As you may be aware, I recently got my SNES modded. Recapped, retrobrited and regionless. This thing I bought out of a plastic tray, packed with VHS tapes at the Orkney Auction Mart and kept in my mate's garage for months, is now a superSNES. This thing that had been forced to run games slightly slower, and in weird, squashed formats, is now compatible with the full range of Super Famicom games. The pain of being shackled to Europe's voltage regulation standards finally pays off with how good RGB SCART looks on NTSC/J games. Running PAL games in 60Hz mode is a bit of a crapshoot though, with some games running too fast or producing graphical errors, depending on how thoroughly the code was altered for their European releases. It became a pressing issue that I didn't own a Super Famicom copy of Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World. I'm relieved to say, this problem has now been resolved.
I'm not strictly an original hardware guy. I've been through the wringer. I've completed games via substandard ports and smartphone emulators, and enjoyed it. I really want to undercut any sense of elitism, when it comes to how you opt to play games. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the premium options, though. The classic core Mario games have been explored so thoroughly by so many people, they've become kind of shapeless. I think that's the appeal of the original Japanese releases of Japanese games for me. They're the genuine article. Everything else is some kind of adaptation. If you play a SNES cart, that's a version that's been altered for a western audience. I want to remove as many artificial barriers between Takashi Tezuka and myself as possible.
The big thing about Super Mario World for me is how confidently it introduces concepts and how delightfully it plays around with them, with invention and good humour. No ability seems gimmicky or out of step with the surrounding design, but an entirely natural extension of Mario's moveset. Climbing on fences, kicking held items vertically above you, flying with the cape, and of course, riding Yoshi all feel like logical extensions of the Mario 3 gameplay. I still think it's the best Mario has ever felt. Like Resi 4 and Tony Hawk's 2, it's one of those key games that are so mechanically rich and satisfying that you've got to come back to them again and again. The abstract ways it allows you to express your intentions. You need to come back and speak this language again.
There's so much fun in the character designs and concepts. How level designers wanted to present challenges and opportunities, and how the artists presented that idea through a really big mole in sunglasses or fire-breathing triceratops on a ferris wheel. It's so fucking good, man. No tropes or clichés. Just a team of brilliant, delightful people making something brilliant. Mario World doesn't attempt to explore a familiar theme or fantasy. Its theme is "fun game", and every design consideration has been made with the intention of delivering that. It plays more into this dynamic than ever before. The very first level, where the game is establishing the world for the first time, getting players comfortable with the kinds of things they can expect to see, ends with a fucking American football guy charging at you. Coherence is out the window. We're here for fun. Players don't aspire to be a funny wee man running around with a moustache, but regardless, they love being that guy. That's pure videogames. I love Mario.
Each level serves multiple purposes, and the incentives to replay them help justify the "World" branding. Stuffed with secrets and multiple exits that lead to completely different routes through the world map. There's a newfound depth to these levels, and your interactions with them are instantly more interesting than anything in the previous games, as you question if there's some wild new secret hiding behind each point of suspicion. The Forest of Illusion is quite a divisive aspect of the game. The most obvious level exits are often the wrong ones, and you'll have to dig a little harder if you want to make your way to Chocolate Island. It's insisting the player approach the levels a little differently. You'll need to replay these levels and try different things to progress, but quietly, the whole game has been playing with these hidden routes and secret items. Your eyes are open to the possibilities now. It's prodding you to go back and discover Star Road and the Switch Palaces. You might not have to do the Forest of Illusion at all, if you find the right secrets.
That playfulness is in the soundtrack too. The eerie arrangement of the main theme for the Ghost Houses, or the soundchannel reserved for a bongo line if you ever find a Yoshi during a level. Music written with real appreciation for how Mario runs and jumps around the TV screen. As with the great film composers, Kondo fully understands the vibe of the material and expresses it in a way that fully communicates that to the audience. Nintendo's composers are every bit as consequential as their designers, programmers and artists.
Super Mario World is so accomplished, it's bulletproof. In Mario 3, or 64, or Galaxy, you can see the oversights and compromises. The ideas that looked great earlier in development, but didn't really fit when implemented into the game. The little issues that cropped up because of technical limitations or time constraints or whatever. They're just not here. When other SNES teams were attempting to showcase a new technology, they put that front and centre in the design. F-Zero, Star Fox, Pilotwings. They're almost a little utilitarian in how explicit their tech demo appeal is. Super Mario World wasn't made with that intention, which had many comparing it unfavourably to Sonic the Hedgehog's more flashy presentation, at the time. It just wanted to use the technology tastefully, to make the best Mario game they could, and it's become timeless as a result. The game will never become redundant due to some new technological achievement. It doesn't play from that rulebook. It's just a funny wee game with a funny wee man. There will never be a better version of this.
