Super Mario World
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| Super Mario World | |
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo, Mattel (Australia 1992–1994) |
| Designer(s) | Takashi Tezuka (director) |
| Composer(s) | Kōji Kondō |
| Series | Mario |
| Platform(s) | SNES, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console, Famicom |
| Release date(s) | JP November 21, 1990 NA August 13, 1991 EU June 4, 1992 Game Boy Advance JP December 14, 2001 NA February 9, 2002 PAL April 12, 2002 Virtual Console JP December 2, 2006 NA February 5, 2007 PAL February 9, 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player Two-player |
| Rating(s) | CERO: A ESRB: E (Everyone, re-release) PEGI: 3+ OFLC: G |
| Media | 4-megabit cartridge (SNES) 32-megabit cartridge (GBA) |
Super Mario World (スーパーマリオワールド Sūpā Mario Wārudo, commonly abbreviated SMW) is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo as a pack-in launch title for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It has gone on to become a tremendous critical and commercial success, becoming the best seller for the platform, with 20 million copies sold worldwide. Like in previous games in the Mario series, the plot involves Mario traversing different lands on a quest to rescue Princess Toadstool who has been kidnapped by Bowser.
In Japan, Super Mario World is also known as Super Mario Bros. 4 and it was one of the launch games for the Japanese Super Famicom, along with F-Zero.
The game has been re-released three times, first as part of a combo with Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES in 1994.[1] Secondly, it was released on the Game Boy Advance with modified gameplay, as the second part of the Super Mario Advance series. The third re-release was for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America in 2007; there were no changes from the original SNES version.
In 2009, a poll conducted by British movie magazine Empire voted it "the greatest game of all time."[2]
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[edit] Plot
The plot of Super Mario World is similar to that of past Super Mario games, namely that Princess Peach is kidnapped by Bowser, and needs to be rescued by Mario and Luigi. Unlike previous games, which take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario World takes place in Dinosaur Land. The story begins with Mario and Luigi taking the princess for a vacation sometime after the events of Super Mario Bros. 3 and she is shortly thereafter kidnapped. In the original SNES version, this is represented by Mario standing in a game level, with a text box relating this information. In the Gameboy Advance port, an all new cut scene is added, which features a preview of all the different lands of Dinosaur Land.
During the course of the game, Mario and Luigi visit Yoshi's Island, Donut Plains, Vanilla Dome, Cookie Mountain, Forest of Illusion, Chocolate Island, and finally the Valley of Bowser. In addition, there are two secret world maps like Star World and the Special Zone, and a few other locales include the Twin Bridges and Soda Lake. At the end of each of the main lands, there is a castle with one of Bowser's children, the Koopalings, serving as a boss to that land. After the defeat of each castle, a Yoshi egg containing one of Yoshi's friends is rescued. The eggs are white with either yellow, green, red, or blue dots. There are also Fortresses, Ghost Houses, and Switch Palaces, which fill in dotted outlines of boxes with prize boxes of the appropriate color. The Switch Palaces also come in yellow, green, red, and blue.
After completing the Sunken Ghost Ship level, the sea spreads to reveal the entrance to the Valley of Bowser in the center of a ring of rocks. This lead to the cave entrance, but the ship is very similar in design to the Koopaling Airships of Super Mario Bros. 3. This has led to speculation that Bowser escaped with the Koopalings in an airship at the end of Super Mario Bros. 3, only to have it crash in Dinosaur Land.
[edit] Gameplay
Super Mario World is a side-scrolling platformer that takes place in Dinosaur Land. Despite being in 2 dimensions, most of the levels are open and have usually more than one exit. The goal of the player is to find the main exit and, optionally, to find the secret exits which unlock paths to new levels.[3] The core gameplay is relatively traditional—Mario jumps on the enemies to kill them or jumps from platform to platform whilst avoiding obstacles. As in Super Mario Bros. 3, all the levels are accessible from a world map.[4]
[edit] Controls and power-ups
Mario is capable of a variety of moves, most of which come from the previous Mario games. Some new moves are also available such as a "spin jump", which adds power to the typical jump. Mario can still pick up and throw items, but is now also able to throw them upwards or set them down gently. In addition to the classic Fire Flower ability to project fireballs, the Cape Feather allows Mario to fly with a cape.[4]
[edit] Yoshi
Super Mario World introduced Yoshi, a dinosaur companion that Mario can ride. The Yoshis appear in four different colors (green, yellow, red, and blue), each with an unique ability, such as the ability to throw fireballs (red), fly (blue), and stomp (yellow). There are also Baby Yoshis in the Star World levels which can be picked up by Mario. After eating five enemies, five coins, or any power-up, a baby Yoshi will become a fully grown Yoshi.
