I genuinely wanted to love this game, and I almost did, but i HATE the last two levels to the point where it docks a whole half star off for me. Hammer Bros are such annoying enemies to deal with and have such inconsistent behavior that after having to replay the levels of World 8 probably over 15 or more times, these enemies were the only thing that were killing me consistently anymore. They are so, so frustrating and while to some this may be an iconic aspect of the game, I just cannot stand it at all.
To me it's a real shame, because I think all the way up to the latter half of World 8, barring like... one of the Castle levels that randomly make you do an esoteric maze [which is what the final level decides to do as well for some god forsaken reason], this game is consistently solid, fun, and has fair but mildly challenging course design. Mario's physics are also a point of contention for some, but I personally find it fun how much weight all of Mario's movements have; it channels a similar appeal to Donkey Kong while just being that bit more maneuverable. I'd liken it to controlling a car just because of how much momentum Mario carries with each of his movements, which is especially fun to wrangle with in some of the tougher stages. It's not hard to understand why they changed it in future titles, but it certainly gives this game a unique feel from the rest of the Super Mario side scrollers which I appreciate so much. After all, this game's simple level design simply wouldn't work as well if it weren't for Mario just being that smidge difficult to maneuver through the stages. To me personally, it's a fantastic balance of restriction and control compared to past attempts with stuff like Wrecking Crew and Donkey Kong.
It also shouldn't be understated how revolutionary this game was for the time it came out, but for how many of these levels are bangers with that mindset, it makes the last few stinkers stick out even more in my opinion, and beyond some of the jank you may run into like with Bullet Bills shooting twice randomly, I feel like a lot of my actual 'fuck this game' moments can be traced back to either the Hammer Bros. or the Castle maze segments. Otherwise, once you get used to the physics, I think this still holds up as a classic game and achievement on all fronts.
To me it's a real shame, because I think all the way up to the latter half of World 8, barring like... one of the Castle levels that randomly make you do an esoteric maze [which is what the final level decides to do as well for some god forsaken reason], this game is consistently solid, fun, and has fair but mildly challenging course design. Mario's physics are also a point of contention for some, but I personally find it fun how much weight all of Mario's movements have; it channels a similar appeal to Donkey Kong while just being that bit more maneuverable. I'd liken it to controlling a car just because of how much momentum Mario carries with each of his movements, which is especially fun to wrangle with in some of the tougher stages. It's not hard to understand why they changed it in future titles, but it certainly gives this game a unique feel from the rest of the Super Mario side scrollers which I appreciate so much. After all, this game's simple level design simply wouldn't work as well if it weren't for Mario just being that smidge difficult to maneuver through the stages. To me personally, it's a fantastic balance of restriction and control compared to past attempts with stuff like Wrecking Crew and Donkey Kong.
It also shouldn't be understated how revolutionary this game was for the time it came out, but for how many of these levels are bangers with that mindset, it makes the last few stinkers stick out even more in my opinion, and beyond some of the jank you may run into like with Bullet Bills shooting twice randomly, I feel like a lot of my actual 'fuck this game' moments can be traced back to either the Hammer Bros. or the Castle maze segments. Otherwise, once you get used to the physics, I think this still holds up as a classic game and achievement on all fronts.