(Credit: Nintendo)
If you're looking for more of the excellent Super Mario Bros. Wonder for your Switch 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park drops on Thursday, March 26. It costs $19.99 if you own the base game, or $79.99 for the complete package. The update introduces new content, a 4K resolution bump, and the titular Bellabel Park, a hub area that hosts the game's new multiplayer offerings. I tested it out ahead of its release, and unless you're looking to host game nights, there might not be enough new content to satiate your solo sessions.
Bellabel Park: DLC With a Multiplayer Focus
The Bellabel Park DLC contains a new multiplayer area, dubbed Attraction Central, that's split into three plazas. The Local Multiplayer Plaza is where you can play with up to four players on one Switch 2. The Game Room Plaza is where online multiplayer games are held. And Tour Plaza is the place to create a playlist of minigames to play with your friends.
In true Nintendo fashion, Game Room Plaza is limited to people on your friend list, so I couldn't play it during the review period. However, I played Local Multiplayer Plaza and Tour Plaza, which had the most attractions. Local Plaza has 11 exclusive attractions: five co-op and six versus. Meanwhile, Game Room Plaza has six exclusive titles, and they play as you'd imagine. You're either competing with friends or working together to collect coins, clear the course, and defeat enemies.
The minigames were reminiscent of Mario Party-style multiplayer shenanigans. They're simple affairs, usually requiring only one or two button presses. I especially liked the hide-and-seek minigame, Run, Hide! Phanto Tag, which is Mario's take on Call of Duty's Prop Hunt. Then there's Jump Count, a co-op title where players time their jumps to move a platform while avoiding enemies. Yoshi's Buffet, a game where you compete to eat the most enemies, was also a favorite.
(Credit: Nintendo)Each minigame offers a handful of levels with different difficulties and allows you to equip badges that grant extra abilities, including invulnerability, which should let non-gamers and younger players have fun without the stress.
Tour Plaza unlocks after you play a certain number of games, giving you access to the Attraction Tour (Wonder's way of letting you set up a minigame playlist). You simply choose the format, difficulty, assign teams, and the number of attractions. Overall, the minigames are fun diversions, though their simplicity and brevity left me wanting more.
Another cool new addition is GameShare functionality. With only one copy of the game, GameShare lets you stream the Wonder fun to another Switch 2, Switch, or Switch Lite system for wireless LAN party action. That's a great addition considering the game's price.
(Credit: Nintendo)Solo Play, Toad Brigade Training Camp, and New Characters
So what about single-player offerings? Unfortunately, there's not much to get excited about. In terms of narrative, Bellabel Park's titular bells are stolen by the Koopalings, and you're tasked with returning them. What this amounts to is a boss rush mode in which you revisit each world to battle one of the Koopalings. These fights, and their accompanying levels, are pretty exciting, but they pale in comparison to the main game's wacky gimmicks.
By far, the best addition is the Toad Brigade Training Camp, which adds roughly 70 brief levels that can be played solo or with three other people. This is where the Bellabel Park add-on really shines. They reminded me of Super Mario Maker 2's levels. The objectives are simple—collect all the coins, defeat all the enemies, clear the course within a certain time limit, or clear the stage while staying invincible—but the levels are tightly constructed, master classes in game design.
Each cleared course or multiplayer challenge gives you a few drops of Bellabel Water, which can be used to water the plants in the area. These plots spout goodies in a gacha-machine fashion, so you might pull flowers to customize the park, emotes to use in multiplayer sessions, and instruments to rebuild Bellabel's local band. This also unlocks the DLC's new Dual Badges, which combine two different badge power-ups into a single badge, adding another layer of accessibility and replayability.
Of course, just in time for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the new DLC adds Rosalina and Luma to Wonder's roster. While Rosalina runs, jumps, and transforms just like Mario and crew, Luma is only available to a second player and controlled in Mouse Mode. The invulnerable Luma flies around the other player-controlled characters, spinning to defeat enemies and collect coins. It reminded me of Super Mario Galaxy's two-player mode, which let young gamers get involved without disrupting anyone else's gameplay. It sure beats handing them an unplugged controller.
There's also a new flower power-up that lets the cast shoot giant petals into the air, which takes out flying enemies with ease and gives the characters a Yoshi-like flutter jump. If that's not enough to get all your family members on board to play, you can toggle a new assist mode on or off. When on, it essentially makes your character immune to damage and falls into pits. Once again, the Wonder DLC prioritizes accessibility.
(Credit: Nintendo)Although Bellabel Park offers many fun activities, it's disappointing that the additions are locked behind a $19.99 paywall. After all, Nintendo gave Donkey Kong Country Returns HD a massive boost on Switch 2—for free. I don't see why most of this DLC couldn't be possible on the original Nintendo Switch.
Verdict: Bellabel Park Is Fleeting Fun
I loved Super Mario Bros. Wonder when I first played it, and I highly recommend buying it if you're a fan of platformers. However, it's clear that not every Switch 2 Edition is made equally. Although Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Xenoblade Chronicles X received Switch 2 Editions that largely affected visuals and performance, Wonder's Switch 2 update reminds me of Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV's: It's varied content that's ultimately fairly shallow.
(Credit: Nintendo)To that end, Wonder doesn't have enough substantial content to warrant the $19.99 upgrade ($79.99 for everything) if you've already burned through the base game. Though entertaining, the minigames are fleeting diversions, the additional campaign missions are a glorified boss rush mode, and the Brigade Training, while fun, didn't hold my attention for very long. However, if you're looking for extra multiplayer action or you have gamers in your life who would benefit from Assist Mode, it might be worth a pick up.