I've played through the first four worlds and the game can score with a lot of gameplay variety. I do wonder if the Rayman-like popping up of collectibles after touching certain things played a role in the high Metascore; I am still not sure what led reviewers to overrate Rayman games by that much, but maybe that's just what they like? Or it's that there are no time limits in levels anymore. The new artstyle makes the typical world themes fresh again.
Also got to play half a world in multiplayer. It makes a lot of difference that characters can't interact with each other anymore. There's no bumping into someone else anymore, but at the same time you can't pick up a weaker player to help them either. The phantom-system gives the surviving players five seconds to prevent the loss of an extra life of the shared pool.
SMB Wonder is certainly not following the NSMB formula and that's true in many areas. The only complaint I have so far is more emphasis on story; sure, the dialogue portions are short, but most of them weren't really needed at all.
Legend11 correctly predicted that GTA IV will outsell Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I was wrong.
