Super Mario World (1990)

Super Mario World isn't the first game I ever played. That distinction goes to either the original Super Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt on NES (I had the combo cartridge and have no idea which I played first). My recollection is I got a hand-me-down NES with that combo cartridge from my dad's friend, then a short time later my dad bought me TMNT (which I made ZERO progress in because I was like five), and then later that same year we got a hand me down SNES with Super Mario World + All Stars from my uncle. This would had to have been either 1995 or 1996. What a fantastic year.

Super Mario World is, however, probably the most formative game I ever played. I think it's the game that first made me fall in love with video games as a medium. Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. were fun toys, but they didn't capture my imagination the way this game did. Even now hearing the music, the sound effects, seeing the graphics, whisks me back to being five years old. This game felt ENDLESS back then, rife with secrets I had no idea how to access.

I had never gotten farther than the Forest of Illusion. A handful of times in my adult life I've fired this game up on an emulator but never stuck with it.

I finally, in 2026, roughly 30 years after I first played it, have not only beaten Super Mario World but gotten all 96 exits. I've seen all of Star Road and Special Zone. I've sucked through a straw everything this game has to offer. And it tasted just as fresh as it did when I was 5.

What can one say about this game that hasn't already been said? The control is perfect, the graphics and sound, delightful. What I was most surprised by coming back to it were how crazy some of the later levels get. There's one level in particular that has branching paths and exits depending on how fast you go through certain sections and/or how many dragon coins you have. All the secret exits and star road entrances make the overworld into a looping, snaking maze, where once you learn it you can get to any level you want fairly quickly.

This is a perfect video game.

How A Costly Delay Rescued A Legendary Nintendo Franchise

When Nintendo launched the Super Famicom on November 21, 1990, it was betting big on a stalled product. The console was set to release in July 1989 but a number of factors, like manufacturing capacity and third-party support, led to a delay. This was good for Miyamoto, whose team was reeling from a lackluster preview of the highly anticipated Super Mario Bros. 4, which was slated as a launch title for the new machine. That extra bit of time allowed them to take something critics panned as yet another NES game and turn it into a genre-defining sensation still remembered as one of the greatest games of all-time: Super Mario World.

Super Mario World was Mario’s debut on new hardware, a moment that would define not just the future of Nintendo’s mascot but the broader identity of the SNES itself. As far as generational leaps go, few games have stepped so confidently into the role of flagship title. Thanks to the delayed launch Super Mario World went from a prettier Super Mario Bros. 3 to a blueprint for what 16-bit design could achieve.

Few Mario games have cast a longer shadow. Mechanics pioneered here, most notably Yoshi and branching world maps with multiple exits, would shape the franchise for decades. The concept of hidden exits leading to entire new zones became a staple of future 2D entries, while Yoshi evolved from a simple mount into one of Nintendo’s most beloved characters, spawning his own series.

Its influence goes even further. Super Mario World set the gold standard for 2D platformers in terms of responsiveness, exploration, and elegant complexity. You can trace its design DNA in everything from Super Meat Boy to Celeste. More than 30 years later, Super Mario World remains a masterclass in design. It wasn’t just an introduction to the SNES; it was a mission statement. A promise that this new era of gaming would be more colorful, more surprising, and infinitely more creative. And in that regard, Nintendo delivered.

Emphasis in the final paraphraph mine, because damn right!

Super Mario World is a game I've played consistently for 35 years and it's always a joy to go back to this world. This is one of those comfort games that I always return to several times a year, and at this point, I feel like I know this game like the back of my hand, but also, I always feel like I'm surprised by everything this game has to offer. I can easily say Super Mario World is not only my favorite Mario game, and my favorite Nintendo game, but easily earns a place in my top 5 games I've ever played.

To me, Super Mario World is the pinnacle of Mario games. It certainly expands on the world exploration of Super Mario Bros. 3, and with clever level design that often asks the player to make their way through a level multiple times. There's a level of difficulty here that I hadn't seen previously in Mario games, and the introduction of Yoshi and the feather automatically adds two entirely new wrinkles to the possibility of how to play a level.

It also feels rich and gorgeous, and it is a world you can navigate. There are secrets hidden around every corner, endless possibilities of how to play a level, and there's a high replayability that I've never experienced with a platformer before. It's hard to not consider Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Odyssey as possibilities for the best Mario game, and they're absolutely near the top of that mountain, but I never feel the urge to return to those worlds just for a few quick levels when I have some free time. Yet I can always make the time for a few levels of Super Mario World.

