So far, Nintendo’s Switch 2 upgrade packs have been all over the map. There are the smaller ones with just a few quality-of-life features like Animal Crossing, serious upgrades like the Legend of Zelda games, and larger-scale expansions like Kirby’s Star-Crossed World expansion. Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s Switch 2 upgrade, Meetup at Bellabel Park, is priced like a larger expansion, but that doesn’t quite capture the nature of what it is. Instead, based on a hands-on experience with Nintendo, it transforms the game into something else entirely, borrowing liberally from the Mario Party series.
Though Mario Wonder allowed you to go through its stages in multiplayer, Bellabel Park is centered around bespoke multiplayer minigames, using the Mario Wonder platforming as its mechanical underpinnings. So unlike an actual Mario Party game, in which the randomized minigames might challenge you to do new and unfamiliar things at a regular clip, these feel more like platforming challenges with a little bit of party game spirit.
Since they’re built around traditional Mario platforming, the challenges aren’t entirely competitive. We first played a cooperative level that had one player using the Switch 2 mouse functionality to draw Donut Blocks, Mario Maker style, to guide the other three players through a stage that was one big pit hazard. That by itself would be not much more than a neat toy-like experiment, but the stage was also littered with occasional hazards and puzzle challenges, like a special coin nested inside a set of breakable boxes. The Donut Block player would need to draw a path for a spike ball to roll its way into the boxes so that the other players could access the coin; and naturally, we were all shouting out tips of where and how to draw the path, adding to the chaotic fun of the whole experience.
One minigame was styled like the classic game Hot Potato with a single ticking Bob-Omb. Every few seconds it would notify you that it had to be passed to a particular player, so you had to throw it to that player quickly, while also making your way through a traditional Mario stage. While your frantic instinct might be to get rid of the ticking time bomb as quickly as you can, the clock is shared and you all fail together if you let the bomb explode, so your real goal is to make sure your hand-off goes smoothly.
Then there was a competitive challenge, and my personal favorite, a version of Red Light, Green Light with a giant King Boo in the background. Each player was competing to collect the most coins, but if King Boo woke up and spotted you moving, he would damage you, making you drop your coins and freeze in place for a few seconds. Even if you’re in mid-air at the time he starts to look, your fall would count as moving, so you’d have to carefully keep an eye out for signs that he’s waking up. Meanwhile, stages were peppered with coins moving in a circle, so you can position yourself to keep passively collecting them even while he’s watching you.
None of these minigames would be worth the price of admission on their own, but altogether, the package looks to be substantial. We only got a taste of a handful of the minigames during our multiplayer session, and each one we tried had multiple difficulty levels with different stages to try. I also got the sense that there was more to be discovered, possibly through the collection of those special coins that were so tricky to get during the cooperative stages.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder was a great 2D platformer, and Meetup at Bellabel Park adds another dimension to the scope of Nintendo’s goals with these Switch 2 expansions. Some of them can enhance the game you already know and love, others can add even more content similar to what you’ve already played, and now, this one appears primed to transform the game into something else entirely.That may make it less than ideal for fans of Mario Wonder’s traditional platforming, but it could be a nice change of pace if you have some buddies over.