Super Mario Bros. – Syndication Server

The best games of 2023 according to Metacritic user scores

We rounded up the best games of 2023 according to Metacritic user scores, and the results were surprising

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We can talk about our Alan Wakes and Baldur’s Gates all we want, but the best video games of 2023 according to Metacritic Scores don’t quite match up with what you might expect. Metacritic is the people’s forum, the place where they can give whatever they want a 10 out of 10 and explain just what makes it so great – or leave a “game good” and nothing more. Some of the usual suspects are there – Mario Wonder, for example – but several that flew under the mainstream radar showed up as well. The variety makes it all the more interesting, so we scoured the platform and picked which Metacritic scores soared above the rest.

The Game Awards 2023 nominees: BG3, Zelda, Resident Evil 4, and more

The Game Awards 2023 nominees are in, with Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, and Spider-Man 2 leading the charge with the most nominations

Geoff Keighley announced The Game Awards 2023 nominees, the Oscars for video games, and to the surprise of few, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom show up quite a lot. Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Alan Wake 2, and Spider-Man 2 might have launched much later in the year, but they landed their fair share of nominations, along with Hi-Fi Rush.

Honkai Star Rail and Final Fantasy XIV pop up a few times, and Final Fantasy 16 even makes an appearance.

The 2023 Game Awards airs on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, and you can cast your vote on the TGA website for the community picks up until the show date.

Super Mario Wonder Search Party Puzzling Park guide

This Super Mario Wonder Puzzling Park Search Party guide shows where to find each Puzzling Park Flower Token quickly

Clearing the Super Mario Wonder Search Party at Puzzling Park is a must if you want to collect all the world’s Wonder Seeds – and you will want to do that, since some of Wonder‘s biggest challenges only pop up after you collect every Seed. Puzzling Park’s Search Party is pretty much what it says on the label, a side area where you, well, search. The idea is to search with an online multiplayer group to help you find clues, but if you’d rather just get right to it, that’s where we come in.

This Puzzling Park Search Party guide shows where to find each Puzzling Park Flower Token so you can get your Wonder Seed fast.

All Super Mario Wonder Special World entrances

In this guide, we explain where to find every Super Mario Bros. Wonder Special World entrance and what you need to do to unlock them

Nintendo hid the Super Mario Wonder Special World entrances pretty darn well. Like Super Mario World’s Star World, Wonder’s Special World entrances take some extra skill and sleuthing to find. Each of Wonder’s six worlds has a Secret World entrance, and there’s a seventh in the Petal Isles overworld. Some involve tracking down a hidden exit, while others only appear when you’re using a Wonder Seed. Finding all Secret World entrances opens Wonder’s biggest challenges, so if you want to see everything that the latest Super Mario game has to offer, plan on tracking them down.

The best Super Mario power ups ranked from weak to wowie zowie

Our Super Mario power ups ranked list holds the Nintendo mascot’s abilities to the light to see which ones are worth their salt

Putting the best Super Mario power ups in ranked order is a trip through the long-running franchise’s history, a tale of failed experiments and surprisingly creative endeavors. Any series that’s been knocking around for over 30 years inevitably puts out some duds, and Mario is no different. Tempting as it may be to lay the blame on the (rightly) maligned New Super series, some of the classic Super Mario games have their fair share of stinkers.

We put our favorite Mario power ups in order here, though since Super Mario Wonder wasn’t available at the time of publication, we didn’t include those yet.

If you’re after more Mario fun, check out our 2D Mario cover art ranking and the best Charles Martinet voice lines.

Ranking the best 2D Super Mario Bros. box art from mid to inspired

The 2D Super Mario Bros. box art quality has had its fair share of ups and downs over the decades, and we’ve sorted out the best of the best

The 2D Super Mario Bros. box art quality has had its fair share of ups and downs over the decades since the first NES game launched, much like the games themselves. The olden days of pared down, brutally minimalistic art for international releases thankfully gave way to something more colorful and fun, though even some of the more recent Mario art leaves something to be desired. There’s only so many times you can create something cover art for Super Mario Bros. U before it gets a little stale, after all.

We’ve sifted through and put them all in order in our 2D Super Mario Bros. box art list, but if you’re looking for something more game-flavored, check out our Super Mario game rankings as well.

Ranking the best Super Mario games from worst to incredible

No Mario game is bad, but the best Super Mario games are the ones where Nintendo’s creativity and genius for level design are on display

The caveat when talking about the best Super Mario games is that there really is no bad Super Mario game. Over the course of three decades and more, Nintendo’s flagship series has seen its ups and downs, but even the blandest, most uninspired of the New Super Mario games still has the power to delight and excite. When the series is at its best, however, is when Nintendo’s knack for clever stage design and creative worlds shines through.

