Badges are one of the best new additions that Super Mario Bros. Wonder brings to Nintendo’s perennial platforming series. This new piece of equipment lets Mario and his friends take on new abilities, which in turn lets you customize your play style to accommodate your own strengths and weaknesses. But not all Badges are created equal, which is why we’re here to rank all 24 of them.
The Sound Off Badge is basically a troll feature from Nintendo, in that it replaces a lot of Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s sound effects with much more obnoxious ones. Imagine a Discord soundboard of nothing but old Vine soundbites that play every time you jump, touch a coin, or stomp on an enemy. It’s called Sound Off because it makes you turn the sound off on your Switch. It’s a funny gag, but it gets old fast.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder has a series of Badges that let you change all power-ups you find in a level to a specific one. You like throwing fireballs around like in the Mario games of old? You can use one of these Badges to ensure you’re never without a Fire Flower. Do you want to wowie on some poor Goomba’s zowie? Replace every power-up with the Elephant Fruit. These are useful tools, but they’re not quite as cool as all the other Badges, and they don’t encourage the same experimental plays you’ll find with others.
Playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder with invisibility on is playing the game on its hardest difficulty. Sure, the enemies can’t see you, but you also can’t see your character as they run and jump through a level. You can run into enemies or miss a jump and fall into a chasm if you don’t have a strong sense of where your character is while they’re invisible. If you’ve got the patience to practice, it’s a really fascinating way to play Mario. If you’re like most other people, this is not fun when you could instead be using a Grappling Vine to pretend you’re Spider-Man.
I appreciate what Spring Feet is going for, but given it takes some control away from you, I find it a bit frustrating. This Badge makes Mario and friends jump uncontrollably, meaning you can’t just stand still for a moment while you assess a problem. In return, it gives you some of the highest air time of any Badge in the game. But if you’re not standing on the ground every now and then, how can you appreciate when you soar, am I right?
Because there’s a new currency in purple coins, the classic gold coins aren’t quite as useful in Super Mario Bros. Wonder as in previous games. Coin Reward nets you more of these every time you defeat an enemy. It incentivizes you to beat up every passing Goomba and Shova, but if the game’s economy doesn’t make it worthwhile, the Badge just kinda feels like a waste of space in your arsenal.
In a post-Hi-Fi Rush world, I love moving to the rhythm of the music. The Rhythm Jump Badge rewards you for doing just that. When you have the item equipped, you get gold coins for jumping to the rhythm of Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s beats. It makes levels feel like Rayman Legends’ music levels, and that is precisely my shit. However, given the de-emphasis on gold coins, it’s hard to justify using the Badge over other things, despite the novelty.
Mario loves to jump real high and a lot of these Badges empower him to do so in one way or another. In a throwback to Super Mario Bros. 2, Crouching High Jump gives you some great airtime if you take a moment to crouch and power up the move. This means it may be great in some situations, but it’s not ideal for frantic levels where threats are coming at the fireball-throwing plumber from all over the place.
Falling to your death is one of the greatest dangers in any Mario game, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder is no different. Safety Bounce lets you jump back to solid ground if you mistime a jump or get shoved off a cliff, and that makes it a great Badge to use if you’re just trying to get through a level with minimal challenge. It’s not quite as game-changing as other Badges, but it’s universally useful.
Sensor is the completionist player’s dream Badge. Part of the challenge in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is replaying levels to find every collectible and secret exit, and Sensor gives you some visual and audio cues to let you know when important items like Flower Coins are nearby. It’s a good Badge to use when you’re doing clean-up after you’ve completed the game so you can get that 100% completion across each world.
The Add ! Blocks Badge is all about giving you a few more steps to stand on. Using this places more blocks around a level, giving you new platforms to run, jump, and land on. This can give you some extra running ground to make a good jump, keep you from falling into a chasm, or hold power-ups and coins to help you along. It’s basically Mario training wheels, which can help you better navigate tough levels and give you some safety nets to fall back on.
Sometimes you need a little help to start with your best foot forward, and beginning a level with more than one hit on your life bar is a good way to do that in a Mario game. The Auto Super Mushroom Badge ensures you’re starting every level in your big form, rather than being a tiny little short king/queen/monarch that can only take one hit of damage before dying. It’s not as flashy as other Badges, but it’s still a good thing to have at the outset of every level.