And I don't think this is just nostalgia speaking, since I grew up with the NES Mario games and loved them too. But it has always felt to me like Nintendo perfectly nailed the Mario aesthetic with this game. The worlds are beautiful, Mario controls exactly how I want him to, and every facet of the game is perfect to me. After all these years, I'm truly in awe of Super Mario World, and I love it more and more with each replay. Which happens a lot.

I've been playing the original Super Mario games recently, beating them back to back (in order) for the first time. This is the first I've truly enjoyed. It's blasphemous, I know - 1 and 3 are classics, perfect games, etc - but I didn't find anything before this fun, and really, that's what matters, right?

• I would never have gotten through 1 without saving. It was punishing.
• Lost Levels was worse.
• 2 was fine but nothing special.
• 3 introduces a few neat powerups, but you're forced to repeat so many levels with every game over.
• Land was incredibly short.

Then there's World. It looks better than its predecessors with a pretty overworld; the music is cute; there's a tonne of enemy, powerup and level design variety; lots of secrets to uncover; and the difficulty level is challenging without dipping into insane.

I'm glad to have beaten the earlier games but I'll never replay them. World I will replay. That says it all.

A real masterpiece. I’ve been playing Super Mario World since I was a kid.

As soon as I turned on the console I was back in Dinosaur Land. The graphics are simple by today’s standards but charming and full of personality. Each level is so well designed and detailed you can’t help but get lost in it.

The gameplay is where SMW really comes alive. The controls are super responsive, Mario’s jumps and movements feel great. I enjoyed the challenge of each level, from the simple platforming stages to the more puzzle like castles. Yoshi added an extra layer of fun and I loved finding out what his different abilities were by eating the different colored eggs.

Game #29/200 Super Mario World is a euphoric gaming experience. I feel somewhat fortunate that, at 29 years old, I am having my first real encounter with this title. The entire package is somehow so beautifully put together despite the SNES' hardware limitations. Considering the game is over 3 decades old, it holds up well in its level design even compared to many contemporary titles. In fact, I'd have to reach all the way back into its own era, maybe plucking something like Donkey Kong Country, to find something comparable or superior in that area. Its groundbreaking "secret exits" are both fun to discover and rewarding, as they lead to additional levels and secret paths. SMW is packed with secrets and many of them are well-hidden, but rarely frustrating or too obscure to find. I did use a guide for secrets as I'm more inclined to play the levels than find them and time is too short, but it didn't lessen the experience for me and I had plenty of fun revisiting stages. The designers did a nice job of varying level design enough so that you encounter a wide variety of different enemies and hazards or see familiar ones in different scenarios. Many levels have "Mario hallmarks," like giant gaps between platforms that lead to butthole-clenchingly stressful jumps, water levels that make horizontal movement tough in the face of swarms of fish or other hazards, and plenty of flying above levels to find secrets or simply skip sections. There are only two major power-ups other than the mushroom (fire flower and cape), and while neither is incredibly original, they are both useful and very fun in their simplicity. There is quite a bit of hazard memorization and trial through error, besides the need for some better-than-average mechanical skill, that is not too far off from the precision platformers that have become popular in recent years. Other than the Ghost Houses, whose puzzles I found a bit esoteric, I enjoyed being presented with a new level and figuring out the technique or trick to successfully beating it. Levels are also quite up-and-down in terms of difficulty from one to the next. I personally enjoyed this variety -- not knowing what to expect next -- but ultimately none of the levels were too difficult. I completed the game with minimal trouble and without save states, other than to bypass using the save exploit that is available without save states.

In fact, this is my only criticism of the title. To explain, the player can save any time they want, but to do so they need to beat a ghost house, fortress, or castle. There is a very easy ghost house that takes less than a minute to complete, so the player can quickly save after basically any challenging level (this is not to mention that there are several ways of quickly acquiring infinite lives). With this in mind, I question why saving is not simply automatic after each stage, but I can imagine that the developers wanted to give players the option of having a more difficult experience if they so choose. Either way, for me, I much prefer saving after each level.

