MARIO REVIEWED: Super Mario World (SNES)

In this series of posts that I'm doing because I literally cannot contain my excitement for Super Mario Galaxy 2, I'll be looking back at the games in the Mario franchise. I'm primarily going to be concentrating on games in the main series, but there might be a couple of detours along the way, too.

18 long, looooooooong years. That's how long it took for Nintendo to craft a true follow-up to this game. Super Mario World, up until last year, stood the test of time as Nintendo's last, defining 2D Mario adventure on a home console. While there were some brief detours in the form of Yoshi's Island (which I'll review tomorrow) and some further 2D adventures on their handheld systems, which I'll be unable to review due to time constraints, Super Mario World was seen as the end of an era. Even though it was a launch title, Super Mario World, in retrospect, seemed to represent Mario at the precipice of a new era. Sure, the Super Nintendo did have some rudimentary 3D capabilities, but PC gamers were really leading the charge with forays into a whole new realm of visual prowess, leaving consoles like the Super Nintendo in the dust visually.

Only with the benefit of hindsight am I able to see what I wasn't then – those early PC games look like fucking garbage, and Super Mario World is still a really, really nice looking game. If this was to be Nintendo's last attempt at a 2D Mario (which it wasn't, obviously), then they were going to go out with a bang. This is both an expansion and a distillation of what makes Mario great. It introduced new powerups and your lovable dinosaur pal, Yoshi, but I think that what Super Mario World demonstrated more clearly than anything to me during this latest playthrough is that Nintendo was perfectly content to refine the template laid down by Super Mario Bros. 3 into an incredibly cohesive and fun game. Its charms are more subtle, but that doesn't make it any less of an accomplishment.

Like in Super Mario Bros. 3, you travel from level to level on a world map, but unlike that game, Super Mario World gives the player the ability to find secret exits in several of the levels, allowing the player to effectively add new content to the game based on their skill level and dedication to finding all of the nooks and crannies. This makes gameplay incredibly rewarding, and also a game to return to many, many times. I never actually owned a Super Nintendo as a kid. I was only ever able to play one when I would go over to the babysitters, but even still, I got a hell of a lot of playtime in for this game. This is the first Mario game that I can actually remember the lead up to – I even remember begging my parents for a Super Nintendo when I saw this awesome advertisement on TV.

Of all of the Mario games I own, I've played through SMW most recently prior to this feature. Yet, that time, I was going for speed. I wanted to see how quickly I could beat a game that I don't have a ton of familiarity with, or at least not as much as the NES games. This time, I found myself sussing out the secrets and hidden pathways much more easily. This is a case of absolutely excellent level design, some of the best that Miyamoto and Co. have ever come up with. The Ghost houses alone are brilliant, and some of the castles rank amongst the best levels designed in any genre – and I usually hate the castles in Mario games.

It's amazing to compare this game to most other launch games, as SMW still looks fantastic and sounds fantastic, too. I'm a firm believer that hardware limitations are a good thing for the industry – it forces developers to become more creative to get their vision across rather than simply relying on the bleeding edge tech to impress the player. SMW is exactly a case of limitations being a good thing, because it looks way better than, say, Final Fantasy IV (II in the States) which was supposedly quite revolutionary at the time.

It's also a matter of really great art direction. Mario is finally starting to look familiar to the modern player. He's pudgy, cute, and FINALLY WEARING BLUE OVERALLS. It's amazing! If you ask any random person what Mario looks like, they would probably describe his attire as being a red shirt, red cap, and blue overalls, but for seven years of his life, and through his most influential phase, Mario never once donned that outfit. Oh well. In any case, here he is in all his glory. Yoshi, the enemies, the Koopa kids; they're all here, and they all look great. The music's not as catchy as in the earlier games in my mind, but I can still hum quite a few of the tunes.

Most of all, Super Mario World finally captures that childlike sense of whimsy and wonder that Mario would come to be known for. Up until this point, his adventures were actually just a little bit dour and austere. Here, they burst into full bloom, and it's wonderful. Make no mistake – this is still a challenging game, but I really think Nintendo knew what they were doing. They made a game that could appeal to almost anyone (even smartly including optional tutorials. Thank the Jesuses they're never forced on you).

Still, all that being said, it's not my favourite 2D Mario game. It's the one that I can look at and think that, objectively, probably is the best Mario game mechanically and artistically speaking (or it would at least share that role with New Super Mario Bros. Wii). But for one reason or another, it's never clicked with me the way the NES Marios did, probably because I've never owned a physical copy of this game in my life. It's still fun as all hell to play, and I enjoy myself immensely while doing so, but I think that maybe it wasn't enough of a jump from SMB3 to make it one of the BEST GAMES OF ALL TIME (TM). There's no denying that it is, in fact, one of the best Super Nintendo games though, and it's one I can't wait to play again after work.