August 23, 1991 — Super Mario World

I’ve been feeling nostalgic for the era of Super Nintendo games. I aim to play through the collection of games released on SNES in order of release date. Though I know there are some really bad ones, I hope to be able to rank the collection for my own purposes. I figured it would be a chance to revisit a lot of my childhood and give me something free to write about.

Super Mario World seemed like a fitting place to start since every SNES system sold in North America, to my knowledge, came with a copy of it.

My playthrough took about ten hours, and I completed everything save for a handful of levels in the Special world. One of the aspects that really stood out to me was the level design. New elements are added really early in the level and there’s no need for text throughout the entire game.

Did Super Mario World weather the test of time?

I think so. The first couple of areas were a little easier, but the difficulty ramped up steadily, and the Special area presented challenges that took me a really long time to overcome.

One weird note is that this game really only requires controls from the NES, I don’t recall using X or Y, L and R are kind of used in the game, but you can really get by without using them.

All in, the game holds up: it’s challenging, it’s fun, and though the music gets a bit repetitive, it’s iconic. Overall, it’s a great game, if not a little short by today’s standards.

Total Play time: 11 hours.

Originally published at http://www.bryanmyers.ca on March 8, 2019.