SNES Classic - Super Mario World

As promised, I've decided to do a series of posts about the SNES Classic games I've been playing through. To start with, let's look at Super Mario World.

I've already talked about Super Mario World on this blog here, but I'd like to discuss things in more detail.

If you weren't a Nintendo fan growing up, here's the rundown: according to the game's manual, Mario and Princess Peach were going on holiday to Dinosaur Island when Peach (naturally) gets abducted by Bowser. Mario later meets a dinosaur called Yoshi, who is trying to rescue his babies from the Seven Koopa Kids.

Gameplay is the familiar yet fresh side-scrolling platforming action which Mario does so well. Mario can jump on enemies to defeat them, but he can also pick up Fire Flowers which give him a ranged attack, or a Cape Feather which gives him a melee spin attack and the ability to fly. Yoshi serves as a mount, and can eat enemies, some of which give him special powers.

The game starts out with the somewhat linear Yoshi's Island, Donut Plains, and Vanilla Dome, but the journey becomes more divergent in the Forest of Illusion and Chocolate Island. Some levels have secret exits, which can lead to Switch Palaces or alternate levels. There are also maze-like ghost houses (which serve as checkpoints), and the truly challenging castles in which you face the Seven Koopa Kids. I especially like the cutscenes after defeating the Kids, which shows Mario destroying their castles (which spawned the hilarious Mario's Castle Calamity series on Newgrounds).

Personally, I went for a standard run-through, which constituted about 68% completion when I checked. Granted, I did unlock the Switch Palaces and a Top Secret Area (a hidden arsenal), but I do recommend finding those. Even if you do, there is plenty of harrowing challenge. And that's not going into the insanely difficult Special World which would precede the dozens of ROM-hacks which are known to be even more difficult.

There's a two-player mode as well, in which players take it in turns to beat the stages.

Super Mario World is still one of my all-time favourite games, and still holds up after more than twenty years.

Anyway, I'll be back soon to talk about A Link to the Past.