Before we dive into the detailed depths of my main review, I’d like to recognize Super Mario World and Super Mario Advance 2 as two separate games with their release dates over a decade apart. That fact notwithstanding, the subtle differences in both games are hardly numerous enough to warrant a separate Review for each game, especially as I tend to be unreasonably long-winded in my video game analyses. Therefore, for this Super Mario Advance title, and for all subsequent ones I review, I will change the layout of my article. The Gameplay, Graphics, and Sounds sections will pertain to the original SNES debut of Super Mario World. I will devote a separate section afterwards that discusses the changes made after more than ten years and how they improve or disparage the game.
Introduction
Five years had passed since the original release of Super Mario Bros. in 1985, a year that not only seemed historic in terms of video games but that also came about before many of the younger gamers had even been born. Super Mario Bros. 3 had taken the gaming world by storm, revolutionizing the platforming genre for all time, just as its earliest predecessor had done half a decade earlier. Less then a year later, the fizzling fire of the Bros. third romp through the Mushroom Kingdom was rekindled with Mario’s SNES debut, a game so enjoyable that it claimed the disputable title of the best 2D Mario platformer ever created, even against the heavyweight title already acquired by SMB3.
Now, over ten years have come and gone since the game’s celebrated release. Nintendo had neglected creating an original 2D Mario game for seven years, seeming content to stop at the wildly successful Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and pursue the more competitive field of 3D gaming with such technological achievements as Super Mario 64. The release of Super Mario Advance appeared to be the gaming powerhouse’s returning steps to a side of Mario that so many had come to know and love, but alas, they only spat out a ported, slightly refurbished version of the quirky Super Mario Bros. 2.
The release of Super Mario Advance 2 on February 11th, 2002 did not incite the same reaction as that of Super Mario World, and rightly so. After all, the game was just that! But I’m here to tell you that, unlike with Super Mario Advance, Nintendo has made a superb decision in their choice of ported games this time around, bringing what is perhaps the most lovable, memorable Mario game ever to be played in all its former and present glory.
Gameplay
Super Mario World’s weakest component is probably the storyline. Though not as terribly non-existent as its three predecessors, all we get is a black box with white text and some music. Basically, Mario, Luigi, and the princess have traveled far from their busy lives in the Mushroom Kingdom to take a nice, relaxing vacation on the exotic Dinosaur Island. Just as they arrive, though, the Princess Toadstool is kidnapped (!) by King Bowser of the Koopas and taken to his castle far underground. Now, you guessed it, Mario and Luigi must traverse all the many hazards of this new land. What’s more, in the first world, Mario and Luigi meet up with Yoshi, a green dinosaur-like creature that has a seemingly endless tongue, perfect for gobbling up baddies. He, along with all of his friends, had been encapsulated in eggs by Bowser. Now along the way you must also help Yoshi rescue his hatchmates in return for his extremely helpful services. It’s going to be one wild ride, even if the plot is mediocre.
Directly opposed to the dull storyline are the diverse and colorfully vibrant selection of locales you must explore. Although not as different as the eight completely separate biomes used in Super Mario Bros. 3, the lands are still unique enough to engender the same enjoyable gaming experience. From where you start, a village-like Yoshi’s Island that teaches you the necessary skills while introducing you to Yoshi and reintroducing you to the Fire Flower, you will travel through a beautiful, albeit dangerous, plain named after a delicious pastry, an expansive domed cave, two precarious bridges, an enigmatic forest where illusions and false exits abound, a rocky, terraced island named after chocolate, and Bowser’s underground city of traps and deathly dangers. If you’re persistent enough, you’ll also ascend to a starry heaven with more challenging levels, and if you truly are a master gamer, you’ll make it to the alternate dimension, Special World, a featureless, bizarre land where the levels are frustratingly hard and nothing is as it seems. To thoroughly explore this game will require quite of bit of trekking, Mario-style.
