gaston
1 review liked by gaston
Super Mario World
1990
I used to own this on my GBA when I was 6-7. I don't think I ever got further than world 2. Now replaying this as an adult, I must say I'm shocked.
This is truly the most ambitious and groundbreaking game of its time. If there is any videogame which comes close in terms of impressive feats released before 1990-91, please tell me about it.
I've been puzzled for days: How is it possible this is 33 years old? I was already impressed when I played Super Mario Bros 3, but this is such a gigantical leap that it feels like if both games were released a decade apart. And this goes much, much further than slightly tighter and accurate controls or a bit better/more creative phase design.
At first, Super Mario World doesn't seem like much. There's the new, beautiful colors and sound design which immediately catch both your eye and ears if you come straight from 3. However, the first few levels, if anything, are deceiving. You play through them in a breeze and they look quite formulaic SM levels. But as you delve deeper into the game and see all the new content, you realise you were absolutely misguided by the apparent simplicity of the initial stages.
The ghost houses, besides its difference in tone with the rest of the levels, provide a new "puzzle-like" structure in which the correct path isn't simply going forward (this existed on previous Mario games, but it was usually much more restricted to very specific phases).
The difficulty is completely dynamic. The colored palaces let the player choose if they want an easier time. Checkpoints and save points (after castles, ghost houses or switch palaces) allow for a more flexible and player-friendly experience if desired. You can backtrack to farm lives or powerups if you wish, but you can also play the game in one sitting a la SMB3.
World 5 is a premier example of Super Mario World's forward-thinking design. The normal exits (as stated by the game itself) serve no purpose other than keeping the player on an infinite loop. The concept of a classic Super Mario level has changed: it's not about getting to the exit and collecting every coin if you are able to, it's about exploring the level as deeply as you can in order to be able to advance in the game.
Super Mario World expands the series boundaries. From a challenging but straight-forward gameplay, we now have a non-linear puzzle with different routes, secrets and even two alternate worlds which provide the most extreme levels in the game.
During development, they changed their idea of reproducing SMB3's world map and went ahead with one of the biggest feats in Super Mario's history. Now the world map is no longer an abstraction, but a tangible reality. Not a mere aesthetic layout but a location in which our actions are taking place. Not only that: The world map in SMW is an entity which reacts to the players' progress, changing its appereance, providing clues, interacting with gameplay.
These are, to me, some of the biggest key aspects from Super Mario World. We take this kind of design for granted nowadays, but it is MILES ahead of anything released prior to 1990.
As a closing remark, I have never been a big Super Mario fan, and I also haven't played many platformers. But this has opened my eyes, or made something click inside of me after many years of knowing this game existed. I can't even start imagining what it felt like to play this for the first time in its release. I would've probably stayed at home for months trying to get everything from this game figured out.
This is truly the most ambitious and groundbreaking game of its time. If there is any videogame which comes close in terms of impressive feats released before 1990-91, please tell me about it.
I've been puzzled for days: How is it possible this is 33 years old? I was already impressed when I played Super Mario Bros 3, but this is such a gigantical leap that it feels like if both games were released a decade apart. And this goes much, much further than slightly tighter and accurate controls or a bit better/more creative phase design.
At first, Super Mario World doesn't seem like much. There's the new, beautiful colors and sound design which immediately catch both your eye and ears if you come straight from 3. However, the first few levels, if anything, are deceiving. You play through them in a breeze and they look quite formulaic SM levels. But as you delve deeper into the game and see all the new content, you realise you were absolutely misguided by the apparent simplicity of the initial stages.
The ghost houses, besides its difference in tone with the rest of the levels, provide a new "puzzle-like" structure in which the correct path isn't simply going forward (this existed on previous Mario games, but it was usually much more restricted to very specific phases).
The difficulty is completely dynamic. The colored palaces let the player choose if they want an easier time. Checkpoints and save points (after castles, ghost houses or switch palaces) allow for a more flexible and player-friendly experience if desired. You can backtrack to farm lives or powerups if you wish, but you can also play the game in one sitting a la SMB3.
World 5 is a premier example of Super Mario World's forward-thinking design. The normal exits (as stated by the game itself) serve no purpose other than keeping the player on an infinite loop. The concept of a classic Super Mario level has changed: it's not about getting to the exit and collecting every coin if you are able to, it's about exploring the level as deeply as you can in order to be able to advance in the game.
Super Mario World expands the series boundaries. From a challenging but straight-forward gameplay, we now have a non-linear puzzle with different routes, secrets and even two alternate worlds which provide the most extreme levels in the game.
During development, they changed their idea of reproducing SMB3's world map and went ahead with one of the biggest feats in Super Mario's history. Now the world map is no longer an abstraction, but a tangible reality. Not a mere aesthetic layout but a location in which our actions are taking place. Not only that: The world map in SMW is an entity which reacts to the players' progress, changing its appereance, providing clues, interacting with gameplay.
These are, to me, some of the biggest key aspects from Super Mario World. We take this kind of design for granted nowadays, but it is MILES ahead of anything released prior to 1990.
As a closing remark, I have never been a big Super Mario fan, and I also haven't played many platformers. But this has opened my eyes, or made something click inside of me after many years of knowing this game existed. I can't even start imagining what it felt like to play this for the first time in its release. I would've probably stayed at home for months trying to get everything from this game figured out.