I finished with around 85 exits and, as a former obsessive completist, am pretty happy seeing about 90% of the game's levels without needing to spend a few more hours to do them all. The other elements of the game that were borderline perfect were the graphics, which upon close scrutiny are actually quite chunky, but are painted with unrivaled vibrant colors and depict such a wide variety of fun characters and artwork (only improved upon, somehow, in Super Mario World 2), and the sounds, in which Koji Kondo's best work is on display. I genuinely think that every song on the soundtrack has become an iconic part of the Mario universe. Tracks "Overworld" and "Athletic" are two of my favorites. The slowed down arrangement of "Underwater" is also CRAZY good. Kondo does a nice job of capturing the fun, frantic, colorful, and somewhat odd world of Dinosaur Land through his cheery tunes.

Super Mario World was a really fun game! I am a big 2D platformer fan and this has jumped right near the top of favorite titles in the genre.

Super Mario World still feels great after so many years. Character controls fluidly and level design is top notch. Pixel art is straight up beautiful. Levels are challenging but rewarding. At its core I don't think there is much I can complain about. However there is one thing...

I played this game on my 2DSXL, a system which is great for SNES games such is this one, simply because the screen has a perfect resolution for old pixelated games. But I didn't play the official 3DS release, but rather an original rom in an Snes9x emulator. This is important, as emulator gave me a feature that I feel like this game really needs; more save points.

Of course save points affect the difficulty of the game. And I respect and understand people who like the challenge and wish to play as the game was intended to play. However, save states in emulator gave me the freedom to set a checkpoint wherever I wanted. So I kinda wrote my own rules regarding that.

I like to beat a level without any checkpoint. There is no doubt about that. But what I don't like is to redo the whole set of levels till the save point when I die. Save point in the game is usually after you beat a set of levels (2-3) and the whole tower level with the boss at the end. Stages are quite hard, and replaying the whole sequence of levels again and again was just too punishing for me. Thats why setting a save point on a world map after beating each level was crucial to me in order to complete this game.

And it was still enjoyable and challenging. I encourage people to play with save states if they find the gameplay too punishable. Because it is well worth to experience this great game.

Super Mario World is one of my favorite SNES Games and playing it made me feel like I was alive when it came out.

Super Mario World, or Super Mario Bros. 4 as it is called in Japan was one of the most anticipated games in 1990. And Rightfully so. The game for the time looked beautiful. And it still holds up. Some of the best Sprite Work I've seen in any game I've played. It had new gameplay mechanics, power-ups, and more. It truly seemed to be the ultimate Mario game. And it kinda still is.

Super Mario World has the same story we've seen countless times. Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach, and with the help of the Seven Koopalings, he has stolen Baby Yoshi Eggs. Mario must save Dinosaur Land by saving Peach and stopping Bowser's attack on the Island. I don't dislike the stories mostly because Mario games prioritize gameplay over a story and the stories are effective in complementing the gameplay.

The gameplay is great (Although a bit sluggish at times) Mario can now Spin-Jump which makes tricky platforming easier, All the basic Power-Ups we know are here, but now we have the Cape Feather. This gives Mario a cape which allows him to glide and even fly if enough speed is built up. But the big addition has to be a brand new character to the series, Yoshi. Yoshi is a green Dinosaur on a quest to take back the Yoshi eggs stolen from him. Mario can ride Yoshi. Yoshi can eat enemies and spit them out. He also serves as an extra hit point if needed. My main gripe, however, is that Mario can control a bit stiff at times. He feels more constrained this time which is odd. Other than that, I love the gameplay.

The music is great as usual and the enemies are very interesting. As well as the bosses. I wish the Worlds had more variety but it's fine. Almost every level has a secret exit that warrants exploration. I love that.

Super Mario World is a beautiful game with mostly great gameplay, music, and enemies. One of the best games for SNES hands down. It is a must-play for anyone who has a passion for Video Games like myself.

4/5

Would Recommend

**I am not at this point in my chronology project, so I will be adding to the review accordingly **

See my full 100% [re-]playthrough here

Look: 10/10 I love the overworld graphics, the consistency of scenery in the sense of different "terrains" and "regions," I adore the backgrounds. Simple but delightful. Great colors as well. And after playing through it this time, I see I love the Fall theme and the funny Mario Koopas.

Sound: 10/10 This one could possibly be a 9 because I sometimes mute it, but such memorable sound effects and tracks that I couldn't resist a 10. Well-executed, changes enough to not get too annoying, and I almost never like sound effects but these are just right.

