Most levels end with a flag pole, and the game rates you based on your performance as you bring down the flag and advance to your next challenge. Here is our guide telling you how to get the ‘Wonderful’ rating when you touch the flag poles in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Getting a Wonderful rating at the flag poles
When you clear the typical stage, you touch a flag pole and then a retainer comes out of a Flower House with a Wonder Seed to reward you for your efforts. You also receive a rating to let you know how you did. To get the ‘Wonderful’ rating at the flag pole, you need to touch the pole’s very top.
In the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES, you could cause fireworks if the last digit on your timer was a one, a three, or a six. Then you got extra points added to your score. You also received a better reward if you touched the pole closer to the top. The same holds true in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, except you get a descriptive word instead of points.
Related: Best Boost Badges in Super Mario Bros. Wonder
The highest rating is ‘Wonderful.’ If you’re going for 100% completion, it’s the only rating that counts. The game keeps track of your best performance on a flag pole at the end of a given stage, and it counts as a miss if you finish with a lower grade.
Some stages feature more than one flag pole, but you only need to touch the top of one of them. The landscape leading up to those poles can differ wildly. Sometimes, you have a high staircase. Just run and take a long leap to reach the pole. Sometimes, you need to get more inventive. In one of my favorite levels, Countdown to Drop Down, you must let a piranha spit a row of seeds. Then you can spring from the seeds as they fly toward the flag pole, in order to reach its highest point.
If a flag pole gives you fits, sometimes a boost badge helps. Most levels in the game are short enough that if you have to complete them more than once, it’s not a huge deal. Any time you approach a flag pole, think of it as a puzzle. You solve that puzzle by touching the top of the pole.
Keeping track of your Wonderful flag pole attempts
When you are viewing the world map, you might wonder which stages you have cleared completely. You can press the L button to bring up a list of relevant stages. Press L or R again to cycle between worlds. As you view level records, you’ll see a convenient log of any Wonder Seeds and large Wonder Coins gathered.
When you touch the top of a flag pole and receive a ‘Wonderful’ rating, the level stats upgrade to reflect that accomplishment. Check on the same menu described above to see if you were able to get a Wonderful rating at the flag pole in a particular level. That makes it easy to tell when you need to try again.
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