Review: Super Mario Wonder + Meetup in Bellabel Park - A UHD Wonder!

Along with the launch of the Switch 2 last year, we didn't get many new games besides Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, but one thing we did get was enhanced versions of games from the Switch 1. The standouts are obviously the Zelda games which received an exceptional upgrade, then I also reviewed Kirby and the Forgotten Land here, which got a great improvement on the console, and now we also have the upgrade of the excellent Mario Wonder. But is the upgrade to the Switch 2 version worth it for you? Let's talk about it!

The Flower in Bellabel Park

Let's start with what this review won't cover—and that's the base game. Why? Because we already have a review that Shmuel labored over when the game released back in 2023. So what will this review cover? The Switch 2 improvements, and what do these improvements include over the original? Resolution upgrades in docked and handheld mode, performance, and the new content added to the game, and finally of course, whether all this upgrade is worth the price. Along with that, I'll also mention to Switch 2 owners who want to get more from their old Switch games, including Mario Wonder, there's a relatively new feature that Nintendo released called Boost Mode that allows you to get more from your old games, so it's highly recommended to enable it.

Let's start with the new content we're getting, Meetup at Bellabel. I believe quite a few buyers of this package will likely focus mainly on it rather than how the game looks on the console, since it already ran at a smooth 60 frames from day one. The story of Bellabel starts right after we finish the first 4 levels of the game that serve as a sort of tutorial. We meet a trapped Poplin in what looks like a tunnel entrance, and he asks us to follow him in order to join the brigade and reach Bellabel Park. Do we know what he means? No, but Florian who accompanies us in the game encourages us to follow him. But on the way to Bellabel Park we encounter the Koopalings who steal the park's treasure in the form of flowers, and now we're tasked with chasing them to return the flowers to the park.

Let's start with the first addition that catches my eye in this whole story—we can finally play as Rosalina. I assume the fact that the Mario Galaxy movie came out not long ago in theaters contributed to this blessed addition. Next, another thing that's very blessed as well is the addition of more enemies besides Bowser Jr., something we were missing in the original game. All the Koopalings are here as part of this expansion, plus their boss fights are more interesting in my opinion. Instead of just having to jump on Bowser Jr.'s head every time, this time the Koopalings change form because of Bellabel's flowers, leading to different battles. With some of them we can also fight using the new power we got in the expansion, which is the ability to shoot flowers upward and hit enemies from below—a very refreshing change that leads to some particularly interesting fights.

The only difference that maybe managed to disappoint me a bit compared to Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the fact that in order to reach each level of the expansion, you need to unlock each and every area of the game, so instead of having access to the entire expansion when we reach the conditions that unlock the first level. This is a very small complaint, but one that definitely piled on a considerable challenge for me to reach all the content. Another problem with this expansion is that along with the addition of co-op levels (quite many, I should note), an additional problem is added—you can't play them if you don't have friends who are also playing the game. There's no option here to play against strangers online, and the real problem is that even when some of these levels are suitable for one-on-one play or together on the same couch, there are co-op levels that require more than one console to play against each other, and this makes me wonder about some of the new content—it's not very accessible to everyone. It's good that the game supports Game Share for additional consoles, but in a living room with only one console? There's no possibility at all to touch some of the content and that's a shame.

The Resolution Wonder and the Lost Frames

Let's also talk about the graphical improvements of this game, because when the game was on the original Switch it was able to run at 60 frames most of the time, now it's able to run at a stable 60 frames without any drops at all—in all my hours playing I didn't encounter any performance drops whatsoever. Beyond that, the graphical improvements are noticeable and much of it is also related to higher resolution. If on the original Switch the game ran at 1080p in docked mode and 720p in handheld mode, now we're playing at 4K in docked mode and 1080p in handheld mode. The game looks and responds fantastically and it looks even better than it did before. Much of this is obviously helped by the hardware improvements of the Switch 2, but the graphical improvements are noticeable as well with this version.

So, what's the problem anyway? This paragraph is a very specific nitpick and it relates to the fact that the console was promoted along with new and shiny features like a 120Hz screen and HDR support. The thing is, these features aren't used at all in this version, and I don't think this limitation comes from the console for a change, but rather from the engine of this game which may have aged a bit. The console is capable of running this game at more than 60 frames on a hardware level, and while the ability to brighten dark parts of the screen with the device's HDR is nice, we don't get any added value from it. So maybe the problem isn't actually with the device but with the engine? This is something I hope to see improved when the next Mario game comes to us, whenever that may be.

The Bottom Line

Super Mario Wonder was a great 2.5D game in the series, but together with the Meetup in Bellabel Park addition we get a complete package, and if you want to experience Wonder in all its glory, this is the perfect package. But do I recommend you upgrade the game to this version? If you play the game on TV, this upgrade will likely be very worthwhile for you. It makes the game look much better, and additionally, if you have friends you can play with and enjoy together, it's an even more worthwhile package since it's very focused on playing with friends. If you play the game in handheld mode and you don't necessarily tend to play co-op, or you don't have additional friends who will purchase this upgrade, it could be that maybe the Boost Mode of the Switch 2 for games from the previous console will be enough for you. That said, I think Bellabel Park is an amazing addition with more content that for fans of the franchise will be perfect.