When you take into account that 24 of Super Mario World’s 74 levels contain a second, hidden exit which expands the game world even further (usually requiring the act❀ivation of a particular power-up or Switch Palace, and often leꦍading to the latter themselves), it’s easy to see the influence the Legend of Zelda series had on making the game such an expandable, free-form experience.
Where Super Mario Bros. 3 gave us a rather rigid structure of self-contained maps and levels, Super Mario Worldꦚ is p☂layed equally within its levels and the wider world they inhabit. The interplay between the two isn’t far from that between the overworld map and the individual locations of a Final Fantasy game and as such, the sense of exploring and impacting upon an emergent world isn’t far off comparison either.
Above: The echoey, ambient cave music is still splendidly moody and atmospheric
An imperfect world?
Though while the structural presentation of Super Mario World is top-notch, aesthetically it isn’t quite up there. Of course, the cries of the game’s detractors that the graphics could have been done on a NES are nonsense, but given what the SNES was later revealed𓄧 to be capable of, the fact remains that its flagship Mario title isn’t as visually mind-blowing as it could have been (Mode 7 effects aside).
Some wonderfully characterful slapstick animations help though (the sight of a disgruntled, de-shelled Koopa kicking its former home back at Mario always raises a smile), and Koji Kondo’s soundtrack greatly adds to the atmosphere, being a shimmering example of the range, tone and complexity of 🌊music that could be achieved with the SNES’ sound chip.
Other pr🍒oblems? While they’re obviously designed with surreal dream logic in mind, the solutions to some of the game’s Ghost House puzzles are a little too abstract to be satisfying and frustration free. And Mario’s perhaps slightly over-slippy handling can lead to one or two annoying plummet-based deaths, but we’re nit-picking massivelynow. The sheer amount of gameplay and immersion packed into Super Mario World is staggering.
Above: An idea too fun not to use and too good to over-use
The c✨ollective level design is like a playable search engine for fresh new ideas. Even one-off gimmick levels like the dolphin-jumping anarchy of Vanilla Secret3feel less like filler and more like a single, quirky idea used for exactly as long as is fun and not a second more. Mario’s seemingly simple power-ups and abilities belie a stupendously deep and expansive set of options for those willing to experiment with combining them. Even moreso when you factor in the utterly game-changing addition of Yoshi.
Above: The super-powered Yoshi jump. A secret ninja technique passed down throughout the ages
Intelligent, imaginative, inventive and immersive. That’s what Super Mario World is. Simultaneously the pinnacle of pure 2D Mario platforming and a fantastic example of how a genre can evolve༒ through a carefully designed embrace with another, it will impress, stimulate and boggle you with almost as grin-inducing impact today as it did when it was released.
So that's Mario. Does Sonic fare as well? Click over to澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the next pageand find out.
