Super Mario World (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
973A playthrough of Nintendo's 1991 platformer for the Super Nintendo, Super Mario World.
This playthrough shows a "full clear" of all 96 stage exits.
By 1991, Super Mario was no longer merely a popular game series. It had become an institution, and with five major hits under his belt (four on the NES and one on the Game Boy), gamers were eagerly anticipating the icon's next starring role.
Just eighteen months after the record-breaking US release of Super Mario Bros. 3, Nintendo's shiny new 16-bit system hit store shelves just in time for the holiday season. But given the incredible success of the NES, what could the company possibly do to convince the masses that the Super Nintendo was a worthwhile investment?
Mario, of course.
A new Mario game designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the new hardware was exactly what they needed. A game that couldn't have been done on the aging 8-bit NES. A game that would make people ooh and aah over the state-of-the-art graphics and stereo sound. A game that would introduce new game mechanics. A game that could keep players absorbed for years-on-end with its bottomless well of content.
And instead of selling it separately from the new console, it was included as the pack-in game, along with two controllers, right from day one. Nintendo understood their audience well, and the console was immediately a hit.
Super Mario World was a worthy successor to Super Mario Bros. 3, and it was also a tantalizing look at what the next generation of video games would bring.
After toppling Boswer's empire in Super Mario Bros. 3, the crew travels to Dinosaur Land for a well-deserved bit of R&R, but the peace doesn't last for long. Not only has Toadstool gone missing, but Dino Land's indigenous Yoshis have also been disappearing at an alarming rate, and it doesn't take long to realize that Mario's arch-nemesis is once again up to his old tricks.
Super Mario World is divided up into seven themed areas, each containing several stages, much like what we saw in Mario 3. This time, however, the path was far less linear. Of the game's 72 unique stages, 24 of them include a secret exit, and taking one of these secret exits would open up a brand new pathway on the world map. These paths might allow you to circumvent a few levels, provide an access point to a secret area, or even open the way to the fabled Star Road.
Switch palaces were introduced, too. These switches turn the hollow outlines of colored squares into blocks that Mario can walk across, opening up previously unaccessible areas within many of the game's stages.
Mario also gains the ability to fly indefinitely thanks to the new cape power-up. Unlike Raccoon Mario, Caped Mario can keep himself aloft by using his cape like a glider, allowing for a ton of freedom in exploring the huge stages.
Super Mario World's most beloved addition to the series, however, has to be Yoshi. Once Mario frees Yoshi from an egg, he can saddle up and gain access to new abilities. Yoshi can eat apples for lives, points, and time bonuses, swallow troublesome enemies, and can even get superpowers by gulping different color Koopa shells.
Everything is held together by the same magic as the previous Mario games, and though World didn't represent quite as dramatic of a gameplay shift from SMB3 as SMB3 did over earlier games, it still felt fresh and innovative, and its mechanics were polished to a spit shine.
And the game was once again catered to players of all skill levels. Yoshi's Island provides a nice, gentle introduction to the mechanics, and Boswer's Valley is happy to gobble up your extra lives. But for the players that still wanted more, the Special Zone was a true test of skill.
Even though I found SMW generally easier than SMB3, the Special Zone stages make SMB3's harder levels look like a cakewalk in comparison. They're full of sadistic controller-smashing moments, and I'd be surprised if the Tubular stage wasn't the main inspiration for the Kaizo hacks that used to be so popular. It took me so long to learn those stages well enough to not die constantly as I went through them!
I can still remember how good it felt when I saw "YOU ARE A SUPER PLAYER!!" for the first time as a kid!
Many people have asked me to record this one over the years, and since it's the series' 35th anniversary this month, it seemed about time.
Super Mario World was a fantastic game, and in my personal opinion, it was the last of the "S-tier" 2D Super Mario games. There were no crying babies, no ugly prerendered sprites, no "bwa bwa" singing flowers. It was an outstanding example of classic 2D game design that offered meaningful design improvements over the previous games while still feeling fresh and exciting.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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