Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park Review

Official key art for Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park featuring Mario, Luigi, Peach, Rosalina, and Yoshi.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park combines the original Flower Kingdom adventure with an expansive new social hub.

By Jon Scarr

I've been playing Mario since the 80s, and honestly, Super Mario Bros. Wonder was the first time in a decade a 2D entry felt truly magical again. It wasn't just another retread of the "New" series; it was weird, colourful, and genuinely unexpected. Now that Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park is here, the big question is whether a few technical bumps and a park full of minigames are worth your time and money.

The short answer is yes, especially if you haven't finished the original or you're looking for a reason to push your new Nintendo Switch 2. This is the definitive version of the game, playing in native 4K at a locked 60fps that makes the Flower Kingdom look like a playable cartoon. The additions in Bellabel Park and the new Koopaling boss fights aren't just filler; they fix the one real complaint I had with the first release: the lack of substantial boss encounters.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park Details

Platform: Nintendo Switch 2

Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch 2

Developer: Nintendo EPD

Publisher: Nintendo

Genre: Platformer

Game Modes: Single-player, Local co-op, Online co-op

Flower Kingdom Look Is Sharper Than Ever

When you first jump into Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park, the jump in how it looks hits you immediately. Playing in native 4K when docked, the colours pop with a level of clarity that makes the original Nintendo Switch version look soft. The HDR support adds a lot of texture to the backgrounds. You'll notice the lighting on the talking flowers and the way the colours bleed together in the Wonder sequences is much more vibrant. How it plays is just as impressive. The locked 60fps never wavers. It remains steady even when the screen is full of Wonder effects and four of you are jumping around in co-op.

Load times are also noticeably faster. You won't spend much time staring at black screens between the overworld and the stages. If you're coming from the original game, your save data transfers over instantly. Pick up exactly where you left off without losing your progress. There are even tiny Pikmin easter eggs tucked away if you keep your eyes peeled during the trek through the Petal Isles. Locked 60fps throughout. It’s a refined, responsive experience that justifies the move to the Nintendo Switch 2.

Rosalina and Dual Badges Change Game Pacing

The roster gets a great addition with Rosalina. She fits in perfectly. Having her as a fully playable character in a 2D Mario game is a move that was a long time coming. She's joined by Co-Star Luma, who acts as an invulnerable assist character for a new two-player co-op mode. Luma flies freely and uses a spin attack to help clear the path. It's a smart way to let someone less experienced join in without the frustration of losing lives. If you use the Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, you can even point at the screen to direct Luma, which takes me back to the Super Mario Galaxy days.

The biggest shift in the ways the game works is the Dual Badge feature. You can now equip two badge abilities at once. It's a complete overhaul for some of the harder courses. Combining the Wall-Climb Jump with the Grappling Vine makes you feel almost unstoppable. It opens up creative ways to reach secrets that used to require pixel-perfect timing. I found myself mixing floaty jumps with improved air control to navigate the trickiest parts of the Shining Falls levels. The Flower Power-up (or Super Flower Pot) is the other major addition. It gives you a flutter jump and an upward projectile attack that changes your approach to vertical stages. This setup adds a tier of certainty for anyone who found the original Super Mario Bros. Wonder later stages a bit too punishing.

Koopalings Finally Get Their Due

The original Super Mario Bros. Wonder was great, but the boss fights were a bit thin. Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park fixes that by bringing in the Koopalings as unique bosses hidden in Captain Toad's Brigade Tents. You track them down by finding tents on the overworld map. These aren't just standard "stomp three times" fights. Each one uses Wonder Power to turn the encounter into something surreal, much like we saw in the Koopaling trailer. Facing Morton as a giant marionette while Lakitu pulls his strings from the foreground is a key part of the expansion. The unpredictability comes from everywhere. You have to think about the environment as much as the boss itself.

Wendy turning into a giant Cheep Cheep is another instance that forces you to change how you move. She calls in waves of enemies through portals, turning the arena into a frantic survival match. Lemmy keeps you busy by lobbing explosives that you have to fire back while he teeters on oversized balls. These fights add the variety and challenge the campaign was missing before. For the hardcore crowd, harder rematch versions of every Koopaling unlock later in the game. Those rematch fights genuinely pushed me to plan my badge loadout, choosing the best tools to counteract their specific transformations. It turns the boss encounters from a brief distraction into a core part of the challenge that you’ll actually want to revisit.

Bellabel Park Is a Social Hub With Legs

After you clear the first few stages, you unlock Bellabel Park. It's a massive hub area divided into sections for multiplayer attractions and single-player challenges. Attraction Central has 17 local minigames that are a blast when you have people over. "Fly Free, Captain Toad" is a personal favourite. It forces two of you to split movement and jumping duties. One person handles the left-right motion while the other controls the jumps. It’s exactly the kind of cooperative mayhem that makes Mario games work. "Donut Block Maker" is another great one where two people lay platforms while others race ahead. I first saw some of these during the Nintendo Treehouse Live showcase.

If you're playing on your own, the Toad Brigade Training Camp offers over 80 challenges set in existing levels. These are short, focused objectives like collecting coins or defeating enemies against a clock. Some of the later ones are genuinely tough. They'll push your platforming skills to the limit. Clearing everything here adds about six hours of extra play. You earn Bellabel Water and rank patches for your trouble. The water is used to decorate the park or unlock new communication emojis for online sessions. It gives you a reason to keep coming back even after you've finished the main story. Steady throughout. The park turns the game into a social playground that is much more alive than the standard overworld and stays family-friendly.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park Is the Definitive Package

Nintendo didn't just dump Super Mario Bros. Wonder onto Nintendo Switch 2 and call it a day. The technical upgrades are great, but the extra content in Bellabel Park and the revamped boss fights are what really sell Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park. The Dual Badge feature and the inclusion of Rosalina give you more ways to play. The Training Camp challenges provide a high-level test that the base game sometimes lacked. If you're a newcomer, this is the version you need. The presentation is sharper, the roster is bigger, and the social features are more robust than ever before.

Returning fans might find the $29.99 CAD upgrade price a bit steep for just a few hours of new single-player content. But if you play with friends or family, the improvements to local co-op make a massive difference. You can now zoom out for a wider view, and a new camera lock keeps the screen focused on the lead player instead of turning others into ghosts. It makes the whole experience much less frustrating for a group. It isn't a massive sequel, but it's the best 2D Mario has ever looked or played. Whether you're upgrading for the new boss fights or jumping in fresh for the 4K visual package, you're getting a package that is complete and refined. Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park is the version of Super Mario Bros. Wonder that belongs in your collection.