Played on Wii Virtual Console

Super Mario World holds some special significance for me because it’s the first video game that I ever played (or, at the very least, the first game that I have a memory of playing). I never owned a SNES as a kid, but I remember playing this game at daycare with my friends, and it really helped cultivate my love of video games over the years. However, since I never actually owned the game, I never winded up beating it. So, I recently decided to return to the game that started it all and finally beat it, all these years later. It was a really fantastic experience, and one that I recommend if you winded up missing out on this classic.

If you’ve ever played a Mario game, the premise here will be very familiar. The evil Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach, and so it’s up to Mario to rescue her. To do so, he must traverse through many worlds, overcoming any obstacles or enemies in his path along the way. This is a series that’s never been too interested in having an in-depth plot, so if for some reason a game without a plot is a dealbreaker to you, then Mario just isn’t for you. There have been exceptions to this, but Super Mario World definitely isn’t one of them. However, if you’re looking for a game with some really excellent gameplay, then look no further.

Breaking it down to its simplest concepts, Super Mario World is a very easy-to-grasp game, in theory. It’s the standard platformer, which is very easy to understand. You’re put onto an overworld map, where you select a level to play. In the level, you start at the far left side of the level, and your job is to travel as far right as necessary in order to reach the goal. However, these games wouldn’t be fun without some sort of challenge, and so each level has a variety of different obstacles in your way. Sometimes it might be tricky platforms that you have to jump to without falling into a pit, sometimes you have to avoid or kill dangerous enemies, and sometimes the level isn’t necessarily a linear path, but rather more of a maze that you have to figure out a way through. Any fans of platformers already know this and are rolling their eyes at how obvious this information is, but Super Mario World really helped lay the groundwork for many of the platformers that we have today. It’s not really a game with many special gimmicks or shake-ups to the formula, but that’s because it was helping to perfect that formula to begin with. Super Mario World is a game that’s a pure platformer without anything else really wild going on.

Fans of the NES Mario games might argue that those were the games that really set the groundwork for platformers, and they’re not wrong. In fact, I’d agree with anyone that would say that Super Mario Bros. 3 innovated far more than Super Mario World, as it was responsible for most of the staples that we’ve come to know and love from 2D sidescrolling Mario games. However, I still enjoy Super Mario World more than Super Mario Bros. 3, and this is primarily because I think that Super Mario World was more concerned with fine-tuning the new elements introduced in Mario 3, and so I find it to be a better overall experience personally.

That’s not to say that Super Mario World added nothing new to the franchise, though. Aside from all of the new level ideas and enemies, it did introduce two big things that stick out to me. One was a new power-up that gave Mario a cape. After a running start, this cape allows Mario to soar off into the air and fly through the stage. This was a great idea, even if it’s one that I haven’t really seen done much since. However, the cape is actually the biggest demonstration of my biggest complaint about the game, which is that it’s a bit hard to control at times. I had some slight issues with the controls at other parts of the game, but the cape is definitely what gave me the biggest trouble. It just didn’t really seem to be as responsive as I wanted it to be, and so it caused me to crash and burn more times than I would have liked. One could argue that this sort of thing is the fault of the player more than the game, but I’ve historically not had many issues with controls in a Mario game, so I’m more inclined to think that the controls just aren’t as great as other Mario games. It’s not game-breaking by any means, and it’s really mainly with the cape that I had issues, but it did make for some frustrating deaths.

The biggest new addition to Super Mario World has to be Yoshi though. Yes, many people out there who recognize Mario are also likely going to recognize Yoshi, and that’s because Yoshi has become a real mainstay to the Mario franchise over the years. This is the first game to feature him, and he makes the game so enjoyable. For those unfamiliar, when you encounter this dinosaur in a level, you get to ride on his back and control him. Yoshi is better at defeating enemies, and he is able to eat them and spit them out. I was always thrilled whenever I got to play as Yoshi, and I’m so thankful that this game introduced him, because he’s always been one of my favorite parts of Mario games.

I think the best compliment I have for Super Mario World is its level design. It’s kind of become a bit of a joke over the years for people to look at Mario levels and recognize a pattern of “grass world, desert world, ice world, etc.,” but with a game like Super Mario World there is a wide variety of levels. You never know what you’re gonna get, and there are always fun little twists in every level. I think Super Mario Bros. 3 might have arguably been on the more creative side with its levels, but I still had more fun with the levels in Super Mario World. My only other complaint here is that some of the later levels can get extremely frustrating. This is the kind of game that, while it might be on the easier end of retro Mario games, is still pretty damn hard at times, even for skilled Mario players. I’m sure it gets easier the more you play it, but considering this was basically my first time playing it since I haven’t really played it in-depth since I was 3, I had a pretty difficult time. Now, I’m not opposed to challenging games by any means. In fact, I think they can be the best kinds of games when you’re in the mood for them. However, there are a few levels in Super Mario World that I don’t think are challenging so much as they are cheap. These levels are very few, but I can typically pick up on how to get through a level pretty well, and for some levels it seemed like no matter what I was doing I would die. This might have partially been because of the aforementioned controls, but either way it was a bit frustrating. Other than those select few levels, all of the other levels in the game are absolutely fantastic.

On a technical level, Super Mario World is perfect. I think the graphics are absolutely phenomenal, and still look gorgeous even today. This was at the point where 2D graphics were really starting to look as good as they were able to, and Super Mario World nails that. Everything is so colorful, and it makes for a really eye-pleasing experience. The game also has no problems running. I don’t usually run into this problem with retro games anyway, but it’s just worth mentioning that it doesn’t freeze or crash or anything. The game also sounds amazing. The sound effects are top-notch, but it’s the music that will really dazzle you. I’d argue that the soundtrack for Super Mario World isn’t quite as good as some of the other Mario games (my favorite forever being Mario 64), but this game definitely has some of the best music that the SNES had to offer.

The final topic that I always like to talk about in game reviews is how much content you’re going to get out of a game. Like I said, this was my first time actually beating Super Mario World, so some players could probably beat it much faster than I did. However, I went for 100% completion in the game, and it took me around 8 or 9 hours to complete. This may not seem like much by today’s standards (since 100 hour games are pretty common now), but I’d argue that this is the perfect length for a 2D Mario game. I’m always of the mindset that a game’s length should depend on what kind of game it is, and so while a 100 hour game might work for an in-depth open-world RPG, for a 2D Mario game I think a shorter, tighter experience is the better way to go. What matters more to is how well a game uses its runtime, and so Super Mario World really feels like a full experience in that regard. It makes the most of those hours, and so I wouldn’t have wanted it to be any longer than it is. If it matters to you, I’ll also mention that the game doesn’t necessarily offer any replay value outside of beating all of the levels. Once you beat it, it’s over, and there isn’t any extra modes or anything like that. This isn’t a mark against the game for me personally, but who knows, maybe it is for you.

It felt really good to me to go back and play through the very first video game I’ve ever played. While Mario 64 is really the game that made me a huge Mario fan (and video game fan in general, for that matter), Super Mario World is definitely partially responsible for my love of gaming, and playing it again now, it’s easy to see why. While I don’t think it’s perfect, the game really helped lay the groundwork for the platformer genre, and it’s one of those games that features some of the most fun levels you’ll play in a platforming game. If you’re a fan of Mario or a fan of platformers in general, you should make an attempt to play this sometime if you haven’t. It’s not my all-time favorite Mario game or anything, but it’s definitely among the best.

4.5/5