Lookin’ Back #9 – Super Mario World

Remember when Mario wasn’t in every other Nintendo game?

This week, I’m pulling the trigger on a game that I’ve been planning to write about since I started the Lookin’ Back series.  I am referring to the SNES platforming classic, and probably one of the best – if not THE best – games in the Mario platform series, Super Mario World.

As I might have mentioned in the past, the SNES was the first Nintendo home console I owned, and I’ve bought every Nintendo home console since, including the Wii.  Super Mario World was a game I never actually owned first time around.  I borrowed it from a friend, and I really didn’t want to give it back to him.

But anyhoo, Super Mario World was the first Mario platformer to appear on the SNES.  The idea behind the game was pretty much the same as it’s predecessor, Super Mario Bros. 3.  Bowser had kidnapped the Princess again, and you had to make your way around the world to go and save her, going through many of Bowser’s minions along the way.  The information was given to you by Mario standing in a level screen with a text block telling you what had happened.  Pretty simple, really.

Super Mario World once again used Super Mario Bros 3′s use of an overworld map to choose a level to enter, rather than simply going through a set of levels in order.  As well as your standard levels, there was a castle in each area of the map in which you had to defeat one of Bowser’s kids, the Koopalings.  The game also contained several other level types, such as ghost houses, fortresses and switch palaces.  Finding and completing a switch palace made new coloured blocks appear in some levels, these blocks being previously in the level as a dotted outline which couldn’t be touched.  These blocks usually allowed you to access secret paths and exits in order to open up additional levels.

Some secret exits led to an area known as Star Road, which contained 5 bonus levels.  All levels had a normal exit and a secret exit.  The normal exit simply added to the tally of completed levels.  If you found the secret exit, you could unlock the path around the edge of the level.  Once you found the secret exit on every level, you opened up another set of secret levels known as the ‘Special Zone’, which you needed to reach the full tally of 96 completed levels.  These were the  most difficult levels in the game, and had a few different elements to them that weren’t in any other levels.  In addition, once you completed the Special Zone, the overworld maps changed to a more autumn feel, and some of the enemies changed their look.  Such as pirahna plants becoming pumpkins and some enemies wearing Mario masks.

Super Mario World also saw the debut of a certain little dinosaur fellow by the name of Yoshi.  His friends have all been kidnapped with one being held at each of the Koopalings castles.  Defeating the Koopaling freed the Yoshi.  Yoshi could eat enemies and different coloured Yoshi’s had different special abilities, such as a powerful stomp or the ability to breath fire.

The game looked really good, with very colourful graphics, moving background layers – instead of the static backgrounds of previous games – and a really nice soundtrack, with music that really fitted in with the levels.  And of course, Yoshi only made sounds, instead of the sometimes irritating voice he has nowadays.

This game was re-released a number of times.  The first occasion was in the second version of Super Mario All-Stars, which contained all the NES games as well.  Secondly, it was released on the Game Boy Advance as part of the Super Mario Advance series, with a couple of gameplay changes.  For example, Luigi could jump higher than Mario but was more difficult to control.  And most recently, the original SNES version was brought out on the Wii’s Virtual Console, which I actually downloaded and am about half way through.

So, there you are.  This is almost certainly one of my favourite games of all time, and it is my favourite Mario game of all time.

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