Super Mario World

''"SMW" redirects here. For the wrestling league, see Smokey Mountain Wrestling.

(commonly abbreviated SMW) was the first launch game for the Nintendo Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System game consoles. It was first released on November 21, 1990 in Japan, then in August 1991 in the US and lastly on 11 April 1992 in Europe.

The game was produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, the music was composed by Koji Kondo, and the graphics were designed by Shigefumi Hino.

Game description

Story

Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool set out on a vacation on Dinosaur Land. However, during their vacation, Princess Toadstool gets kidnapped. However, not only is the Princess gone, but a spell was put on the innocent inhabitants of Dinosaur Land. Accidentally stumbling upon Yoshi, a dinosaur, Mario and Luigi hear that it is indeed Bowser's doing. He wants to take control of Dinosaur Land for its natural resources, and he cast a powerful spell on the Yoshis since they tried to stop him earlier. They are all trapped in magical eggs waiting for someone to liberate them. Mario and Luigi must go through seven distant castles and defeat the Koopalings in order to reach Bowser to save the Princess and stop his latest scheme.

Gameplay

The gameplay action is sidescrolling as in previous Mario games and it takes advantage of the Super Nintendo's 16-bit graphics and stereo audio. The game consists of a journey through levels in seven worlds: Yoshi's Island, Donut Plains, Vanilla Dome, Twin Bridges Area/Soda Canyon, Forest of Illusion, Chocolate Island, and the Valley of Bowser. There are also two secret worlds - Star Road and Special World (accessed via the Star World) - which can be found by completing secondary goals in specific levels.

Super Mario World contains a map screen on which the player moves, expanding this concept which was introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3. It features 72 courses laid out across the seven worlds, and 96 exits (some levels have more than one exit). Secret exits open up new routes on the overworld map, often leading to secret levels. When a player reaches the completion of the 96 "goals" the beginning screen will display a star next to the number "96" beside the file the goals were completed on. Something to consider, however, is the fact that the game cover states that it contains "96 levels," implying that the amount of stages and exits are equal; an episode of softscale false advertisement

The Yoshis appear in four different colors (green, yellow, red, and blue), each with slightly different abilities. There are also Baby Yoshis in the Star World levels which can be picked up by Mario. After eating five enemies, three berries, a Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, Starman, or Cape Feather, they will become a fully grown Yoshi of the same color.

Changes

Besides the obvious upgrades in graphics, design, and sound, there are some critical changes in gameplay from the NES Mario games. For example, Super Mario can no longer break certain blocks by jumping into them or hitting them with a Koopa shell. In Super Mario World, this will make the blocks temporarily passable, but they revert to their solid state after a few seconds. To destroy blocks permanently, Mario must Spin Jump on top of them. The ones that need to be passed like this are yellow, except for the eyes.

Also, enemies hit by fireballs from Fire Mario will turn into Coins which can be collected, rather than just dying --- the same goes if Yoshi spits a red-shell Koopa Troopa. Goombas which are jumped on can be picked up and thrown at other enemies like Koopa shells. Items can also be thrown upward, or set down gently instead of just being thrown or kicked forward or backward.

Star Road and Special World

The secret exits in some levels lead to one of five portals to Star Road, an otherwise secret realm. Each portal gives the player access to a level in the Star Road. The levels here all have a baby Yoshi of a particular color (blue, red and yellow) which must be fed five enemies or coins for Mario to be able to ride. Feeding a coloured Yoshi a powerup results in them growing up immediately. The colored Yoshi's also have special abilities when they have a shell in their mouth, regardless of color. Blue can fly, red spits fire instead of the shell, and yellow makes dust clouds that can defeat enemies.

Each level in Star Road has two exits. The normal exit simply counts toward the total number of exits found; to properly complete it, however, the player must find the key and the keyhole (i.e the secret exit) in each level to complete the circuit around the Star Road and advance to Special World.

