 Well folks, the reviews are in and look, when the previews came out last week and people were sort of gushing in some of these previews that Mario Wonder might be a game of the year contender, people mostly laughed it off. There's no way a side-scrolling Mario game could truly be a game of the year contender, especially when you have, you know, masterpieces coming out such as Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur's Gate 3, but it turns out that, you know what, based on the reviews, yeah, it definitely is a game of the year contender. Who had Mario Wonder, you know, scoring higher than Spider-Man 2 this week? I certainly didn't and this is holy crud, Mario Wonder just did something that no 2D Mario game has really done in history, at least since the 90s and it's really hard to even talk about back then because we didn't keep very good track of review scores in the late 80s and early 90s. Before we dive in, though, I just want to remind you, we are on a road to 150,000 subscribers. If you're enjoying this news and you're having a lot of fun, look man, go ahead and drop a like on this video, subscribe to the channel and go ahead and, you know, hit that bell icon to be notified of all future uploads. All right, let's just dive right into this. This is a fluid thing to remember when we're going to be talking about the Metacritic Score and the Open Critic Score. These review aggregate websites, it's fluids. At the time of posting, this is what we have to say on it. So on Metacritic, when it initially went up with 33 reviews, it hit a 94 on Metacritic and then on Open Critic and these are just right when the reviews went live. There was 28 reviews and it sat at a 93 and the lowest reviews of the bunch at that time were an eight. However, there is now a seven out of 10 on Metacritic, but we'll get to that in a moment because we're not done yet. When it hit 40 plus reviews, it hit a 95. It was really that seven out of 10 when they updated it to 50 that brought it back down to a 94. So at the time that I'm actually recording, it is a 94, but it did peak at a 95. And so obviously it's teetering there between a 94 and 95. We'll see, as they obviously add another 50 or so reviews, what's going to happen. But even if it drops another point, let's say it goes down to a 93, that is still two points higher than Spider-Man 2 this week, obviously significantly higher than, I don't know, Sonic Superstars. Oh, and by the way, it would still be the third highest AAA brand new reviewed game of the year. I had to specify brand new because technically Metroid Prime Remaster did hit a 95. There was a Resident Evil 4 thing that hit really high. But again, in terms of brand new games, it is the third highest reviewed game of the entire year. So yes, when reviewers said that this is indeed a game of the year contender, they're backing it up with the actual reviews. We're going to get into some of what the review said in a moment because obviously we need to focus on what they're saying. The game's not in my hand. I don't really know what's going on with it. I have to live vicariously through reviews right now, at least until Friday. But just to give you an idea of how important this is, it's the first time a Mario side scrolling game has even scored in the 90s since the release of Super Mario World. And even then, we didn't keep very good track of scores back then. So we've had like re-releases of Mario World and Mario Super Mario Brothers 3 and those re-releases have always scored in the 90s. So you presume, you know, that it would be in the 90s back then. But you know, we also have nostalgia for those games. We don't have nostalgia for this one. So for this to do this well is insane. The highest side scrolling Mario game, you know, highest reviewed, aggregate reviewed side scrolling Mario game in the last 30 years was New Super Mario Brothers on DS, which got to an 89, which was considered really impressive. And this is blowing that one out of the water. So let's get into some of this other stuff, because honestly, Mario Wonder might have just literally inserted it into like brute force its way into the game of the year discussion. And we're going to talk about that in a moment, because I can't really obviously give a full opinion on where it ranks and if it's better to choose the kingdom or better than Baldur's Gate, because I got to play the damn game. But let's get into what some of these reviews are saying. So we have places like, you know, CGM magazine saying Mario Wonder is a complete reinvention of everything that makes the franchise great and the best 2D Mario game ever made video game chronicle chiming in inventive and full of heart with a tight design and striking presentation. Super Mario Wonder is undoubtedly the plumber's most memorable 2D outing since the 90s. And this is important to remember every review I've read and I've been through, gosh, a dozen right now. I mean, again, there's like 50, 100 of them out. There's a lot of video reviews as well. All of them are basically saying the same thing. And that is, one, extremely inventive to a really good balance of challenge and your playability for people who maybe aren't as skilled. So if it walks that tight rope of challenge and, you know, being being able to be beat by everyone, the multiplayer fantastic way better than anyone thought it was going to be. Oh, and yeah, by the way, this is original. This is completely original. A new lift off point for the future of side scrolling Mario games. And yes, everyone agrees it is the best. They're saying one of two things. It's either the best