Shigeru Miyamoto stated that they wanted Mario to have a companion dinosaur ever since Super Mario Bros., however it was not possible because of the limitations of the NES. He said that "we were finally able to get Yoshi off the drawing boards with the SNES."[5]
[edit] Level check points
Super Mario World was also the first Mario game to use a visible halfway point marker in levels; if the player is able to activate the marker, and dies or exits the level before reaching the end, they will arrive at the marker's location when re-entering the level. Additionally, if Mario arrives at a marker as the small Mario, he will become Super Mario (the larger Mario) upon passing through the tape.
[edit] 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 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.
The eight levels of the Special World are relatively difficult compared to other levels. Some have unique characteristics not seen in other parts of the game. An example would be the green apples in the final level. When eaten by Yoshi, they gave the player more time to complete that set level. Completing the Special World results in a drastic change in graphics on whichever file the levels were completed. Among others, Piranha Plants become pumpkins, Koopa Troopas wear Mario masks and their colors have been switched to blue or yellow. The world map takes on a different color scheme, using more of an Autumn palette.
In Super Mario Advance 2, two additional enemies receive a face-lift: 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).[6]
[edit] Development
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This section requires expansion with: more details about the game development itself. |
The game was directed by Takashi Tezuka and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto with Shigefumi Hino as the graphics designer. It took three years to develop the game with a team of sixteen people.[5] However Miyamoto stated that he felt that the game was incomplete and that development was rushed towards the end of the project.[7]
[edit] Music
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Koji Kondo composed all of the music used in Super Mario World, using only an electronic keyboard. Most of the music used in the game, with the exception of the Title Screen Theme, the Ending Theme, the Overworld Map Themes, and Bowser's Theme, is a variation on the same melody. The music is played normally on the overworld levels. It is then slowed down and made to echo in caverns, moves in a slow, wave-like fashion (in 3/4 or waltz time) in Underwater levels, and in the athletic theme it is played fast and lively to suit the level taking place in the air. When riding on Yoshi, the soundtrack of any level is accompanied by bongo drums.[6]
The Castle Theme and Ghost House theme have remnants of the basic SMW theme, but played in a minor key to evoke feelings of anxiety.
Waiting around on the Special Zone map screen for about two minutes (eight loops of the Special Zone theme, which is itself a variation of the Starman music) causes the map music to change to an updated steel drum version of the original Super Mario Bros. main theme. This resets to the original Special Zone music upon entering and exiting a level. A song comprising the title screen music and ending music is a musical option for the Isle Delfino stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The castle theme as well has become available for play in the same game.
[edit] Reception
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At the time, Nintendo was late to the 16 bit video game market, which was slowly being conquered by Sega and their Mega Drive/Genesis system.[9] A new game, Sonic the Hedgehog, helped create numerous sales and increased popularity for Sega.[9] Shigeru Miyamoto stated at the time that because of the very limited production time, Super Mario World was not quite as good as he had hoped and that with time the games for the system would allow for more emotion and story.[9][7] Despite this, on GameRankings the game received very positive scores, with a 97% average score making it the fourth highest ranked game of all time and has also been ranked number 4 on the voting average list with the average vote of 9.2.[10] [11] It was also rated the 8th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.[12] The game placed 7th in Official Nintendo Magazine's "100 greatest Nintendo games of all time"[13] and 61st in Famitsu readers all-time favorite 100 games.[14]
It was also placed in fourth best 'Mario' game of all time by ScrewAttack. [15]
[edit] Impact and legacy
The game has often been compared to Super Mario Bros., in the sense that both games established the standard for all subsequent side-scrollers released on their respective systems.
In addition, with the augmented capabilities of the SNES, Super Mario World advanced the graphics in Mario games. All of the objects and characters in the game moved from flat sprites to a more three-dimensional look. Super Mario World also used the SNES's multiple background layers for parallax scrolling and other background effects such as sparkling stars, 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.[citation needed] A prequel was made in 1995 entitled Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island featuring Yoshi as the main protagonist.
[edit] Ports and remakes
[edit] Super Mario All-Stars
The game was packaged in a special version of Super Mario All-Stars titled Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, which was released in 1994 only in the United States and in Europe as the pack-in game for the Super NES "Super Mario Set" bundle. This version included four save files (instead of three) and a different sprite set for Luigi, instead of being a green recolor of Mario's sprite like before (however, the sprites for Luigi crouching on Yoshi [same as holding an item] are not changed, resulting in inconsistency). The PAL version was only available in Australia, the UK, the Scandinavia through Bergsala AB, and in the German-speaking countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria).
