Super Mario World is probably the most popular game of all time. This is due to its classic characters, colorful pixel art, and memorable music. But looking past all of its aesthetic charms is it actually a good game? In this review, I’m going to attempt to look back at this lovable title with a set of unbiased eyes and provide you with an honest Super Mario World review. To do this I’m going to break Super Mario World down into five separate parts(Gameplay, Story, Graphics, Sounds, Length) and review them each individually.
Gameplay
The gameplay style of the Mario franchise is considered to be the gold standard of platformer games. Super Mario World perfectly recreates everything seen in past games but also introduces a load of new gameplay mechanics that improve the game even more. One of the newly added gameplay mechanics was the ability to use a mountable creature, Yoshi, to help you along your path. The mount gave players the ability to be hit three times rather than two. Yoshi also gave players the use of special skills depending on the color of the Yoshi you were riding. This added a new level of openness to the game by allowing players to play a level in their own style.
Story
While the basic story of all 2D Mario games were basically the same it really stood out in this game. This is probably because of the cutscenes shown after defeating each of the bosses. Bowser has once again kidnapped the Princess and Mario must fight to get her back. This time around Mario must destroy all of the Koopalings castles before taken on Bower himself. While this isn’t new, the new map style really pulls together the quest feeling intended for the game.
Graphics
Super Mario World was one of the first Mario games to be originally released on the Super Nintendo. Because of the new engine, developers were able to use more colors in the sprites than in past games. This allowed for the world of Super Mario to look better than ever before with brighter overworlds and darker caves. Nintendo was also able to increase the level of detail the background objects were able to have with the increase of colors. For many gamers, Super Mario World is and always will be the game that comes to mind first when asked to think about Super Mario.
Sounds
The Super Mario franchise has some of the most well-known sound effects in video game history. Everything from the classic background music to the sound Mario makes when jumping has been etched into the brains of most gamers. Super Mario World is no different from all of the new characters and enemies having original sounds. All of these new sounds blend perfectly with those carried over from past games. There isn’t a sound in any of the Mario games that will feel out of place.
Length
Super Mario World has 96 levels in total. This is an extremely large amount given the amount of data(128 Mbit) a SNES cartridge was capable of holding. Completing the story will take you several hours and hunting down all the secret levels will take you even longer. Aside from the actual length of the game, Super Mario World is capable of being replayed an endless amount of times without losing any of its fun factor. To be honest, despite having the game since it was released I cannot remember beating it until I was in my late teens. SMW is one of those games that you restart every time you begin playing again after taking a break. This makes it really hard for you to actually finish the game.
