Super Mario World

aka: SMW, Super Mario World: Super Mario Bros. 4
Moby ID: 6591
SNES Specs
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Description official descriptions

Mario is having a vacation in Dinosaur Land when he learns that Princess Peach Toadstool has been kidnapped by the evil King Koopa Bowser. When Mario starts searching for her he finds a giant egg with a dinosaur named Yoshi hatching out of it. Yoshi tells Mario that his fellow dinosaurs have been imprisoned in eggs by Bowser's underlings. The intrepid plumber has to travel to their castles, rescue the dinosaurs, and eventually face King Koopa himself, forcing him to release the princess.

Super Mario World is a jump-and-run platformer and a follow-up to Super Mario Bros. 3. The gameplay is similar to previous installments and includes fast-paced platforming in (mostly) side-view stages populated by various enemies and traps, which must be completed within time limits. Mario has access to his traditional power-ups — the Super Mushroom that makes him bigger, the Fire Flower that allows him to throw little fireballs at enemies, and others. A new power-up is the Cape Feather: when wearing the cape, Mario can spin to hurt enemies, and fly as long as the player is able to sustain his balance in the air. Another new feature is the possibility to ride the dinosaur Yoshi, who can eat enemies and gain special attacks from some of them. In order to unlock certain areas, it is sometimes necessary to physically pick up and carry items (e.g. keys) and use them in appropriate places.

The game's world is divided into several large areas, each containing a number of stages. Outdoor scenarios prevail, but there are also many underground and underwater levels. Each large area has at least one ghost house, typically containing more elaborate traps and ghostly non-destructible enemies. In order to venture to the next area, the player usually has to visit a castle (a more difficult stage with harder enemies and dangerous traps) and defeat the boss enemy guarding it.

Many stages have secret exits, which lead to optional areas, such as fortresses with recurrent boss enemies, interconnected stages of the Star World, and Switch Palaces, which allow the player to materialize specifically colored bricks in all the stages, gaining access to power-ups and other secrets. Secret areas may also open access to other dinosaur types, with different abilities such as breathing fire or flying.

Spellings

  • スーパーマリオワールド - Japanese spelling
  • 슈퍼 마리오 월드 - Korean spelling

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Credits (SNES version)

23 People (16 developers, 7 thanks)

Lead Director
Map Director
Area Director
Programming Director
Mario / System Programmer
Object Programmer
Background Programmer
Map Programmer
Area Data Input
Character Graphic Design
Sound Composer
Special Thanks
Producer
Executive Producer

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 93% (based on 41 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 393 ratings with 9 reviews)

One of the best platform games ever.

The Good
Nintendo has always had the skill to produce games that are just so good that you have to keep playing. I have played Super Mario World through 5 times in the last 5 years. OK, nowadays it goes by the memory, but it never lets me down.

Like most Super Mario games, the Super Mario World includes cute graphics and sound effects, a soundtrack that you could listen all the time and a playability that is as close to perfect as it can get. You can control Mario completely with the controller.

With all that good, you could at least have bad level design in the game. But no. SMB has over 90 different levels to play and that's a lot. It takes close to a week to play the game through for the first time. The skill levels are brilliant. It's always challenging enough to keep you from playing the game straight through, but still easy enough so that you won't get frustrated.

Another revolutionary thing is that you can keep playing the game after you have played it through. There might even be new secret levels that you haven't found yet. I happened to find a new route in my last time. I was amazed.

And then there's also the fact that you can play this game no matter how old you are. I've seen a four year old playing this game from start to finish. I've also seen an 80 year old granny playing this game. It doesn't matter. The game doesn't any violence in it, which is a very nice exception in today's world with GTA's and Carmageddons.

The Bad
Well, you could say it's too addictive... But that isn't a bad thing in my scale.

The Bottom Line
OK, the game is old. It's pure luck if you happen to hit a SNES today with the game. I have tried the emulator version of the game, and it's OK, but not as good as the original. You just can't get the feeling with a keyboard or the zillion-button gamepad you have with PC. Nor with the 15-19 inch monitor.

But if you don't mind the old(but it's still very cute and funny, it's really not THAT old) graphics, this is the ultimate run & jump game for everyone around.

GO NINTENDO!!!

SNES · by Zamppa (99) · 2002

The king of platforms is back!

The Good
Lively graphics; Simple platform gameplay made unique; Very good, varied music; Just pure and simple fun!

The Bad
Some may find it too childish.

The Bottom Line
Ahh, good old Mario. He's back with a game that proves yet again that Mario just keeps getting better. It has all the quality gameplay of the first three in the series, plus more. The graphics are really unique and have taken a huge step forward due to the 16-bit power of the SNES. They're lively, humorous and just fit the game perfectly. For those who aren't familiar with the series, the gameplay, like with its predecessors, is the typical platform gameplay, involving koopas, and all kinds of strange creatures who just can't stop hunting you. The gameplay is very very polished and always feels very unique in every way. Let's not forget the music. Ranging from the happy, up-lifting forest tunes, to the dark and chilly haunted house melody, it just never fails to amuse you. Unless you think anything with too bright colors should only played by children, this is one game you'll just love, no matter what your age.