[edit] Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
Super Mario World was ported by Nintendo R&D2 to the Game Boy Advance as Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 in 2002. This version of Super Mario World adds a handful of features, such as a reward for getting every Yoshi Coin in all levels in the game, and some gameplay differences between Mario and Luigi (notably their jumping, their behavior on Yoshi and what happens upon hitting 10-coin blocks).[16] It has been re-released as a Player's Choice title. This game also includes a new sprite set for Luigi, entirely different from the All-Stars version. In this version of the game, Luigi jumps higher and has less control compared to Mario, unlike the All-Stars version.
[edit] Virtual Console
Super Mario World was one of the first games to be announced for Wii's Virtual Console service with a cost of 800 Wii Points. Eventually it was released in Japan on December 2, in America on February 5, 2007[17] and in Australia and Europe on February 9, 2007.
[edit] Family Computer/Pirated version
In 1995, JY Company/Hummer Team released an unlicensed version for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game boasted similar graphics and retained many elements from its source material—the map screen, Yoshi, and Luigi plus many of the original (unaltered in some cases) stages and enemies. The music was also very similar to the SNES originals.
Two different versions of the game exist - an incomplete ("demo") version that ends after the fourth castle, and a "full" version with complete access to all levels stored within the game's data. The two can be easily differentiated through the different map layouts and the presence of a warp screen in the full version; both versions are relatively buggy, however, since the game was made on a tight budget.[18]
The game also features repeated background appearances in certain levels by a strange, three-eyed sun. After pausing at any point during the game, press Up, Right, A, Down, Right, B, Up, Left to enable a secret color picture of the three-eyed sun; however, this also locks the game and requires the player to reset.
[edit] Related products
Less than a month after the game's American release, DiC Entertainment produced a Super Mario World animated series based on the game, although some of the game's elements and names were renamed or changed. It was the last Super Mario cartoon series. DiC Entertainment later released Super Mario All Stars, which was a compilation of previous Super Mario cartoons. While this compilation was technically the final Super Mario cartoon series, Super Mario World is regarded as the last original cartoon series related to the game franchise.
A direct sequel to Super Mario World was planned for the Philips CD-i, known as Super Mario's Wacky Worlds by NovaLogic, but was canceled during development.[19]
[edit] See also
- List of Super Mario Bros. television series
- Super Mario Bros.
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
- Super Mario remake series
[edit] References
- ^ "Super Mario All-Stars / Super Mario World Release Information for SNES". GameFAQs. GameSpot. http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/data/920979.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-11.
- ^ "The 100 Greatest Games Of All Time". Empire. Bauer Consumer Media. http://www.empireonline.com/100greatestgames/default.asp?p=1. Retrieved on 2009-05-30.
- ^ Miller, Skyler. "Super Mario World - Review". http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=2630&tab=review. Retrieved on 2009-04-13.
- ^ a b Super Mario World Instruction Booklet. Nintendo.
- ^ a b Robinson, A; Johnson, C (May 1991). "Mario Mania Players Guide Interview". Miyamoto Shrine. Kikizo. http://www.miyamotoshrine.com/theman/interviews/0561.shtml.
- ^ a b Nintendo EAD. Super Mario World. (Nintendo). SNES, (v1). (in Japanese, English). (1990-11-21)
- ^ a b McLaughlin, Rus. "IGN Presents The History of Super Mario Bros.". http://uk.retro.ign.com/articles/833/833615p2.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-13.
- ^ "Super Mario World for SNES". Game Rankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/snes/519824-super-mario-world/index.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-11.
- ^ a b c Game Over by David Sheff, 1993, Random House.
- ^ Game Rankings: Super Mario World Reviews
- ^ "All-Time Best". Game Rankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/browse.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-13.
- ^ "NP Top 200", Nintendo Power 200: 58–66, February 2006.
- ^ East, Tom. "100 Best Nintendo Games - Part Six". Official Nintendo Magazine. Future plc. http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=7327. Retrieved on 2009-03-2.
- ^ "Japan Votes on All Time Top 100 Video Games". Edge Magazine. Edge. March 2006. http://www.edge-online.com/features/japan-votes-all-time-top-100?page=0%2C1.
- ^ ScrewAttack - Top Ten Mario Games
- ^ Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 for Game Boy Advance Review
- ^ March 2007/V213 Issue of Nintendo Power (page 40)
- ^ The Game Obscurities
- ^ "Super Mario's Wacky Worlds". IGN Games. IGN Entertainment. http://uk.cheats.ign.com/objects/142/14217666.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-11. "A planned platformer for the CD-i console in 1993, Super Mario's Wacky Worlds unleashed Mario in a series of "Wacky Worlds" including ancient lands, haunted worlds, jungles and ice lands"
[edit] External links
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Wikibooks has more on the topic of |
- Super Mario World - Super Mario Wiki
- SMW central
- The Mushroom Kingdom - Game resources
- Mario Mayhem - General information
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