There's a degree of subjectivity to all this, though. You know with comedy and music and stuff, that some stuff completely works for you, and you know there's people you can show it to and feel confident that they'll get it just as much as you do. Sometimes you're wrong, and they'll be numb to it. That's not a mark against their intelligence or morality or cultural depth. It's disappointing, but you can't hold it against them. Super Mario World totally 'gets' why I love games this much. It is the game. I know not everybody feels so passionately about it as I do. I insist to myself that they're not wrong for being like that, and they don't have to. I do want them to know every reason I love it so much, though. To be aware of the things they're denying themselves. I'm just going to leave this Big Boo on the table. It's up to you whether you get a tattoo of it or not.
I'm not strictly an original hardware guy. I've been through the wringer. I've completed games via substandard ports and smartphone emulators, and enjoyed it. I really want to undercut any sense of elitism, when it comes to how you opt to play games. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the premium options, though. The classic core Mario games have been explored so thoroughly by so many people, they've become kind of shapeless. I think that's the appeal of the original Japanese releases of Japanese games for me. They're the genuine article. Everything else is some kind of adaptation. If you play a SNES cart, that's a version that's been altered for a western audience. I want to remove as many artificial barriers between Takashi Tezuka and myself as possible.
The big thing about Super Mario World for me is how confidently it introduces concepts and how delightfully it plays around with them, with invention and good humour. No ability seems gimmicky or out of step with the surrounding design, but an entirely natural extension of Mario's moveset. Climbing on fences, kicking held items vertically above you, flying with the cape, and of course, riding Yoshi all feel like logical extensions of the Mario 3 gameplay. I still think it's the best Mario has ever felt. Like Resi 4 and Tony Hawk's 2, it's one of those key games that are so mechanically rich and satisfying that you've got to come back to them again and again. The abstract ways it allows you to express your intentions. You need to come back and speak this language again.
There's so much fun in the character designs and concepts. How level designers wanted to present challenges and opportunities, and how the artists presented that idea through a really big mole in sunglasses or fire-breathing triceratops on a ferris wheel. It's so fucking good, man. No tropes or clichés. Just a team of brilliant, delightful people making something brilliant. Mario World doesn't attempt to explore a familiar theme or fantasy. Its theme is "fun game", and every design consideration has been made with the intention of delivering that. It plays more into this dynamic than ever before. The very first level, where the game is establishing the world for the first time, getting players comfortable with the kinds of things they can expect to see, ends with a fucking American football guy charging at you. Coherence is out the window. We're here for fun. Players don't aspire to be a funny wee man running around with a moustache, but regardless, they love being that guy. That's pure videogames. I love Mario.
Each level serves multiple purposes, and the incentives to replay them help justify the "World" branding. Stuffed with secrets and multiple exits that lead to completely different routes through the world map. There's a newfound depth to these levels, and your interactions with them are instantly more interesting than anything in the previous games, as you question if there's some wild new secret hiding behind each point of suspicion. The Forest of Illusion is quite a divisive aspect of the game. The most obvious level exits are often the wrong ones, and you'll have to dig a little harder if you want to make your way to Chocolate Island. It's insisting the player approach the levels a little differently. You'll need to replay these levels and try different things to progress, but quietly, the whole game has been playing with these hidden routes and secret items. Your eyes are open to the possibilities now. It's prodding you to go back and discover Star Road and the Switch Palaces. You might not have to do the Forest of Illusion at all, if you find the right secrets.
That playfulness is in the soundtrack too. The eerie arrangement of the main theme for the Ghost Houses, or the soundchannel reserved for a bongo line if you ever find a Yoshi during a level. Music written with real appreciation for how Mario runs and jumps around the TV screen. As with the great film composers, Kondo fully understands the vibe of the material and expresses it in a way that fully communicates that to the audience. Nintendo's composers are every bit as consequential as their designers, programmers and artists.
Super Mario World is so accomplished, it's bulletproof. In Mario 3, or 64, or Galaxy, you can see the oversights and compromises. The ideas that looked great earlier in development, but didn't really fit when implemented into the game. The little issues that cropped up because of technical limitations or time constraints or whatever. They're just not here. When other SNES teams were attempting to showcase a new technology, they put that front and centre in the design. F-Zero, Star Fox, Pilotwings. They're almost a little utilitarian in how explicit their tech demo appeal is. Super Mario World wasn't made with that intention, which had many comparing it unfavourably to Sonic the Hedgehog's more flashy presentation, at the time. It just wanted to use the technology tastefully, to make the best Mario game they could, and it's become timeless as a result. The game will never become redundant due to some new technological achievement. It doesn't play from that rulebook. It's just a funny wee game with a funny wee man. There will never be a better version of this.
There's a degree of subjectivity to all this, though. You know with comedy and music and stuff, that some stuff completely works for you, and you know there's people you can show it to and feel confident that they'll get it just as much as you do. Sometimes you're wrong, and they'll be numb to it. That's not a mark against their intelligence or morality or cultural depth. It's disappointing, but you can't hold it against them. Super Mario World totally 'gets' why I love games this much. It is the game. I know not everybody feels so passionately about it as I do. I insist to myself that they're not wrong for being like that, and they don't have to. I do want them to know every reason I love it so much, though. To be aware of the things they're denying themselves. I'm just going to leave this Big Boo on the table. It's up to you whether you get a tattoo of it or not.