Coming to retro gaming without any nostalgia for the past, I had to evaluate games based on how they play now — not on how they made me feel way back in 1991. So when my fellow New Player Ready crew members told me that Super Mario World should be one of the top ten games on my list of best SNES games, I was skeptical. Just another Mario Platformer. How good could it really be?
When I finally played it through — not just the first couple of levels, but all 96 levels — I understood what the hype was about. Super Mario World is one of the best platformer games of all time. Period. Everything about it is amazing. The controls are solid. The level design is impeccable. The secrets are abundant. Super Mario World has game design executed at the highest level.
What makes Super Mario World so great
Developer: Nintendo | Release Date: November 1990 (Japan), August 1991 (North America)
Nintendo bundled Super Mario World with the Super Nintendo as the pack-in game. This was a huge gamble. Your pack-in title needs to sell consumers on your new hardware’s capabilities while being accessible enough for casual gamers to enjoy. Nintendo hit the mark on both fronts.
Classic Mario setup:
Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach (again) and takes her to his Castle in Dinosaur Land. Mario and Luigi will travel through seven worlds, rescue Yoshi’s friends and find Bowser’s Castle to rescue Peach. Classic.
Cape Power-Up — allows you to build up speed, flap your way down and fly across entire levels. Mastering the cape during flight is great. Too high and you stall. Too low and you plummet to your death. Learning how to keep your momentum going for entire levels is one of the most rewarding skills to learn in the game.
It’s not just a power-up. Yoshi is also your faithful companion who has unique abilities. Depending on the colour Yoshi you acquire, eating certain shells give you various abilities. You can eat enemies with Yoshi. You can even drop Yoshi on platforms as a “sacrifice” to allow Mario to make a longer jump. There is great symbiosis between Mario and Yoshi that allows for unique movement and strategy.
Excellent Level Design Teaches You Without Tutorials
Super Mario World understands what most other platformers today still struggle with: Good level design teaches you without tutorials. Your first few levels in Yoshi’s Island set you up to learn how to spin jump through natural gameplay situations. You discover how to find secret exits by just thoroughly exploring.
Difficulty Curve Perfectly Implemented
World 1 is designed for any player to be accessible. By Worlds 6 and 7, you are expected to have mastered every movement tool in your arsenal. World 7-4’s Special Zone — unlocked after finding every switch palace and secret exit in World 7 — ramps the difficulty up to insane levels just for players who have mastered the previous worlds. Tubular has you cape flying through an obstacle course. Awesome is a nightmare as you need to land pixel perfect and time your jumps perfectly.
Secrets Galore
I love how the game has excellent secret exits. You see a suspicious pipe sticking out of the ground…in a weird place. There’s a key and key hole you can see, but can’t reach. What if I had a flying dinosaur? There are alternate pathways should you obtain the correct power up. The game fully trusts that you know there are secrets hidden in plain sight.
Ghost Houses — Incredible Design
Twisted haunted mazes that turn back on themselves. Doors that lead to…nowhere you’d expect. Platforms that appear and disappear. Each ghost house is like a puzzle you need to comprehend before you can figure out the exit path – and there are often secret exits that are even harder to find.
Perfect Movement
Mario moves exactly how I want him to move. Objectively speaking, these controls are perfect. He has mass to his jumps and momentum. His spin jump gives me extra height and allows me to bounce of enemies that would typically harm me. Cape flying takes some getting used to, but feels incredible when you get the hang of it.
P-Metre — Build Up Running Speed
How my momentum transfers when I jump. How precise I need to be when landing on tiny platforms. That little bit of coyote time that allows me to jump just after running off a ledge. Super Mario World understands these tiny details.
Yoshi Open Up New Movement
You’re taller, affecting your jump trajectory and collision boxes. You can flutter jump for additional distance. Dying with Yoshi on you results in you losing a life instead of your power-up. Learning how to utilize Yoshi creates its own difficulty curve.
Meta-Game of Secret Hunting
There are a total of 96 exits to find in Super Mario World. Many levels have multiple exits; standard and secret. Find all the secret exits to unlock Star Road which ultimately unlocks Special Zone. Complete Special Zone and you can wow your friends that you completed the 96 star version of Super Mario World.
This created a meta-game for players after simply defeating Bowser. You are done when you beat the last castle. You are done after you find everything. Finding everything requires you explore every nook and cranny, experiment with your abilities, and sometimes Google the solution because some secrets are absolutely ridiculous.
Dragon Coins
Find all five dragon coins in each level and you typically unlock a secret or shortcut. The moons you find hidden in the sky of certain levels grant you extra lives. Hidden 1-up blocks are sprinkled throughout levels. The entire game just rewards you for being thorough and curious.
Switch Palaces
Each palace unlocks colored blocks for the entire game – red, yellow, green, and blue. These blocks are peppered into levels you’ve already completed, opening new pathways and new secrets. Super Mario World encourages you to replay levels you’ve already beaten with new tools at your disposal, without it feeling like completeing meaningless filler.