As we’ve said, gold coins aren’t quite as useful when there’s an alternative that lets you buy lives in bulk. But any power-up that lets you just soak in a collectible by walking past it with minimal effort is a win in my book.
The Timed High Jump brings what’s usually a 3D Mario mechanic into the 2D space. By timing successive jumps just as you touch the ground, you’ll get more air time with each leap. The Badge works universally on all types of terrain, so you can even jump high on sand. It requires some precision and forethought, as jumping carelessly is a surefire way to accidentally graze a Paratroopa’s wing and die. But a well-timed jump can give you a bit more control in a slippery situation and ensure you land where you need to.
Mario is learning a little bit from his destined rival and decides he, too, has gotta go fast. The Fast Dash is good for speedruns and traversing a level quickly. If you’re not trying to collect every coin on a map and just need to get to a section quickly, this is the Badge to equip.
Like many other Badges, Floating High Jump is all about giving you more air time on your jumps. But it also lets you float in the air briefly, giving you a precious few seconds to make sure you’re above what you need to be as you jump. In platformers, timing your jumps is everything, and getting a brief window to course correct is an immeasurable boon.
Jet Run lets Mario Naruto-run so fast he can walk on air, and that rules, actually. This Badge’s usefulness will depend on what level you’re on, but being able to move so quickly that Mario avoids falling to his death is a great speedrun tool and it just feels really good to use. It’s almost like getting a Super Star without the invincibility, though if you’re careless with it, you can end up running into something dangerous with all this newfound speed.
Dolphin Kick ranks high on this list because it is the only thing that makes water levels tolerable. Nintendo, knowing people who play video games dislike swimming in slow-paced, underwater levels, still continues to put them in Mario games, but Dolphin Kick, which lets your characters propel themselves forward in the water, speeds up the terrible awful to a sensible pace. Is it elevated by getting you out of some of the worst parts of the game? Maybe! But it deserves its flowers for that.
One of the most satisfying platforming actions in a Mario game is jumping from wall to wall to get to a higher point. Wall-Climb Jump makes that a little easier by giving you a vertical jump off a wall before you start the back and forth. On top of that, it can be a get-out-of-jail-free card if you mistime a jump and can only reach the edge of a cliff, letting you use it to propel yourself upward to safety. Wall-Climb Jump is a good Badge because I really just want it to become a standard tool in Mario’s bag. Make it happen, Nintendo.
A lot of Badges rank highly on this list because their utility is universal, but Grappling Vine is a bit different. The badge basically gives Mario a hookshot to grab onto any wall and pull himself there. This can help you reach places your jump might not, but it also has such a specific use case that it’s not practical to take on every level. On the other hand, it just feels so good to use. It reaches just far enough to feel useful without feeling cheap, and you can practically hear “Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee playing in the background as you pull yourself across a level like Spider-Man. Sure, it might not be as handy as other Badges, but almost none of them feel this satisfying.
The Boosting Spin Jump Badge is a double jump and controlled course correction wrapped into one power-up, and it is one of the most natural-feeling Badges in the game. It might not feel as fresh as Grappling Vine, or as game-breaking as Safety Bounce, but it is easily one of the best extensions of Mario’s established toolset, feeling like something everyone should just have by default. It’s versatile both because it works as a standard jump, giving you higher than average airtime on its own, and because if you use it in tandem with your usual leap, it can give you more control than most other jump-based Badges in Wonder. It’s not the most exciting or eye-catching ability you can equip, but it is the natural evolution of the game’s fundamentals, and that’s why it’s one of the best Badges in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Parachute Cap is one of the earliest Badges you get in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and it’s pretty obvious why so many people equip it and keep it on throughout the game. Like Wall-Climb Jump, it feels like something that should be embedded into the Super Mario Bros. games because giving Mario more tools than just running and jumping makes the platforming so much more dynamic. This badge helps you reasonably course-correct bad jumps, fall more deliberately, and it makes use of Mario’s character design by giving his iconic hat some utility. It rules. Keep it in the next one.