Writing a semi-negative review of Super Mario World is something I feel a little bad about. This is Super MARIO World. Anyone even vaguely interested in videogames has been told time and time again that this is not only one of Mario's best outings, but one of the best 2D platformers ever made. While the blind loyalty for 8-bit games has mostly gone away this past decade, the classics of the 16-bit generation are still largely untouchable. I guess I'm part of that problem. You'll never see me miss an opportunity to talk about how much I adore games like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Ristar, Kirby Super Star, and Donkey Kong Country 2.
Super Mario World, though? It's okay, I guess.
My biggest criticism lies with the level design. Nowadays, Nintendo's platformers are well known for following a pretty predictable philosophy:
1. Introduce a unique mechanic/obstacle for the level
2. Reiterate on introduced mechanic/obstacle
3. Put a "surprising" twist on the mechanic/obstacle
4. Make one final gauntlet to test the player on what they've learned
This format is repeated throughout most stages in modern Nintendo titles and while it can lead to levels being a bit too similar and "design by committee", it became a staple of their games for a reason. It's a really effective way of teaching new elements to players while giving the designers a chance to fully flesh out a mechanic and tell a mini story of sorts within a single level.
Super Mario World does not follow this template. If anything, it does the exact opposite. It genuinely feels like many elements were added to levels at random. So many levels lack any strong identity and are a seemingly aimless mess of enemies and obstacles. Ideas can be introduced early in a level and then go completely unused for the rest of it. Some obstacles only appear once in the entire game despite being prime material to expand upon. This might be something longtime fans have become desensitized to but as someone that has only played through World a handful of times, it's never stopped weirding me out. Rarely do I feel any sort of flow within these stages and the less said about the amount of auto scrollers and slow swimming levels, the better.
Another issue with the level design is how the game is structured in a way that defeats its own rewards system. You are constantly showered with 1-ups, making them feel worthless only a couple worlds in. Even if they came in lesser numbers, they'd still be rather pointless due to the generous save system. Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset that SMW allows me to save my game, but it and the 1-up system don't mix well, though this is hardly a problem unique to World. A problem that's persisted with nearly every 2D Mario game is how power-ups aren't a good reward for exploration either. SMW doesn't punish you for revisiting levels to reacquire power-ups and there's even a "super secret" level early on in the game that is literally one screen long and gives you a Yoshi, a Fire Flower, and a Cape, and YOU CAN REVISIT THIS LEVEL AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT! It's such a self-defeating secret because it invalidates the need to look for items elsewhere. It's not like most of World's levels have much in the way of alternate paths or hidden sections anyways. Compared to something like Sonic 2, World does a terrible job at encouraging you to look around its frequently vacant-feeling levels.
Maybe the less coherent level design wouldn't be such an issue for me if the game made up for it in other areas. For example, Sonic CD has messy level design with no sense of flow to it but the game is at least backed by stellar controls and superb aesthetics. Sadly, the controls don't do much for me. Outside of the cape, which is an excellent Mario power-up that's fun to master, Mario's basic moves are pretty one note and I've never been a fan of his insane level of inertia in World. In most platformers I can either slowly let go of the d-pad to stop my character's momentum or hold the opposite direction for a similar result. With World, Mario keeps his inertia in the air even if you let go of the d-pad. To make matters worse, he'll retain most of his inertia if you hold the d-pad in the opposite direction. Actually getting Mario to land on small blocks is far more stressful here than in SMB1 or the New Super Mario Bros games. I never feel confident in my landing skills when playing World, which is a pretty big issue for a platformer. That said, since so many people don't seem to have this problem I can only assume this is mostly a problem specific to me and a very small percent of other players.
One last area I think World fumbles is with its art direction. For being an SNES launch game, I would never expect World to have the technical prowess later games on the system exuded, but the big issue is that SMW feels painfully sterile. I'm sure if you have a deep nostalgic attachment to this game you might find many of its environments to be iconic but as someone whos first Mario was Super Mario 64 (and first 2D Mario game was Super Mario Land 2), I don't feel anything upon seeing these levels. The muted color palette (especially compared to the previously released SMB3) and lack of detail does little to sell me on Dinosaur Island as anything more than a wahoo-scrimblo-bimblo level. The soundtrack fares a lot better but there aren't many tracks in total so the main theme of the game gets a bit tiresome towards the end.
Honestly, I'm not sure how to even end this review besides being a pretentious ass and saying SMW reminds me of many Disney movies during their renaissance era. It's a game that's perfectly competent on the whole but is elevated to unreachable heights due to the prestige behind the Nintendo brand at the time. I'm not saying anyone is wrong for loving Mario World, but I'm curious as to what their other favorite games from that generation are.
Super Mario World, though? It's okay, I guess.
My biggest criticism lies with the level design. Nowadays, Nintendo's platformers are well known for following a pretty predictable philosophy:
1. Introduce a unique mechanic/obstacle for the level
2. Reiterate on introduced mechanic/obstacle
3. Put a "surprising" twist on the mechanic/obstacle
4. Make one final gauntlet to test the player on what they've learned
This format is repeated throughout most stages in modern Nintendo titles and while it can lead to levels being a bit too similar and "design by committee", it became a staple of their games for a reason. It's a really effective way of teaching new elements to players while giving the designers a chance to fully flesh out a mechanic and tell a mini story of sorts within a single level.