Boss Battles With Unique Arenas
Yes the Koopaling battles are probably the weakest part of Super Mario World. But they aren’t bad! For the most part, they just require you to “Jump on them three times while avoiding their attack pattern.” But each arena is designed uniquely and typically implement different mechanics to spice up the simple formula.
Iggy’s platform tilting above a lava pit. Larry’s moving pipes you need to jump on. Wendy’s conveyor belts and bouncing rings. Roy’s disappearing walls. Each boss fight incorporates some type of environmental hazard to keep interest in the basic boss battle formula. They aren’t revolutionary, but they are fair and solid.
Bowser’s Epic Final Battle
Bowser’s final fight is super satisfying. He hops out of a clown car that shoots bowling balls at you. You jump on the car, it breaks apart, and the fight continues on top of the castle as you chuck the Mechakoopas back at Bowser. It’s simple mechanically, but looks great and satisfying as a final showdown.
Graphics That Showcase The SNES
Super Mario World was purposefully designed to showcase how superior the Super Nintendo was when compared to its predecessor, the NES. Larger sprites with more detailed animations. Parallax scrolling backgrounds. Mode 7 animations when you complete a level as the camera pans around the map. Ghosts that turn invisible when you enter ghost houses.
Looking at the graphics still look crisp and easy to read today. Character animations are exaggerated making the game more expressive – Mario’s cape flutters in the wind, Yoshi retracts his tongue, enemies have elaborate hurt animations. Each world feels vibrant and has a distinct visual style. Colours are used very well and each world has a unique atmosphere. Super Mario World’s art style is timeless in a way that games from the same era with 3D graphics are not.
Chocolate Island Music
Athletic Music
Music for Ghost House
Castle Theme
Koji Kondo’s soundtrack is legendary and catchy as hell. Iconic melodies that fit each world’s theme perfectly. The sound effects are satisfying as well — jumping sound, spin jump, cape swishing sound, Yoshi eating sound.
Does Super Mario World still hold up?
Yes! I played this game for the first time in 2020. Almost 30 YEARS after it’s initial release and it still holds up. Controls are tight and precise. Level design is creative and makes logical sense. There are secrets everywhere and they don’t feel like simple padding. Difficulty has you learning as you play without forcing you to read a list of rules.
These are all things modern 2D platformers are still trying to master today. Celeste has incredible tight controls. Hollow Knight wants you to explore every inch of the map. Shovel Knight studied classic retro-game designs. All of these games are building off of what Super Mario World started.
It doesn’t feel dated. There are no moments of jank gameplay. No cheap spikes in difficulty. No odd design decisions that hold back the experience. It’s just pure smooth platforming that plays just as well today as it did back in 1991. That is what great game design is.
Why it is Number Four on My SNES Rankings
Super Mario World ranks number four on my SNES rankings because there were simply three games better at specific categories. Chrono Trigger had the best story. Super Metroid had the best atmosphere. A Link To The Past had the best dungeon design. Each of these games excel and innovated in a way that was more impactful than Super Mario World in their respective field.
But when it came to platformer design, Super Mario World might be the best SNES game out there. Controls are perfect. Level design is excellent. Secret hunting gives you hours of replayability. Difficulty curve is on point. Everything about this game just works perfectly.
When we had our crew debates about who’s games got the best ratings, this was the only game all four of us could agree on for the top-five. Even Joe (who loves to say Sega Genesis did everything better) said Super Mario World was the pinnacle of platforming. John tried to argue Zool on Amiga was better for a hot second but we ignored him. Sam loved how precise you need to be in order to speedrun levels at 100% speed. Carl literally just wanted us to stop arguing and agree on something.
Legacy of Speedrunning
Super Mario World has an active speed-running community. Any% speedruns finish the game in under 10 minutes by exploiting every angle for cape flying. 96% runs finish the entire game in under 90 minutes. Because of the level of creativity allowed when planning routes, finding sequence breaks and precision needed to execute said breaks, Super Mario World has deep enough gameplay to provide endless content for speedrunners.
Watching speedruns after you beat the game casually just shows you depth you might not even realise exists. Optimized routes that allow for shortcut cape flying. Frame perfect jumps that skip entire sections of levels. How players optimize their P-metre to maintain maximum speed. Everything about speedrunning this game speaks to how well balanced and designed the gameplay is.
Conclusion
Super Mario World is the definition of platforming excellence. Created as a launch title, Super Mario World did everything and more. It sold consumers on purchasing a SNES. Go buy one here. The controls are tight, levels are exceptional, secrets are everywhere and every aspect of this game is polished from start to finish.
Play it if you haven’t. Replay it if you did play it as a kid and appreciate everything they were doing with level design for each world. Learn from this game if you plan on developing a platformer. Study Super Mario World because it’s the definitive template that still works today… 30 YEARS later.
Rating: 10/10 — The best example of a 2D Mario platformer
Go to our full SNES rankings →
Timothy discovered retro gaming at forty and never looked back. A construction foreman by day and collector by night, he writes from a fresh, nostalgia-free angle—exploring classic games with adult curiosity, honest takes, and zero childhood bias.
0 Comments