It's been years since I properly played a 2D Mario Platform game, perhaps even all the way back to Super Mario World. The 3D one's I've been more involved with, but not a traditional one like this. And it's my loss, because this was a brilliant. A fun, imaginative and memorable time that will stay with me.
Seemingly bored with kidnapping the princess, Bowser uses the power of the Wonder Flower to merge with and steal the castle of Prince Florian, of the Flower Kingdom. As one of 12 heroes, you traverse levels capturing Wonder Seeds that reverse Bowsers dark magic and allow access deeper into the world. Each of the six Worlds has a Royal Seed, that destroys one of the cloud piranhas protecting Castle Bowser.
So, the basics of Mario games, established decades ago, remain. The aim is to travel from left to right across a level, jumping between platforms, avoiding or squashing enemies and make it to the goal. The variation this time comes from three new power ups, Drill Mario - who can dig into the bottom or top of a level and traverse along it; Elephant Mario, who can swat enemies with his trunk and hold water; and Bubble Mario, who can generate bubbles that trap enemies or can be bounced on to reach platforms. Each level also allows you to equip the character with a 'badge', variations of which can be collected as you play through the game - these may enhance existing skills, such as higher jumps or increased speed, or have another effect such as attracting coins to you or generating extra platforms to make levels easier. There's a real "Super Mario Bros. 2" (the "Doki Doki Panic" version) vibe in some of these, such as the badge that allows you to crouch and charge for a really high jump.
It's platforming perfection as you'd imagine from the company that has been making these for so long. Each level also has a second wonder seed that can be collected during the run. Each of these is found by activating a Wonder flower, which produces strange and imaginative effects on the level, such as the marching, singing, piranha plants, the pipes moving, or stampedes of enemies destroying the level. They are almost universally brilliant and stick around just long enough to divert and not overwhelm.
So, if it's so brilliant - and it is - why have I given it 8 out of 10 and not 10. The difficulty is the reason for that. I took one mark off because the game is generally quite easy, you can effect this a little, with your character and badge selection and I'd urge you to be careful with that if you can, trying to stay away from playing as Yoshi too much, or using a real 'cheat code' badge, like the extra blocks one, but even then it's still a breeze to get through. Except that is for the special world level "Climb to the Beat" that easily took 200 lives off me as I struggled to get through it. I took another point off just because of how staggeringly harsh that level is compared to the rest of the game.
It's brilliant overall though, even with those frustrations. Just a staggering good time and I'm already looking forward to the next 2D Mario game I can play.