Scattered about the nine worlds are ninety-six full levels that all require a few times of play-through. Each one is unique and specific to the world it’s found in, including native enemies and backgrounds. Each level consists of a rising difficulty, based on remarkable, intuitively designed platforming perils that test your reflexes. Oftentimes, I found myself wary of whether to risk a series of difficult jumps across a line of platforms varying in altitude or to simply jump and wait patiently, concentrating meticulously on nailing the next hop. Ordinary levels, besides containing stationary platforms, are usually full of retracting and extending vertical and horizontal lines of yellow blocks that sometime even change their direction, platforms attached to a center that continuously circles around itself, hidden vines, hard-to-master springs, and platforms that move along lines, oftentimes while running right through active chainsaws! Perhaps the most challenging platform hazard is that of ice, which can misplace jumps or send you sliding right off a platform even if you do make the jump. One particular level in the Special World has you slip-sliding in deep basins while Koopas bombard you with their harmful shells. There are also all-water levels where, unless you have a fire suit or a cape, you have to avoid all the sea life, which includes docile Kippers but also angry Cheep Cheeps that will follow you in hopes of a bite. I won’t even mention that one level where torpedoes are shot out at you left and right. These levels, though sparse, can be a real pain in the back seat of your overalls. Each level is marked with either a yellow or a red dot, the latter meaning that particular level has two exits, one of which is usually reached by finding a key and moving it to a keyhole. These secrets are mandatory if you wish to reach the Star and Special Worlds and can be incredibly easy or impossibly difficult to uncover. Good luck!
Another addition to levels are five Dragon (Yoshi) Coins hidden in many of the levels, sometimes in places that you’ll think impossible to reach. However, finding these gilded gems will ensure finishing in the top percentage and will also yield a free life, so keep your eye peeled for them.
Dotted sporadically about the levels, you’ll come across more challenging fortresses and castles. These booby-trapped jewels have falling Thwomps making a reappearance from their debut in Super Mario Bros. 3, along with their little brothers, Thwimps. There are also chain-linked maces that swing around, massive spiked spikes (yes) that fall swiftly to the ground, ceilings that ominously lower to your death, undead baddies that are hard to kill, and boiling pits of lava. Some of the more original additions to these levels are a moving line of blocks that you must constantly keep up with or fall to your death, and a fortress that’s actually been filled with water. The fortresses are, in general, easier than their subsequent castles, but don’t take them as pushovers for a second. At the end of fortresses, you’ll face a fire-breathing triceratops quartet on a roughly made Farris wheel while the floor rapidly falls apart underneath you. The only problem with this is that the battle is exactly the same in every single one of the fortresses. In the castles, you must eventually face one of Bowser’s seven revolting Koopalings also returning from Super Mario Bros. 3, which is indeed a good thing. Unfortunately, three of the battle scenarios, namely fighting on a teeter totter over lava, in a cramped, walled room, and hopping on heads appearing out of pipes over lava, are used twice. Ludwig’s battle is the only fight that appears once. Considering the difficulty of their respective castles, thinking back on it now, the Koopaling battles could’ve been made more challenging and less predictable. Bowser’s Castle consists of a series of eight rooms, two of which you must choose to proceed to Bowser’s sky top battle. All of them except a certain two are reasonably difficult. The Bowser battle is ingenious and obviously was planned out carefully, but the difficulty is null. After one time through, you should never die facing that fat reptilian freak again.
Another one of the more interesting types of levels is the often-used ghost house. These things are brimming with all types of spooky Boos and other odd selections of bizarre denizens. The exits are almost always carefully hidden, and illusions appear even more often than in the Forest of Illusion. If you can quash your fear and master these haunted hideouts, though, the treasures they yield are well worth your time.
There are also four hidden switches in the game that will make exclamation blocks of varying hues appear throughout the world where dotted squares used to be. Besides being very helpful in dire circumstances when you need a Super Mushroom or a cape, it’s imperative that you activate all of them if you want to reach the Special World.