Our list of the best Super Mario games focuses on the series’ mainline entries, so there’s no Mario Maker or Super Mario RPG here.

A Genshin Impact actor is the new voice of Nintendo’s Mario

Some Super Mario Bros. fans think they figured out who the new Mario voice actor is, and it could be one of Genshin Impact’s voices

Update: Oct. 13, 2023

It turns out a Genshin Impact voice actor is Mario’s new voice after all – but not the one we first thought. Kevin Afghani, who voiced Arnold the raven guide from the 2022 Summertime Odyssey event in Genshin Impact. Afghani is comparatively new in acting circles. His first credit was in 2020 as Spike in Anime Penguin: Red Snow, and he also voiced the Detective in two Cuphead shorts.

Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!

— Kevin Afghani (@KevinAfghani) October 13, 2023

Original story: Oct. 12, 2023

Some Super Mario Bros. fans think they figured out who the new Mario voice actor is, and it could be one of Genshin Impact’s voices – maybe. The news comes from a set of data mined from the Super Mario Bros. Wonder retail demo that’s currently running in some stores across the U.S., and by process of elimination, fans narrowed the candidates down to two actors (thanks, VGC).

The list includes several actor names and roles, but some of the role sections are blocked off. Assuming Nintendo didn’t cast a woman as Mario, that leaves two male voice actor candidates for the role: Mick Wingert and Kevin Afghani. Afghani sounds quite a bit like one of the talking flowers, and some of the dataminers credited him in that role as well. That leaves Mick Wingert, voice of Dottore in Genshin Impact, Koslow in Attack on Titan, and dozens of other roles in anime and video games.

Possible Mario Wonder cast leak datamined from the demo! Thanks to @/Mondo_Mega for compiling this information and posting it on Famiboards. pic.twitter.com/30oW0NYEcW

— Skipper93653 (@Skipp93653) October 12, 2023

There’s a slight catch, though. IGN’s Rebekah Valentine reached out to Wingert’s representatives, and they said “he can confirm that he is NOT voicing Mario.” Half a dozen loopholes or more exist for ways that statement could be true while Winget still voiced Mario for Wonder. Then again, Afghani could be doubling up as a flower and as the red-capped hero, or Nintendo could’ve anticipated something like this happening and intentionally left Mario’s voice actor out of the data.

Sharp fans noticed slight differences in Mario’s voice lines during the first Wonder trailer. Nintendo later announced Charles Martinet was retiring as Mario’s voice and moving into a Mario Ambassador role – a new position whose duties remain largely unknown – but the Big N didn’t say who replaced him for Wonder recording.

We won’t have long to wait until we know for sure, though. Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches on Oct. 20, 2023, for Nintendo Switch.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Nintendo is reviving a classic Mario game on Switch

Nintendo announced a brand-new Mario Vs. Donkey Kong game for Nintendo Switch during the September Direct, a reboot of the GBA original

Nintendo announced a brand-new Mario Vs. Donkey Kong game for Nintendo Switch during the September Direct, the first time the Super Mario spinoff series has seen the light of day in seven years. The new Mario Vs. Donkey Kong is called just Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, which is fitting, since it seems like a soft reboot for the series that streamlines some of the more chaotic elements.

The premise is this: Donkey Kong, fueled by an undying love of shiny toys, seizes a factory’s worth of Mario minis and flees with his ill-gotten gains. It’s essentially the same Mario Vs. Donkey Kong setup as always, but with a few minor differences from the later games.

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong first released on Game Boy Advance before marching onto the Nintendo DS with more complicated touch-screen puzzles and an ever-growing army of mini-Marios to shepherd through each stage. In the Switch version, you’re guiding only Mario through intricately designed levels filled with traps, enemies, and obstacles.

Your goal is grabbing a key and maybe recover some of the stolen Mario toys before moving on to the next level, and there’s a boss fight with Donkey Kong at the end of each themed world.

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong on Switch launches Feb. 16, 2024, and pre-orders are open now.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

9 things we learned from the Super Mario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Direct

The SuperMario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Direct might have been short, but Nintendo crammed a lot of detail and information in just 15 minutes

The SuperMario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Direct might have been short, but Nintendo crammed a surprising amount of detail and information in just 15 minutes. There’s a large cast of characters, a vibrant, if familiar world, new powers, monsters, and more. We get to see Wonder Flowers in action, and it looks like Nintendo is trying to improve its online game with Wonder, a first for the 2D Mario series and its traditional reliance on local co-op.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches on Oct. 20, 2023, on Nintendo Switch, and here’s a bit of what you can expect from it.