Famitsu Gives Super Mario Bros Wonder Its First Review Score

Veteran video game magazine Famitsu has revealed the first review score for Super Mario Bros Wonder, and it’s a doozy.

As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Super Mario Bros Wonder has received a respectable 36 out of 40, certifying it as one of the best reviewed games of the year.

Now, Famitsu is famous for having rigorous standards. Very few games from the history of the magazine manage to get a perfect 40/40, or even the near perfect 39/40 review scores. The magazine does not rely on one reviewer, but adds up the scores of four reviewers, who each give a score from a range of 1 to 10.

So Famitsu’s scores aren’t exactly a metascore with extra weight given to some reviewers over others. They are, however, an interesting concept of several reviewers’ scores literally being added up to get to a collaborated score. In this case, the reviewers gave the game a 10, 9, 9, and an 8.

But what do the reviewers say about Super Mario Bros Wonder in particular?

They say that it is more than the traditional 2D side-scrolling gameplay that we may have, perhaps, gotten used to with the New Super Mario Bros games. (Fun trivia here: Famitsu gave New Super Mario Bros Wii a perfect 40/40.)

The reviewers do praise the Wonder effects, the core mechanic that distinguishes it from every other Mario platformer that came before it, 2D and 3D alike.

Nintendo also came up with a commonsense, but well planned, method of pleasing both newcomers and veteran players. Super Mario Bros Wonder has several challenging stages, but you can opt to skip them completely and you can still finish the game.

Finally, Famitsu also mentions Super Mario Bros Wonder online. Nintendo’s implementation allows players to get some help from other players around the world, but it doesn’t go too far to make it too easy.

As you can see, Super Mario Bros Wonder is slated to be a game changer for 2D Mario platformers. Nintendo found a way to remake the platformer that isn’t just turning it into kaizo. To be fair, they literally did try that already with New Super Luigi U, and promptly recognizes that that isn’t enough.

Super Mario Bros Wonder seems slated to end Nintendo’s 2023 on a high note, and also puts the company in a prime position for this year’s award shows. It releases exclusively on the Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2023.