side scrolling Mario game ever created, or it is the best side scrolling Mario game made since Super Mario World. Either way, those are extremely high praise because Mario Brothers 3 and Super Mario Brothers World are widely considered two of the greatest games in gaming history. So it to even be in the same sentence as those games. And let alone some people considering it to be the best ever is just insane. And I don't know, like, how to quantify this when when when Breath of the Wild came out and scored it's 97. And obviously tears of the kingdom with the 96. That's that felt like a landmark when we got a 97 from Super Mario Odyssey. Again, it really felt like a landmark when we got the 9695 or whatever from Elden Ring last year. It felt like a landmark. And some of these things you can expect like 3D Mario games when Nintendo puts their best into them can end up being super high reviewed and be a landmark. Obviously Zelda can always be a landmark if they put in the time and effort. And then obviously from software games were already highly praised. So going with a full open world brand new IP in a high fantasy setting was probably going to be really good for them. And it was. And then we have this game walk in. Like this is a week to be a Spider-Man 2 coming out and no shade on Spider-Man 2. I mean Sony and Nintendo should basically be shaking hands right now because this week is a win for Sony and Nintendo fans because look Spider-Man 2 is the highest rated of the three Spider-Man games of the new era. Yeah, that's really, really awesome. It's one of the highest rated PS5 exclusive games also as well. And yeah, it's going to sell bonkers. And now this is, you know, the highest rated Mario game besides Super Mario Odyssey, which is insane on this platform. So I just have to say I never thought we'd have a generation where Nintendo had a side scrolling Metroid game up for game of the year. Yeah, that happened. Remember the year Metroid Dread came out? Yeah, it was nominated for game of the year. Crazy. Didn't win it, but nominated, which is no one thought that Metroid, you know, a Metroid Dread, you know, maybe a Prime game, but like a side scrolling Metroid, no way. Yeah, it was nominated. Oh, and by the way, now Mario Wonder pretty much just jacked the nomination from some other game that was probably also deserving. Maybe it took Final Fantasy 16 spot. Like you can't have the third highest review game of the year, not be up for game of the year, especially when it's brand new. And it did come out in time to be included in the Jeff Kealy game awards. So I just have to say Nintendo is continuing to prove that when they put their mind to it, they are the maestros of side scrolling. They are really, really great at making platformers. Like some companies just excel at certain things. And Nintendo excels at making kick ass Zelda games, kick ass Xenoblade games, mostly because I'm on a soft and obviously really kick ass side scrollers and just platformers in general. Nintendo knows what they're good at. And every now and then they drop a game like this to remind us, we're still the best at what we do. Nobody does it better. And when Nintendo does that, and they give us a truly magical game that reminds us how great Nintendo is. One, it could be frustrating if we get some filler games in between that maybe didn't get as much effort. But two, it always just reminds us that this is why Nintendo is so beloved. When Nintendo releases a game this inventive, this creative in a genre people said or tired of doing things people said 2D Mario games could never do, could never be a game with a year contender. I just have to remind myself that Nintendo here and there does magical things and reminds us that when we play games, we could talk about graphics, we could talk about specs for Switch 2, we could talk about music and story. But gameplay is king, gameplay has always been king. And Nintendo provides some of the most inventive, imaginative and just straight up fun gameplay that you'll find at any gaming company. There's a reason Mario is one of the most beloved IPs in the world and its first ever animated movie is now the second highest grossing animated film of all time. There's a reason that the Super Nintendo World parks are themed around Mario and packed every single weekend. There's a reason that Odyssey sold 25 million plus and this could be another 20 million plus seller. There's a reason that Nintendo's magic seems to always shine through. This is looking like it's going to be a special game and I can't wait to talk more about it on our podcast. A reminder we have the Nintendo Prime podcast dropping on Thursday night live at 8 p.m. It's going to have myself, Andres Restart, Jake Randall, Eric Moore, you know it's our normal four. But then we're also going to be having on RGT-85 and Review Tech USA. And I'm very curious what their thoughts are about Mario Wonder before it comes out. I mean maybe they have review copies and already played it and can talk more about it. But that'll be sort of our launch hype stream or launch hype stream or launch hype episode where we're obviously going to be talking about Mario Wonder and what it's doing. Anyways guys, I got to get to work on my next video but you guys are awesome and amazing. I needed to get this out to you guys because this is a special moment and I want us to capture this because I'm not I don't know if we're gonna I mean look it took 30 years to get here. I don't know if I hopefully doesn't take another 30 for sides rolling Mario to be this good again. I'll catch you guys in the next video.