With the Retro Room starting up in just over a week I thought it would be fun to write a little something about Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo. This game is pretty significant to my gamerhood and as you can imagine I played the hell outta it.
I’m not sure which summer it was that I managed to scrounge up enough dough to buy the Super Nintendo but I recall a contest with the chocolate bars companies where you had to match pieces to win the prize (all Nintendo games and consoles). I must have spent nearly as much as I needed for the Super Nintendo on chocolate bars trying to win. Sadly I had a ton of doubles but no matches. So how did I get all that money? Well, in classic fashion I had a paper route not unlike Paper Boy except I didn’t smash any windows and the world was not out to get me.
The day I earned enough for the console was a glorious day indeed. Straight to the department store, a little sidetracked with some Tetris on the Gameboy demo and cha ching, purchased.
Super Mario World was the game that came with the system and so it was the only game I played for some time. Before that point I loved Super Mario Bros 3 (which is still one of my favorites) but Mario World took everything that was great about Mario 3 and made it better. If I were to sum up what made the game so amazing in a few words all I’d need to say is: Yoshi, Magic Cape, Star Road, Ghost Houses, Bowser’s Clown Car and Yoshi.
Mario World is simple in story like most Mario games. The princess is captured and you need to rescue her. However, on top of that all of the Yoshi eggs have been taken by the Koopalings giving you a secondary objective. Since the Yoshi’s helped out Mario so much in Yoshi’s Island I think it’s was only fair that he returned the favor. It’s not mandatory but to do so you have to beat the 7 Koopaling who are hiding in their castles (it’s always very satisfying to see Mario blow it up in a cut scene after defeating one). You can also just skip more than half the levels by way of the Star Road. I think you can probably beat the game in about 30mins or less this way.
Unlike Mario 3 where they went heavy on the power ups this games simplifies it with only 3; the super mushroom, the fire flower and the magic cape (and if you want to include Yoshi that’s 4). Even though there’s only 3 power up Mario has a few other tricks up his sleeves which he learned between games. Now he can do a spin jump which can break blocks and he can pick up certain blocks or items and throw them.
Overall the game is easy yet challenging. If you follow the main path the difficulty steadily increases along with your stills and shouldn’t be too much trouble. There are many secret routes and shortcuts where the levels are a bit more of a hassle and may take you many attempts to pass. I’ve put together a list of a few of the levels that stumped me the first few rounds.
If you have a copy of Super Mario World and haven’t played it for a while it’s definitely worth plugging in and going a few rounds. If you don’t then come to the Retro Room and I’ll hook you up.
