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| Outta this world. |
One of Nintendo's most revered games, Super Mario World shook things up in the platformer genre back in 1990 when it debuted for the Super Nintendo. Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser and it's up Mario save the day once again. Over the years it's been regarded as one of the bets in the series thanks to its fun level designs and unique power-ups, eventually making its way to the Virtual Console service on the 3DS, Wii, Wii U, and recently the Nintendo Switch. While I've been reading about Super Mario World's praises for years, it was only recently when I got the chance to finally play it. So does the game mange to be a fun time while also living up to its reputation?
Super Mario World is a 2D platformer where you control Mario as he navigates through levels in different worlds to reach Bowser's Castle. The gameplay has you jumping on enemies, finding secrets in levels that increase your score, and using power-ups. Said power-ups include the classic Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Super Star while new ones are the Cape Feather, which allows Mario to briefly fly and glide, skipping large sections of a level.
Most notably is Yoshi the green dinosaur who can swallow up enemies and shoot them as projectiles. Mario can ride Yoshi around in levels, letting him jump slightly higher and just devouring anything in sight. The P-Balloon is another power up that lets Mario float around by inflating his head, which I found to be useless given that's its scarcely placed in levels. You can also store a power-up in your reserve though I wished that you can manually select it since it automatically drop whenever you get it.
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| The controls were solid but felt slippery when jumping. |
The game isn't short on enemy variety as you'll meet lots of enemies ranging from Koopas and Boos to the Bullet Bills, Hammer Bros, and Koopalings. Though the most annoying ones had to be Lakitu, the Boos, and Chargin' Chuck. Stages are filled with secrets like secret exits that unlock extra levels, branching paths, and Gold Coins that increase your overall score. That said, levels require careful memorization of enemy patterns and timing since they can be brutally hard.
Levels like the Castle and Boo Houses tend to throw everything at you like traps and enemies that can instantly kill you. Thankfully, the Virtual Console releases have a Save State feature that lets you save anywhere if you're having troubles. A neat extra of the game is that you can play as Luigi by selecting the 2-Player option on the menu screen. Luigi doesn't have his special moves like in recent games so he's just a Mario re-skin, but still is a nice little addition.
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| The levels were packed with variety, challenge, and surprises. |
Super Mario World is among the Super Nintendo's best-looking games as it holds up well 30 years later. The visuals are charming as ever with the colorful palette, detailed sprites, and neat designs giving creating the game's distinctive look. The sound design is also great with lots of iconic sounds of power-ups, jumps, and tubes making things fun. The soundtrack composed by Koji Kondo was some of the best on the system and packed many memorable tracks. The super catchy Title theme, Yoshi's Island, Overworld theme, Underground theme, Koopa Castle, Bowser's theme, and many more easily gave the game its memorable reputation.
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| After all these years, Super Mario World still looks fantastic. |
Super Mario World was a great time and remains fun to pick up and play 30 years later. The engaging gameplay, diverse worlds, and amazing presentation are the game's highlights. Despite having fewer power-ups than Super Mario Bros. 3, Yoshi was a fun addition as he made the levels feel much more exciting. The high replay-value of the game will also have you coming back for more as the game's filled with secrets. Needless to say, it manages to live up to its reputation. Fans of Mario and Nintendo's catalogue of games should definitely consider playing Super Mario World if they haven't already.
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