 In many videos I've described the leap that certain game franchises take from the NES to the Super Nintendo, as either NES games put on steroids, or NES games turned up to 11, or you get the idea. Perhaps the best example of that is the leap from Super Mario Bros. 3 to Super Mario World. And really, Mario 3 is Mario World's closest contemporary to this day, so that's going to be the main comparison I'm going to make here. Where superior looking Super Nintendo platformers like Contra 3 and Super Castlevania 4 and the Mega Man X series only had anywhere between 6 and 20 something levels, Super Mario World had 96 to blow through. And with its flawless tight controls and classic Mario stylings, there's really just no other comparison on the Super Nintendo, not even its quote unquote sequel Yoshi's Island. It's just in its own universe, which is pretty remarkable considering that it's a launch title. Anyway, while I understand Super Mario Bros. 3 will always have the nostalgic edge for many people, and yeah it does do some things better, Super Mario World takes many many things that game did and makes them better. Whether it's the new items like the feather, new interactive characters like Yoshi, a slew of new enemies like my favorite Charge and Chuck, unlocking new stages on the world map like exclamation point blocks, and worlds like the Forest of Illusion which just openly screw with you, the ghost houses and those are still fun to try and figure out, and the really fun Star World stages which was another universe of difficulty compared to the rest of the game. And the main criticism I hear about Super Mario World is that the ability to fly basically breaks the game. My response is, well, kind of, but not really. Flying and staying in the air were a little bit of a tricky process, you need enough room to take off, and you need to time the backspace correctly to stay in the air evenly. And that's unlike games like Demons Crest where you literally press a button twice and you're flying anywhere you want, now that's how you break a game. But still, even if flying is a process, the criticism remains that it robs the game of its difficulty. Uh, well, you know, there's really next to no threat of death in Super Mario World anyway, flying or no. The fun in Super Mario World is not in the challenge, at least not until you get to the Star World. The fun is plowing through all 96 levels. One of my favorite things to do in this game is to just sprint straight through it on a speedrun without dying and without stopping to unlock anything else. Super Mario World is reminiscent of Super Metroid in that there's more than one way to play it. It's very speedrun friendly, or you can take the time to explore and unlock everything, or you can go straight to the Star World from nearly the beginning of the game if you'd like. You can try to get 50s at the end of every level. The game is wide open for many different styles of players. Even furthering this point, what I really love nowadays is seeing the sheer amount of crazy ass homebrew levels that fans design and put on YouTube. It just goes to show the Super Mario World universe has a timelessness to it. And seriously, if you've never seen the auto Mario videos, YouTube search that right now, they are goddamn amazing. Going back to the NES comparison, where I give the advantage to Mario 3 is that the world themes were much stronger and much more fun. I mean, the world where everything's huge? Who doesn't love that? Really, the only memorable world theme in Super Mario World is the Forest of Illusion, where you have to keep a lookout for alternate endings to level so you can clear a path to the castle. I do wish Mario World had gotten more creative along the lines of the huge world in Mario 3, but I wouldn't blame the developers for thinking, well, we've already done that. Let's do something else, like unlocking stuff on the world map. And that makes sense to me. Where I think Mario World has a clear advantage over Mario 3 is that Mario 3 has so many auto scrolling levels. Seriously, those get so old. That's just my opinion, obviously, but I'm thankful there's only a handful of those levels in Super Mario World. Now, as far as comparing the controls, the graphics, the sound and all that stuff, they're still very close, which is a testament to Mario 3 more than anything. But still, to me, nothing beats an afternoon of a Mario World speedrun. Over 20 years later, and it's still immensely satisfying to just bulldoze your way through this game. And hey, even if you aren't into speedruns, there's a multitude of other ways you can approach this game. That's the beauty of Super Mario World.