SNES · by BigJKO (64) · 2002

Nice game! But it's overrated.

The Good
Super Mario world for the SNES is a good game, it's fun to play has lots of power-ups, lots of levels but it's overrated. There are some who say it's the best game ever made and the best platformer ever- but trust me it's not THAT good. It's nowhere near as good as people say it is, but it's still fun. Just believe me, this is the honest truth. Anyway, here's what is good about the game:

Loads of level and secrets to find! This gives the game lots of replay value. It's also quite well presented, with nice music and nice sprites. There are loads of enemies to fight, some of which are actually quite funny and the bosses are wonderfully inventive. This is Yoshi's first game, and while his presence does little to enhance the gameplay, it's good to have a new form of power-up. The game also invents various new things for the Mario series (like spin jumps, Yoshi, reserve items and secret worlds) which really helped to make the games after this good. And the gameplay is rather good if you compare it to the previous titles which were occasionally rather unbalanced. All these things mixed in with great level designs, clever puzzles and fun mini games make for a GOOD (not great) platformer. (It's better than Cheetahmen 2, the worst ever platformer ever devised)



The Bad
Most of the reviews of this game say that it's utterly perfect- but that isn't true at all. Yeah it is good and all that but it's far from perfect. Super Mario world is probably the most overrated game of all time to be honest. (The most underrated game ever is Cheetahmen 2, which got horrible reviews that weren't bad enough for it)

For starters, the controls on the SNES joy-pad are terrible. They are so bad they lead to various frustrating deaths and power-up losses. And while the idea of having roughly 100 levels is nice, a little bit more time could have been put in to the secret levels. Some (But not all) are rather badly designed which shows that the design team were running out of ideas. One level has you just smashing an endless array of bricks to reach an low down exit. One is just a single screen, with a floor made of grab blocks and a lakitu in the sky. The exit is actually on screen as soon as you begin the stage. There are also lots of pointless blocks, like jumping blocks (which are pointless because Jumping boards do exactly the same) and bonus blocks (which are just plain useless). There are also message blocks (that give you tips) which are a real waste of time because it tells you all you need to know in the instruction booklet. The ending is also annoying because you've just battled your way through a huge game and all you get is a boring credits screen and screens that tell what the enemies are called. BUT IT'S STILL FUN TO PLAY!!!

The Bottom Line
Overrated! But a very good game. Fun to play, interesting ideas and great power-ups. However, the game falls short when it comes down to secret level designs, poor controls and various pointless ideas. Only recommended to proper Mario fans or people who want a long and challenging SNES game. The remake for GBA is far better.

SNES · by james bright (4) · 2007

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The SNES version of Super Mario World appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

This game took approximately 29,000 hours to program. (Sources: Nintendo, World Features Syndicate)

Sales

Super Mario World sold over 20 million copies and is,a so 2003, the second best-selling Mario game (only behind the original Super Mario Bros., which sold over 40 million), the best selling Super NES game and the best selling 4th generation console game ever. The reason for those huge sales: It was the original "pack-in" game for the Super Nintendo. A copy was included in the package when you bought a new SNES.

Yoshi

Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to have Mario ride an animal since Super Mario Bros. (among other discarded ideas), but couldn't figure out how to make it work within the limits of the Famicom's graphical capabilities. This was finally resurrected in Super Mario World as Yoshi.

Yoshi's arms in the game are orange no matter what color Yoshi you are riding. Art on the box and in the game manual portray only green Yoshi with green arms. The re-release on the Game Boy Advance now has each color Yoshi with arms matching the color of his skin.

Awards

  • EGM
    • 1992 Buyer's Guide - Best SNES Game of the Year
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #11 (Best 100 Games of All Time) (SNES version)
    • February 2006 (Issue 200) – ranked #88 out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time"
  • Game Informer
    • Issue #100 (August 2001) – #46 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/1992 – Best SNES Game in 1991
  • Retro Gamer
    • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #2 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
    • Issue #37 – #1 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll

Information also contributed by Big John WV, Echidna Boy, Marquerite Richardson, MegaMegaMan and PCGamer77

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Wii added by Corn Popper. Arcade, Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. New Nintendo 3DS added by Harmony♡.

Additional contributors: chirinea, Mumm-Ra, Sciere, Joshua J. Slone, Alaka, Luchsen, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, Michael Cassidy, Rik Hideto, FatherJack, A.J. Maciejewski.

Game added June 6, 2002. Last modified March 7, 2024.