful sequence, packed with dramatic spotlights and falling chandeliers that evoke the Phantom of the Opera, as well as lovely touches like King Boo becoming shy, and his singing muffled, if you look back at him. The fact that this Wonder Flower is so well-hidden adds an extra layer of allure that only elevates it further.
3Battling An Impromptu Mini-Boss
Wavy Ride Through The Magma Tube, Deep Magma Bog
Wavy Ride Through the Magma Tube is one of Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s more generic offerings level-wise, but it features a Wonder Flower twist that’s anything but. After grabbing it, you’ll awaken a huge Spike statue in the background, thus beginning a mini-boss battle in which you must avoid a barrage of fiery meteors.
Since this is the only stage in the game to do this, with no other mini-bosses anywhere to be found, it’s a brilliant novelty regardless of when you encounter it. The battle itself may not be terribly difficult, but it can easily catch you off-guard your first time through the Magma Tube.
2Reviving An Ancient Dragon
Dragon Boneyard, Deep Magma Bog
Dragon Boneyard’s Wonder Flower is a home run mechanically, visually, and narratively. Throughout the stage, you’ll platform across the fossilized remains of Ancient Dragons, Talking Flowers in the background philosophizing about what they might’ve looked like in their prime. Upon grabbing the Wonder Flower later, you can see for yourself.
The Flower revives one of the fossils into an Ancient Dragon proper, which offers you a lift over the lava flows, and even the level’s flagpole, to secrets beyond. It’s a stunning set piece, and one that delves into thedeeper lore of the Mario universein a way that’s rare, but more than welcome.
1Commanding A Cannon-Sporting Ship
Evade The Seeker Bullet Bills, Petal Isles
The run-up to Castle Bowser at the end of the game is full of tough enemies and precise platforming, but the Wonder Flower section from Evade the Seeker Bullet Bills is the clear standout among them. Letting you swap out your red cap for a captain’s hat, the Flower puts you in charge of a ship on a fiery lake, with a cannon you can use to dispatch obstacles in your way.
It’s immensely empowering, but you’re not invincible, since enemy attacks can destroy blocks on the ship, opening up gaps for you to plunge to your sizzling doom. The result is a well-balanced power trip that sends you off into the endgame nicely.
