Reviews

Game: Super Mario World
System: Super Nintendo (SNES)
Release Date: 1991
Price: (Packaged with SNES)

 

Super Mario World was released back in 1991 to rave reviews. Most every gaming magazine on the planet gave the game a perfect 10, and it was well deserved. From seemingly out of the blue, Mayamoto unleashed the true definition of a Killer App for the Super Nintendo.

The game had everything; amazing worlds, enemies that made your eyes bug out at times and a control scheme and tightness that blew everything else out of the water. It re-introduced the classic concept of Bowser kidnapping the Princess, but this time the stakes were much higher, and Mario had to travel through much more than 8 worlds to get her back. The boards themselves were massive, some taking 25 minutes to go through completely, which was an unheard amount of time to spend on a level in a video game. And I'm not counting the games that MAKE you wander around for 25 minutes because you don't know what to do. There were even multiple entrances and exits to some of the levels. This was a true experience.

Mario was the star of the game as usual, with a palette-swapped Luigi joining in. However, Luigi wasn't even second banana in this Mario outing (his name wasn't even mentioned when you completed levels using him), as that distinction came in the form of a new companion for Mario, a very hungry green Dinosaur named Yoshi. Yoshi would eat almost anything you could give him, and if he couldn't eat it, when he spit it back out, it would form any of seven deadly projectile weapons. Sometimes, swallowing special items while you were riding Yoshi (I forgot to mention that, didn't I?) would result in Yoshi gaining new abilities, like flying.

It took me three months to completely, totally beat Super Mario World and find everything in it. And I was in Junior High school, so we're talking three months I played nearly every single day. I was just enamored with it.

This game is a must-have addition to any Mario fan's collection, whether you own the Super Nintendo original, or the newly re-released version on the Gameboy Advance. There is also a special version of Super Mario World that was released on the Super Mario All-Stars/Super Mario World combination game pak that was packaged with the system for a number of years. Whichever you get, you will find true Mario magic, as timeless and challenging as ever.

-NulShock