Super Mario World

Written by Steve.

Originally written for Games I Own, Like And Hate, Steve wrote a book about the game when I usually just have a few paragraphs for it, but I didn't mind despite the fact it stretched the page to ridiculous levels.

Then I came to my senses and realised "jeez this is stretching the page to ridiculous levels" several months later and thought it'd work best as a General Writing, for that way it could actually have breaks, pictures, and other such things. Plus, it's about time there was a General Writings review that was positive for once.

Aside from the pictures and formatting and whatnot, the text is unchanged from Steve's original write-up, so any opinions you disagree with can be blamed on him. And it was actually Shigefumi Hino who designed Yoshi, but I won't hold that against ya Steve :]

After what felt like a lifetime in front of the Spectrum ZX4 and loads of other crap I could never really comprehend, a majority of the time spent waiting for the ancient machine to load its green cassettes, father dearest returned home after a hard day’s work down at the grind (work) and I suddenly find myself in the possession of one of the most powerful machines back in the day! A Super Nintendo Entertain System, or SNES for the abbreviation jockeys.
After being told to wait patiently for him to connect it up to the TV and get the whole thing set up for playability purposes, the whole family gathered around and father flicked the switch.

INSTANTANEOUSLY, the screen turned to blue sky, the grass was green, underground was kind of biscuity coloured and a little man with a huge nose ran across jumped on some turtles, picked up its shell, released it towards a rotating block and lo and behold! a green dinosaur pops out!
Naturally, my first impressions of the game was: “Wow, this doesn’t take the timing equivalence of a full course dinner with some after dinner wafer thin mints to load”. Naturally I went to make myself a peanut butter and jam sandwich while my father (who’s still the bigger kid than I am) sat down to play the game.
He didn’t get very far. And I enjoyed my sandwich so much I made myself another and made myself sick on that and packets of cheese and onions crisps… but that’s another story!

Many years passed and Super Mario World came to be one of the favourites. The graphics were pretty – beautiful, I’d almost go to say. I’m not a member of the spriting community or anything like that, so I like the sprites and backgrounds that were used. The world map was ingenious! The sprites are simplistic compared to later (and possibly earlier) games, but these stand the test of time that 15 or 16 years later they are still being used by the aforementioned communities.
The actually adventure itself is breathtaking! Kind of… but it’s damn exhilarating for a 2D platformer! Cheapness isn’t a problem… well, for me anyway. I feel if you jump out into the wild blue yonder there’s always going to be a 50/50 chance of survival or excruciating death at the bottom of the screen.
The game as a whole has stood the test of time, as many would attest to! Sure the sprites have been overused to death hundreds of times over, but it goes to show that once again they’re top quality. And with the brilliant invention of Yoshi, Shigeru Miyamoto can look back and smile at creating a masterpiece – a work of art if you’d want to be so bold!
On a side note, ’tis a shame his wonderful creation of Yoshi has never properly been used since the sequel Yoshi’s Island (unless you want to count Yoshi’s Story).

As a nostalgia hit one night, friends and I were discussing the brilliance that is this game and we eventually had to dig the machine out and play. Four guys, two teams, as Mario, one as Luigi. Excellence ensued. (On a personal note, it didn’t help that my team were expert Super Mario players, and the other team sucked, they couldn’t quite figure out how to run whilst accomplishing other things… sad story, but we completed it in about 3-4 hours, ’twas a fun filled evening, with laughs and beers all around!)
It seems this review talks about everything but the actual game in depth. That’s because it’s not just the game that makes it so great, it’s the very essence of playing it, remembering it and having a great time with it. Sure, you can sit on your own and try to get all 96 exits (we’ve got 95) but for a more fun filled experience play it with friends or in a group or with your family or something! And remember the days when the world was young, Nintendo was innocent, Mario first met Yoshi, everyone actually acknowledged Luigi’s existence, and Bowser did a damn fine job of kidnapping Peach (or Princess Toadstool) but of course Mario did a better job or rescuing her!
Because that’s what this game is, folks: a nostalgia trip!

And for those of you who haven’t experienced it: buy, borrow, bootleg or even steal a Super Nintendo to play this on! Because the original experience is the best!