By 1991, Nintendo had established themselves as the dominant force in the Video Game Industry and several of their games had grown into franchises. Their most successful franchise hands down was the Super Mario Bros. series. There were four hit video games, a good spinoff, a popular TV show and tons of merchandising. There was even a live action movie in development at the time. However, around this time Nintendo was starting to face competition. Several other companies such as Atari tried to take the video game industry back from Nintendo but soon found that they had little to offer in comparison to the Big N. Their closest competitor was Sega with the Master System but even it wasn’t that close. But then Sega released the Sega Genesis, the first 16 bit home console. With it’s superior hardware, greater 3rd party support and more mature slant, Sega was able to catch up to Nintendo and later surpass them with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog. Nintendo wasn’t going to stand by and let a competitor overtake them and thus they released what many consider to be the best console ever: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Though the SNES was a 16 bit system, it proved to be a more capable than Genesis with greater memory space, more colors, more graphical effects and most notably, better sound. At launch there were several games that were intended to show off the graphical capabilities such as F-Zero but the one that insured strong initial sales was the pack in title: Super Mario World. The game won critical acclaim, sold over 20 Million Copies and proved that Mario still had some life in him following what many considered to be the perfection of the series. How does it hold up? Let’s take a look.
Story
In Super Mario World, Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach decide to take a vacation to Dinosaur Island. Bet you’ll never guess what kind of animals live on that island. The three decide to take a nap on the beach but when the plumber brothers wake up, they find that Princess Peach has disappeared. They take to the jungle to find her and meet a friendly dinosaur named Yoshi who informs them that his friends have also kidnapped by Bowser. Assuming that Bowser has also kidnapped the princess (again), the duo team up with Yoshi and set off to save the other yoshi’s and the damsel in distress (again).
It might be a step up in hardware but the game does not step things up in terms of plot. Though the setting is a little different this time, it’s still the same basic story as the previous games with Mario and Luigi setting out to save Princess Peach from Bowser. I’m honestly getting a little tired of having to sum up that plot but that’s just sort of the nature of the series. The game does try to add some story elements to the game but they do very little to make the plot more interesting.
The only noteworthy thing that comes to mind in regards to this game is that it was the first appearance of Yoshi, who has become one of the most beloved video game sidekicks ever. Apart from that though, there is very little for me to talk about. I’ve read somewhere that Miyamoto intended for there to be a deeper story here but due to a rushed development, it had to be scrapped. I honestly don’t buy that story since Miyamoto has always valued gameplay above all else and even if it was true, it wouldn’t help anything.
It’s just another basic story so let’s move on.
5/10
Graphics & Sound
The graphics have seen significant improvement from Super Mario Bros. 3. The character sprites and animations are more detailed, there is a lot of variety in the levels and the amount of stuff going on on screen is pretty impressive. It’s a good demonstration of what the SNES could but I honestly find it a little bland in terms of aesthetics. There’s nothing in the game that I found to be particularly ugly but I can’t really think of anything I found to be visually spectacular. This has sort of been a problem I’ve had with the series since the first one and here I think it’s a greater problem because varied levels where one of the stronger aspects of Sonic the Hedgehog, which this game is often compared to. So yeah, while Super Mario World might run on better hardware, I personally think that Sonic looks better.
The sound design is also a little basic. The music is decent, very iconic and recognizable though again not as iconic as the original game. I’m honestly a little surprised that would be awhile before we started hearing that theme song again. The sound effects are fine but don’t do a whole lot for the experience. It’s just kind of middle of the road.
It’s a well made game but it just feels a little bland.
7/10
Gameplay
There also isn’t a whole lot to talk about in regards to gameplay. It’s your standard get from point A to point B platformer and it still works. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There a few interesting tweaks to the structure though. For one, the levels have a lot more nooks and crannies for you to get into and many of them will lead you to alternate levels. Now that’s a pretty cool feature. The game also features a new type of level in form of the ghost houses, which are sort of puzzles that need to be figured out before you can progress forward.
In terms of control, it also feels really good. The play control is smooth, Mario is responsive to button inputs and there are lots of little tricks that you can do if you know how. Mario also has some new moves this time, such as the spin jump. This allows to break bricks below you, kill enemies without bouncing or safely hop across certain hazards. It’s a nice addition and again can be exploited to do a lot of neat tricks. The control isn’t perfect though. I don’t know what it is about this game but I just have a nasty habit of losing control of Mario here though to be fair, I’m probably a little rusty.
I’ve heard some people complain that the game has taken some steps backwards in terms of powerups and in their defense, that is sort of true. A lot of the powerups we saw in SMB3 are gone but the ones we have left are still really good. You have the fire flower, which is always useful but then have the new Cape Feather. This is basically the same as the racoon tail from Mario 3 and as in that game, it will likely be your most useful powerup. You can use it to take out enemies, you can use it to glide and if you know how, you can use it fly. It can be a little game breaking though so try not to abuse it too much if you want a challenge. Then there is everyone’s favorite dinosaur, Yoshi. Yoshi allows Mario to move a little faster, jump a little higher and take out enemies that Mario otherwise would not. There are also a lot of neat tricks you can perform with Yoshi such as using him to give Mario a boost (I do not condone using him to get over a bottomless pit though). Yoshi will also gain special abilities based on what he has in his mouth. For example, swallowing a red shell will let you shoot a fire spread while a purple shell will cause Yoshi to sprout wings and fly. So yeah, while there aren’t as many power ups as before, there is so much you can do with what is here that it really doesn’t matter.
Super Mario World is just a lot of fun to play. The levels offer some fun challenges, the control is smooth and with all the neat tricks you can do, there is plenty of depth as well.
10/10
Difficulty
I do have some annoyances with difficulty though. Once again, there are a lot of instances of poor enemy placement, many of which seem to be placed in a manner to unfairly hinder you as you platform through the levels. Some might say “Well that’s how you make a platformer harder” and….yeah that is one way of doing it…..or you could make the platforming itself more challenging. This is another reason why I prefer Sonic. Though there were occasions where the enemies got in the way, most of the of the time the challenge came from the platforming. Here, I feel like I contending with the enemies more than I am with the platforming. There are also a lot of things that I’m starting to get tired of like the pointless timer and limited amount of lives. At least this game has a save feature which is more than I can say for Mario 3.
6/10
Content
Super Mario World is only a 3 to 4 hour game but there is a lot of replay value. Going back and trying to learn all the little tricks to get through the levels faster, exploring to find all the entrances to alternate levels, there is plenty to do in this game. Especially if you want to 100% it.
10/10
Verdict
People often regard Super Mario World as one of the best games in the series, if not THE best game in the series……so is it okay for me to say that I think it’s kind of overrated? I mean I don’t think the game is bad but I just think it’s far from the best game in the series. Not only do I think that the previous game is better but I feel that later games are as well. I also don’t find it all that spectacular compared other games, namely Sonic the Hedgehog. Some might say I shouldn’t compare the two but if I don’t compare it to Sonic, I’m going to compare it to Mario 3 and I simply think that Mario 3 is better. Again, do not take that to mean it’s bad. It’s still a very good game just not as good as a lot of people would have you think. I give Super Mario World a 7.8 out of 10.
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