U Deluxe, all 2D Super Mario stages have had a time limit that ticks down in the corner of the screen. I’m talking about the removal of the timer.įrom the 1985 original until 2019’s New Super Mario Bros. One of these changes in particular is discreet to the point of being invisible - a simple omission that the game never draws attention to - but it has a profound impact. Nonetheless, Wonder does break a few rules of 2D Mario games that have never been broken before.

when Mario jumped off the top of the screen and invisibly ran along it. Super Mario games have always been about breaking their own rules, as far back as the moment in 1985’s Super Mario Bros. But there’s an extent to which this is just par for the course for the series. Nintendo’s designers delight in constantly turning the game’s world upside down, sometimes literally. Wonder is a kaleidoscopic festival of innovation that chucks new ideas at the player incessantly, almost faster than they can be processed.