Skip to main content

Super Mario World Review

By


Super Mario World, released for the SNES in 1990 as a launch title and developed by Nintendo, is my second favorite game of all time. A follow up to the last main line Mario game Super Mario Bros. 3., Super Mario World (SMW) builds upon the game play of the previous titles by using familiar gimmicks such splitting the levels into separate worlds in which the player can choose which levels they play in which order, using many familiar power ups in the Mushroom and Fire Flower, and ending each world with a fight with one of Bowser's children.


However, new additions allow the game provide a fresh experience for players of the previous games in the series. The biggest addition is the Mario game debut of Mario's dinosaur companion, Yoshi. Hatching a Yoshi egg allows Mario to ride the dinosaur and command Yoshi to eat enemies, fruit and gain new abilities when they eat the shells of the Koopa Troopas. The shells correspond to the powers of the colored Yoshi's: blue grows wings and allows for flight, red spits three fireballs, and yellow creates stops that takes out areas around the player.

The main new power up, an upgrade to the Super Leaf, the Cape Feather allows Mario to fly over stages and frees Mario to take new heights. This new ability allows the game to experiment with new secret exits that provide alternate paths through the level to promote re-playability. These alternate paths allow for more difficult levels to be gated behind the player proving their skill in finding the secret exits and challenges them to new Fortresses and a Special World that has the hardest challenges in the game (Special consideration to the Speical World level Tubular as being particularly difficult).

Compared to the other games, SMW is overall a simpler and shorter game. SMW has only 72 levels compared to the 90 of Super Mario Bros. 3 and the 120 stars in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, notwithstanding the open world Super Mario Odyssey. It also has less overall mechanics in that it doesn't have the 3d aspect of the next game and loses some of the unique power ups from Super Mario Bros. 3 (Frog Suit, Tanooki Suit, the Hammer Bros. Suit, Magic Flute, etc). While this doesn't diminish the overall fun, it does indicate that the 16 bit entry played it safe as an introduction to the new at the time system.

In conclusion, Super Mario World is a great game that is a staple for the Super Nintendo. The game introduces new mechanics and characters that allow the player to fully exercise their platforming muscles while never being too difficult to finish. While never reaching the highs of other entries of the Mario series (i.e. Super Mario Bros. 3, Galaxy and Odyssey), it still provides a satisfactory experience in which all ages will be able to fully grasp.

Playthrough Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLImYV31lp8SmW8PmnrRLHyIFOLM5MsP1L

Score:

4/5


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Super Mario World - Part 3

By
After finishing the Chocolate Island and unearthing the path to Bowser, our hero ventures into the Valley of Bower to finish the journey to save Princess Peach. We also conclude this part with a quick stop in the Star World. Next time we will finish the Special World and enter Bower's castle. Edit: This post was super frustrating because I lost all of my footage the first time I went through this due to the stream unexpectedly dropping frames. I had to quickly rerecord each of the levels I cleared and it seemed like I did better the second time I played. Notable Levels include Valley Ghost House - This has the hardest secret level to get to. You've got to Lead a coin snake and hit a P switch so that you can climb up and duck thorough a one block opening . Valley Fortress - I would call this the hardest Fortress with the amount of instant kill spike poles Valley of Bowser 4 - Secret requires Yoshi to get the key Star World 2 - Only level to get a Blue Yoshi (not co
1 comment
Read more

Kirby's Dream Land Review

By
Kirby's Dream Land is a Nintendo Game Boy action-platformer developed by HAL Laboratories and published by Nintendo. Masahiro Sakurai designed this game to be an introduction to the genre that allows beginning players to ease into learning the basic mechanics while not stressing out over staying alive. In this game, the self proclaimed King Dedede has gone out and stole all of the foot in Dream Land. Kirby has to travel through four levels to get to King Dedede's palace and defeat him to return the food to the good citizens of Dream Land. In each level, the player must travel through several different scenes to reach an end boss that they must defeat before moving on to the next level. To combat the enemies that try to impede Kirby, Kirby can inhale and draw the enemy or other obstacle into his mouth. Then the player can decide to either swallow it or spit it out to damage other enemies or destroy blocks in the way. To help the player jump up to high platforms or recover
Post a Comment
Read more

Super Mario World - Part 4

By
Closing in on the final battle, we travel through the tricky Special World and take on Bowser. We also achieve 100% of the game with finishing the 96th goal. This took a while to beat because I keep dying on some of the Special World Levels (particularly Tubular, Mondo and Outrageous) Notable Levels: Tubular - Uses the worst power up in the game: the P-Balloon to traverse across a large bottomless pit with a bunch of hard to avoid projectiles Way Cool - Easiest Special world that gives you both a Yoshi and Yoshi's Wings Mondo - Has a water rising and falling mechanic that turn the fish from harmless enemies that you can walk into to defeat to annoying obstacles. Also includes a bunch of Hammer Brothers Outrageous - Fun level that contains jumping fire, wigglers and Bullet Bill's that make a particular jump hard to do Update:  Review Levels in this Part: Special Zone: Gnarly Tubular Way Cool Awesome Groovy Mondo Outrageous Funky Also we beat
Post a Comment
Read more