Meetup in Bellabel Park hides some of 2D Mario’s best moments

I wasn’t expecting much when I started playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s new Meetup in Bellabel Park DLC. Considering my pre-launch preview centered around the add-on’s Mario Party-like multiplayer minigames, I knew better than to expect a slew of wild new levels that took the base game’s creative Wonder Effects to new heights. I figured I’d just enjoy getting to revisit a great platformer with a Switch 2 tech boost.

Instead, Meetup in Bellabel Park delivered a genuine surprise that vaulted over my low expectations. The DLC is secretly hiding the most inventive boss fights I’ve ever seen in a 2D Mario game — full stop. It’s worth the price of admission alone to see what I hope will quietly freshen up the Mario formula from the shadows.

Though the bulk of Meetup in Bellabel Park is multiplayer minigames, it does include a bit of single-player content. In the short story, Mario must help Captain Toad chase down the Koopalings, who are running wild in each world of the Flower Kingdom. That little quest is a good excuse to add seven new levels to the base game (alongside the terrific Toad Brigade Training Courses, which we noted in our review as one of the best new additions in the DLC). Well, maybe “levels” isn’t exactly the right word. Each one is a quick and easy walk-up to a fight against a Koopaling.

And those fights are the real surprise of the DLC. Each Koopaling has been hit with a different Wonder Effect, changing each sibling in a creative and visually dazzling way. The mechanics of the fight itself shift around that transformation too. Roy, for instance, turns into a ghost who floats in the background summoning Fish Bones and fireballs. You defeat him by grabbing a pot that shoots projectiles back into him, all while taking care not to be crushed when he slams his ghost ship down on you. Morton becomes a robot marionette who you can only defeat by snagging his strings when he slams the ground. And Wendy? Big fish!

My personal favorite is a battle against a crystallized Larry. The screen floods with crystals of varying shapes and sizes, and Mario has to bust through them to reach the one containing Larry. It’s a creative idea for a fight with some great visual pizzazz, and it also finally puts Mario’s hard head to good use.

It’s not that the fights are radically different from your typical Mario boss encounters; they all boil down to “jump on the enemy a few times” with a few extra flourishes. But those flourishes go a long way towards making something old feel new again. The trick of any Mario game — heck, any video game at all — is making the thing you’ve done dozens of times before feel special. That’s what made Super Mario Bros. Wonder itself feel so revelatory in 2023. It twisted and turned familiar platforming levels until they became something new. A level where you avoid Piranha Plants? Basic. The same level, but they’re all singing a musical number? Now that’s something!

Meetup in Bellabel Park applies that same magic to boss fights, something that can often feel dry and mechanical in typical side-scrolling Mario games. Each gets its own delightful little Wonder Effect that’s as much of a joy to discover as anything in the base game. It’s a creative direction that Nintendo has flirted with in previous 2D Mario games, but it’s more fully realized here thanks to Wonder’s expressive animation and emphasis on visual transformation. Even if Wonder Effects end up being a one-time gimmick that doesn’t appear in future Mario games, I hope the philosophy behind them continues to shape the 2D series going forward. Mario is at its best when it’s pulling new surprises out of its hat.