My Personal Favourite game of all time!

Released: November 1990

Story

Mario , Luigi and Princess Toadstool set out on a vacation in Dinosaur Land . However, during their vacation, Princess Toadstool gets kidnapped (again). However, not only is the Princess gone, but a spell is put on the 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 , then reach Bowser to save the Princess and stop his latest scheme.

Gameplay

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

Super Mario World contains a "world map" screen, which provides a passive overview of all the game's levels; each level is accessed individually from the world map. The concept was previously seen in Super Mario Bros. 3 , and World' s execution is similar but more elaborate. The game features 72 courses laid out across the seven worlds, ad 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 when in reality there are only 72 true levels. This is seen by some critics as an occurrence of soft scale 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 four enemies, three berries, or any power-up, they will become a fully grown Yoshi of the same color.

There was a sequel to Super Mario World, Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, but this game was cancelled because of the CD-i's drop in popularity.

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 cannot break yellow blocks by jumping into them or hitting them with a Koopa shell. Rather, this type of block spins on its axis when hit, rendering it temporarily passable, then reverts to its solid state after a few seconds. To destroy these blocks permanently, Mario must Spin Jump on top of them.

Also, enemies hit by fireballs from Fire Mario will turn into Coins which can be collected, rather than getting knocked off the screen; the same is true if Yoshi spits out a red Koopa shell (which becomes a trio of fireballs). Items can also be thrown upward or set down gently instead of just being thrown or kicked. Koopa Troopas jump out of their shells after being stomped on. Goombas can be picked up and thrown at other enemies like Koopa shells. Paratroopas become regular Koopa Troopas if stomped on. Stomping on the shelless Koopa will completely defeat it. Once they are completely defeated, they will not reappear if the player returns to that area.

When Mario recieves a power up, he will revert back to small mario regardless of the power up, however this was changed in Super Mario Advance 2.

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 World. The levels here all have a baby Yoshi of a particular color (blue, red, or yellow), which must be fed five enemies or coins for Mario to be able to ride it. Feeding a colored Yoshi a power-up results in it growing up immediately. The colored Yoshis also have special abilities when they have a Koopa shell in their mouths. Blue can fly when holding a shell, red spits fire when eating any shell, and yellow can stomp, making dust clouds that can defeat enemies. All yoshi's can fly with a blue shell in their mouth.

Each level in Star World 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 World and advance to Special Zone by finding the secret exit in Star World 5.

In Special Zone, there are eight additional levels of particular difficulty. In the American translation the levels are named with expressions from surfer lingo (in the following order: Gnarly, Tubular, Way Cool, Awesome, Groovy, Mondo, Outrageous, Funky) whereas the Japanese original had other names (each two levels would refer to itself as the same course). Completing the Special Zone results in major graphical changes, reversible only by erasing the file on which it was completed. However, it does not affect any other files. Piranha Plants become pumpkins, Koopa Troopas now wear Mario masks and their colors have been switched so rarer shells are now more common, Bullet Bills become Pidgits, and the entire world takes on a different color scheme, using more of an Autumn palette. In the English SNES version, the redone enemies have new names, but in the Japanese version and Super Mario Advance 2 , the enemies share the same name since they are basically the same enemy. In Super Mario Advance 2 , two additional enemies receive a facelift: Pokey and Goomba (the latter of which is thought to have been considered for it in the SNES version since it has two identical copies in the game data, one of which is used after Dinosaur Land changes).

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.

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