With this recent playthrough, wow, the music at the end is so good and the "Fall" music after you complete the Special World is such a nice touch. What a great journey of hypey music, happy music, cave-y music, victorious music, and comfy Fall & ending music!! This definitely deserved the 10 I gave.

Play: 10/10 Solid controls, straightforward enough while still having secrets you can find without a guide, simple yet still challenging. Perfect.

With the recent playthrough, this finally bumped up to a 10. It gets hard and sometimes frustrating in the last couple worlds and especially the Special World but how cool that you could see the programmers have fun with the level design mechanics and components. The Special World reminds me of hacks, player mods, and level editor creations (but better-made than most of ours ha) in that it really toyed with the extremes of everything. No wonder there's such a large hack culture for this game: its components combine to make such fun, addicting, and challenging possibilities.

Feel: 10/10 Only because I start to get a little frustrated if I forget the proper way to get through, say, the Forest or sometimes get bored in the Chocolate area because of too much sameness, did this get a 9. It's a perfect game, incredibly fun even through to the end of the game. But because I don't play it through every time I pick it up, it doesn't quite earn that 10 rating. We will see on future replays. (Now that Joy is Feel, this and Play have flip-flopped the 9 rating till I can replay it)

Edit: On my further replay, the 10/10 Feel is confirmed: cute, tough, rewarding, full of secrets which I love, and even just the way it vaguely shows the upcoming worlds at the edge of screens, or the way you can see Bowser Valley from a secret level in one of the first worlds, and the way the Star World work... the list goes on and on. This is, in my opinion, the greatest use and execution of the "secrets" concept in any game I've played so far--not as esoteric and obnoxious as most adventure secrets like Zeldas or text adventures, but still exciting and word-of-mouth-encouraging a la them. A heavily nostalgic memory of mine was having played this a million times, and thinking I'm awesome for knowing the Flutes to get to the last World on Super Mario 3 or the jump-high-up-and-go-down-tubes to shoot to the last World?worlds? in the first Super Mario Bros etc., when a kid at a hotel (back when hotels would have a sort of rec room with an SNES hooked up ha. or maybe the boy brought himself I dunno, but there were a bunch of kids in this public space watching him play) showed everybody how to get to the Top Secret Area (with all the power-ups) and the first few Star World entrances. I had to go soon after that, tho he was flying through it, because my mom or dad--not sure which parent I was staying with at the time--rushed me out. But that stuck in my memory forever--opened up all the possibilities of secrets, going on to fall in love with RPGs like Final Fantasy and adventures like Link's Awakening where that nostalgia would arise again and again.

Attachment: 10/10 What can I say. A defining game for my taste, infinitely replayable, influential.

Completion: 100% including Special World getting Fall theme, killing Bowser, all Exits in game Playtime: ~4h 40m (more accurate thanks to streaming it)

This one seems a little nostalgia-overrated. Playing this in 2020, it suffers from the typical 90s platformer weaknesses (icy feet, generally too easy), but what must have felt fresh back in the days (jumping on shells, first time encounter with yoshi) feels just like a slightly upgraded Mario Bros. nowadays. The follow-up, Yoshi's Island, feels a lot more special with its bunch of new yoshi mechanics. I'd recommend to play that one instead.

The secret worlds are cool and there are some nice mechanics here. But in general the icy feet, slowness and imprecision of the controls feels unbearably unsmooth.

I know this is crazy-talk for most self-respecting Nintendo fans, but I'd never played Super Mario World all the way through before. I was a Genesis kid, so I only experienced 16-bit Mario games for short bursts while visiting friends or family. Earlier this week, a co-worker was nice enough to gift me a box of old cartridges he was getting rid of anyway, and this was among them, so I popped it into my RetroN5 and gave it a whirl.

The hype is deserved. This is a really great Mario game... maybe the character's finest 2-D outing. There's a simplicity to the presentation, yet secrets abound (and I felt genuine surprise and excitement while uncovering them). The artwork is fun and expressive. The music is amazingly catchy (and completely stuck in my head as I write this). The power-ups, while perhaps lacking the variety of SMB3, have a lot more depth to them... I had so much fun learning how to make the most of Yoshi and the Cape Feather in particular.

Rare is the game that can bring as genuine and effortless a smile to my face as this one did. What a gem!