Super Mario World does not follow this template. If anything, it does the exact opposite. It genuinely feels like many elements were added to levels at random. So many levels lack any strong identity and are a seemingly aimless mess of enemies and obstacles. Ideas can be introduced early in a level and then go completely unused for the rest of it. Some obstacles only appear once in the entire game despite being prime material to expand upon. This might be something longtime fans have become desensitized to but as someone that has only played through World a handful of times, it's never stopped weirding me out. Rarely do I feel any sort of flow within these stages and the less said about the amount of auto scrollers and slow swimming levels, the better.
Another issue with the level design is how the game is structured in a way that defeats its own rewards system. You are constantly showered with 1-ups, making them feel worthless only a couple worlds in. Even if they came in lesser numbers, they'd still be rather pointless due to the generous save system. Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset that SMW allows me to save my game, but it and the 1-up system don't mix well, though this is hardly a problem unique to World. A problem that's persisted with nearly every 2D Mario game is how power-ups aren't a good reward for exploration either. SMW doesn't punish you for revisiting levels to reacquire power-ups and there's even a "super secret" level early on in the game that is literally one screen long and gives you a Yoshi, a Fire Flower, and a Cape, and YOU CAN REVISIT THIS LEVEL AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT! It's such a self-defeating secret because it invalidates the need to look for items elsewhere. It's not like most of World's levels have much in the way of alternate paths or hidden sections anyways. Compared to something like Sonic 2, World does a terrible job at encouraging you to look around its frequently vacant-feeling levels.
Maybe the less coherent level design wouldn't be such an issue for me if the game made up for it in other areas. For example, Sonic CD has messy level design with no sense of flow to it but the game is at least backed by stellar controls and superb aesthetics. Sadly, the controls don't do much for me. Outside of the cape, which is an excellent Mario power-up that's fun to master, Mario's basic moves are pretty one note and I've never been a fan of his insane level of inertia in World. In most platformers I can either slowly let go of the d-pad to stop my character's momentum or hold the opposite direction for a similar result. With World, Mario keeps his inertia in the air even if you let go of the d-pad. To make matters worse, he'll retain most of his inertia if you hold the d-pad in the opposite direction. Actually getting Mario to land on small blocks is far more stressful here than in SMB1 or the New Super Mario Bros games. I never feel confident in my landing skills when playing World, which is a pretty big issue for a platformer. That said, since so many people don't seem to have this problem I can only assume this is mostly a problem specific to me and a very small percent of other players.
One last area I think World fumbles is with its art direction. For being an SNES launch game, I would never expect World to have the technical prowess later games on the system exuded, but the big issue is that SMW feels painfully sterile. I'm sure if you have a deep nostalgic attachment to this game you might find many of its environments to be iconic but as someone whos first Mario was Super Mario 64 (and first 2D Mario game was Super Mario Land 2), I don't feel anything upon seeing these levels. The muted color palette (especially compared to the previously released SMB3) and lack of detail does little to sell me on Dinosaur Island as anything more than a wahoo-scrimblo-bimblo level. The soundtrack fares a lot better but there aren't many tracks in total so the main theme of the game gets a bit tiresome towards the end.
Honestly, I'm not sure how to even end this review besides being a pretentious ass and saying SMW reminds me of many Disney movies during their renaissance era. It's a game that's perfectly competent on the whole but is elevated to unreachable heights due to the prestige behind the Nintendo brand at the time. I'm not saying anyone is wrong for loving Mario World, but I'm curious as to what their other favorite games from that generation are.
3 Comments
@wondermagenta SMB3 is certainly the better game to me. I'm still not the biggest fan of Mario's air control in that game, and it's still a little too easy to stockpile power-ups but the levels have much stronger identities. This mostly comes down to most levels being more committed to specific obstacles/enemies and each world itself is far more distinct than the areas in World. Plus, it's got a pretty unique aesthetic that was impressive for the NES. World always felt like a safe follow-up while 3 was the true pioneer.
"Super Mario World does not follow this template. If anything, it does the exact opposite. It genuinely feels like many elements were added to levels at random. So many levels lack any strong identity and are a seemingly aimless mess of enemies and obstacles. Ideas can be introduced early in a level and then go completely unused for the rest of it. Some obstacles only appear once in the entire game despite being prime material to expand upon."
THANK YOU. Finally someone else who thinks this! IMO this is a massive problem with Mario World and honestly no other Mario games. The level design in this game is utterly incoherent, random, and jumbled with zero cohesion (and, by extension, forgettable) and I do not get the praise the game receives on that front whatsoever. Is this really what people look for in a platformer?
THANK YOU. Finally someone else who thinks this! IMO this is a massive problem with Mario World and honestly no other Mario games. The level design in this game is utterly incoherent, random, and jumbled with zero cohesion (and, by extension, forgettable) and I do not get the praise the game receives on that front whatsoever. Is this really what people look for in a platformer?
wondermagenta
1 year ago