by Azzarox Bat

Created on: January 13, 2010

Ah, classic memories, the days of the SNES, with wonders such as Captain Commando, Legend of Zelda; A Link to the Past, and of course, the wonderful Super Mario World.

Super Mario World was the top notch Mario game for it's time, with better graphics, better gameplay, secrets galore, and powerups. Killing Bowser;s children and Bowser himself at the end in a game second only, in my opinion, to Super Mario Bros. 3.

Graphics:

The graphics in Super Mario World were amazing. They truly showed what a 16 bit engine could do, and looked amazing. Although now they are outdated by far, they still actually look amazing. Bowser, for one thing, looked awesome, in his flying... copter thing. The maps were well done, the levels were well done.... heck, everything was well done!

Gameplay:

Whatis a video game without gameplay? Nothing. Super Mario World had some of the best gameplay in a Mario game to date. A 16 bit adventure, jumping on enemies, navigating levels, underwater areas, castles and fortresses, finding secret exits, collecting dragon coins, riding Yoshi... what a wonderful game to spend your time on. It took a long time to get to Bowser (unless you used the Star Road) and even longer to find every exit to every level - especially trying to beat that challenging but extremely enjoyable "Tubular" level. Right on, Nintendo!

Sound:

The wonderful sounds of Super Mario World are a treat for the ears. The music. sound effects etc are top notch for the 16-bit era, with memorable tunes playing through the game.  Even the sound you hear when you die in a level is amazing. Considering that is not meant to be a sound you want to hear,that's really saying something. Again, a wonderful job by Nintendo.

Controls:

The controls in this game are perfect. The buttons pull off Mario's different moves, of course, but there is no control lag, nor is there a need to force the controls. The control scheme is practically perfect in every way. (Nice reference - Ed).  This is again, one of the best control schemes I've seen in a video game, and I've played a LOT of video games.

Replay Value:

As was established before, the replay value of this game is amazing. After you beat Bowser, you can literally spend hours wandering around, trying to find every exit in every level, and every dragon coin in every level. Getting to the end of a level after getting all the dragon coins isn't easy, but it sure is a tonne of fun.

Overall:

This game is a masterpiece of gaming. I recommend it to everyone who loves sidescrollers with a lot of replayability, amazing gameplay, wonderful graphics and fantastic audio. To this day, almost 20 years after it's initial Japanese release (November 21, 1990) it is still one of the best video games of any genre that I have played. Pure and simple. A wonderful classic masterpiece for the SNES. You won't be disappointed if you play it, either on the SNES or one of the 3 re-releases (Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World, The GBA version titled Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, or the release on the Wii Virtual Console).

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