In Special World, there are eight additional levels of particular difficulty. In the American translation the levels are named with an expression from surfer lingo (in the following order: Gnarly, Tubular, Way Cool, Awesome, Groovy, Mondo, Outrageous, Funky) whereas the Japanese original had other names. Completing all levels and Special World results in major graphical changes, reversible only by erasing the file on which it was completed. However, it does not affect any other files. Pirana plants become pumpkins, Koopa Troopas now wear Mario masks, and Bullet Bills become Pidgit Bills, and the entire world takes on a different color scheme, using more of an Autumn palette.

Using Star Road also allows more experienced players to complete the game in only 11 stages. However, the stages are more difficult as the switch palaces have been skipped.

Impact

The game has often been compared to Super Mario Bros., in the sense that both games "set the bar" for all subsequent sidescrollers released on their respective systems. Super Mario World introduced many now common concepts to action gaming, such as giving the player the ability to revisit levels to find overlooked secrets. It was one of the first games to reward the player for "getting one-hundred percent" (finding all the secret exits in the levels, many of which lead to secret levels), an idea that has since become very popular. Super Mario World is still considered by many to be one of the greatest games ever because of its simple yet creative and addictive gameplay.

In addition, with the augmented capabilities of the SNES, Super Mario World was a step forward for the graphics in Mario games. All of the objects and characters in the game moved from the flat sprites in the NES to a more three dimensional look. Super Mario World used the SNES's multiple background layers for parallax scrolling and other background effects, as well as occasional sprite scaling and rotation effects.

A copy of Super Mario World came with each Super Nintendo upon the system's release in Europe and America. Though this package deal was later dropped, it helped Super Mario World on its path to becoming one of the best-selling video games of all time internationally. A prequel was made in 1995 entititled Yoshi's Island featured Yoshi as the main protagonist. The sequel bears little resemblance to its predecessor due to Miyamoto's change in art style.

Related products

The game was packaged in a special version of Super Mario All-Stars called Super Mario All-Stars/Super Mario World, which was released in 1994.

It has also been released for Game Boy Advance as Super Mario Advance 2. It was marketed heavily and became the best-selling Game Boy Advance game of all time so far (if discounting the combined sales of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire).

There is also a NES unofficial (pirate) conversion by an unknown developer, created in 1995. The game ends after the first four levels present on the SNES version, but the later ones, although incomplete and/or buggy, are actually present on the ROM. It has been speculated that this was meant to be a full conversion, but something (a deadline?) stopped the development. Considering the limitations of the NES hardware, this conversion is quite impressive. [http://www.bripro.com/low/obscure/index.php?page=hko_smw

Less than a month after the game's American release, DiC produced an animated TV show based on the game, although some of the game's elements and names were renamed or changed.

Trivia

The Super Famicom logo can be seen throughout the game. First: at the top of Special World, you can see the logo. Next: The Yoshis' colors are red, blue, yellow, and green like the logo. And last: the Koopa Troopas, Switch Palaces, and "!" blocks are all red, blue, yellow, and green.
"Funky" is the only stage in the game where Yoshi can eat green berries to raise Mario's time limit.
Most of the music in the game, with the exception of the Title Screen Theme, the Overworld Theme, and Bowser's Theme, is a variation on the same melody. It is slowed down and made to echo in caverns, moves in a slow, wave-like fashion in Underwater levels, takes on a sinister tone in dungeons, and sounds spooky in Ghost Houses, but it is all the same basic tune.

Speed run records

The current records for this game as of July 5, 2006:

Regular speed runs

Speedruns

Pure Speed: 10:56 by Scott 'sdkess' Kessler
100%: 1:31:30 by Jason 'GameCube04' Baum

Tool-assisted speed runs

Tool-Assisted Speed Runs

Pure Speed: 10:32 by JXQ (real name unknown)
100%: 1:23:38 by Tim 'VIPer7' Offermann

External links

Super Mario World review - Mean Machines Archive
Super Mario World - Nintendo.com
Super Mario World - The Mushroom Kingdom
Super Mario World - Speed Demos Archive
Super Mario World Level Editor (Site also contains a new world, Demo World : The Legend Continues)

Mario platform games | Super NES games | 1990 computer and video games | 1991 computer and video games | 1992 computer and video games

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