Yeah! 3d world is one of my favorites too, I posted a few months ago why exactly
As for Mario Wonder, I wonder (ha) if the problem is that confines all of its ideas within a rather repetitive system. Every level, you get a “surprise” when you find the special star and otherwise you never do. It’s so consistent about establishing an expectation and then going against it that it’s experienced as predictable instead.
If it had done stuff like one wonder that starts to infect nearby levels and keeps expanding… or a wonder that activates inexplicably even though I didn’t find the star… a meta-wonder you find in the overworld that alters the effect of all the other wonders… Nintendo should hire me