As in the other three Super Mario Bros. adventures, power-ups are a big part of this game. Besides the usual Super Mushroom, Star power, and Fire Flower, you’ll find an enhanced version of Super Mario Bros. 3’s Raccoon Leaf. Picking up a floating yellow Feather from Question Blocks or perhaps green Exclamation Blocks will give you a bright yellow cape that serves a most useful purpose. It lets you fly! By tapping rhythmically on the control branch opposite of the direction you’re going, you’ll dive and rise, soaring past the dangers of the ground and picking up bonus goodies along the way.
Last, but not least, is probably my favorite addition to Super Mario World and what I think makes it the best 2D platforming game of all time: Yoshi. You have to love these things. Endearing and helpful, what’s there to hate about a Yoshi? Their long tongue will help you dispatch baddies quickly and eat up berries for extra lives. Eating special Koopa shells will give green Yoshis special powers such as wings or spit that’s on fire, while different colored Yoshis found in Star World will have certain powers no matter what kind of shell you eat. Getting hit will cause Yoshi to run away, but he’ll wait patiently in a future Question Block until you find him again. Go Yoshi!
Graphics
Although terrible by today’s fast-paced standards, Super Mario World broke the mold back in the SNES games, until some of the more graphically enhanced games like the Donkey Kong Country series and later Super Mario RPG came out, both of which are really good by the way. The backgrounds and detailed sprites mingle masterfully. Bubbling lava, air bubbles, and flickering fire are all used in this massive game so seamlessly that many will never know it. It was definitely a big step up from Star Fox and Pilot Wings. Even if the graphics were bad, though, this would still be one awesome game. The eye candy just makes it all the better!
Sounds
The music and sound effects in Super Mario World are a real audible treat. Full of the common cartoon-like Nintendo sounds but with an original mix of coin collecting and item grabbing fare, the sounds never get repetitive and are fun to listen to, which is a good thing since you’ll hear them often. There are very few different music pieces for the levels. All the ordinary levels either have one type of music or they have the other one. The ghost houses all share the same spooky score, and the fortresses and castles all are accompanied by the same foreboding tune. There are plenty of unique world songs, though, and even though the music isn’t abundantly diverse, you’ll love every bit of it.
Super Mario Advance Improvements
Ported perfectly to the Gameboy Advance, Super Mario World didn’t get off without a few improvements, some bad and some good. The graphics were enhanced slightly: the sprites were less fuzzy and the details were clearer. Luigi now has the same flutter jump that he had in Super Mario Bros. 2, when he hits a multi-coin block all the coins come out, his fireballs cover a wider range, and when riding Yoshi he can spit out enemies that Mario’s Yoshi would normally just swallow. Dragon Coins are in every single level now, and once you collect them all you get a cinema and they’re changed to Peach coins. There’s a beginning cinema that further explains the storyline by showing Mario and Luigi flying around and then coming back to find Peach gone. The only bad addition is the Mario Bros. original arcade game. Didn’t they already include that in the first Super Mario Advance? Oh well, overall the GBA port makes good of an already legendary game.
Presentation: Deftly executed platforming designed with innovative power-ups and the addition of Mario’s faithful steed, Yoshi. (10)
Sounds: Peppy music and trademark Mario sound effects meld perfectly for a pleasurable audible experience (9)
Gameplay: Over 90 individual courses with rising difficulty, including exotic milieus such as water, haunted houses, and ice caves, excluding many more, that all provide new and challenging feats to overcome. The added Yoshi and power-ups make it all the better, though the Mario Brother’s arcade add-on was unnecessary. (10)
Conclusion: What’re you doing reading this Review? It’s a Mario game with Luigi and Yoshi in it. Go buy it now! Seriously, though, with a perfect combination of such superb video gaming implementations, I believe SMW is the best platformer out there, Mario or not.
Final Score: 10
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