In Japan, Super Mario World is also known as Super Mario Bros. 4 and it was one of the launch games for the system, along with Pilotwings and F-Zero.
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| Super Mario rides a Yoshi in one of the first levels of World 1. |
The game has been re-released twice, first in a Game Boy Advance version with modified gameplay, as part of the Super Mario Advance series. The second re-release was for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America in 2007; there were no changes from the original SNES version.
Game description
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) terminating in Cookie Mountain, 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 finding a key and a key hole in certain levels. Experienced players can utilise the Star Road to reach the end of the game in only 12 levels.
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| Screenshot of the first world map. The Yoshi's Island world is shown here. |
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, and 96 exits (some levels have more than one exit; these levels are usually marked red). 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 number of stages and exits are equal when in reality there are only 72 true levels.
The Yoshis appear in four different colours (green, yellow, red, and blue), each with different abilities. Upon eating a shell of any colour, blue Yoshis can fly, red Yoshis can spit fire, and yellow Yoshis stomp the ground, hurting nearby enemies. A yellow shell that has been entered by a Koopa becomes multicoloured, allowing Yoshis of any colour to fly, stomp, and spit fire all in one. There are also Baby Yoshis in the Star World levels which can be picked up by Mario. After eating five enemies, three berries, or any power-up, they will become a fully grown Yoshi of the same colour.
Changes
Numerous changes were made to the graphics, sound and presentation, as expected when a series moves to a more advanced console with 16-bit gameplay. For example Princess Toadstool (later known as Peach) for the first time is depicted with blonde hair and white gloves, in line with her official character design. Mario is capable of a variety of new moves, including a "spin jump". Mario can 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. He can also use the cape to glide down slowly and thus traverse wide distances while airborne. Conveniently, Mario can receive cape and fire power-ups even when he is regular Mario, eliminating the need to "power-up" to Super Mario first. Mario can also spin jump in this game allowing him to ricochet off of hazardous surfaces, break through blocks (only when "Super"), and destroy enemies he would normally bounce off of; a caped spin jump will cause the cape to hit enemies adjacent to Mario, while a fire spin jump will launch one fireball each to Mario's left and right. Mario can also look straight up, although this ability is not useful in-game, other than controlling "direction coins," coins that move up, down, etc., from blocks. Finally, Super Mario World introduced Yoshi, a dinosaur Mario can ride.
Blocks are almost always a big part of a Mario game. In Super Mario World, one of the new blocks is the yellow block, which spins on its horizontal axis when hit, rendering it temporarily passable, then reverts to its solid state after a few seconds. (To destroy these blocks permanently, Mario must get a Super Mushroom and then spin jump on top of them. Blocks that are not destroyed using this method have items or a vine in them.) There are also blocks which Mario can pick up and throw, but disappear after a few seconds. New red triangular blocks grant Mario the ability to walk on vertical surfaces such as walls or pipes, or can be used as a trampoline when riding on Yoshi.
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). 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 shell-less Koopa will completely defeat it. Once they are completely defeated, they will not reappear if the player returns to that area unless the player exits and then re-enters the level. Additionally, for the first time Bowser does not breathe fire in the game, and uses a machine to attack Mario.
When any powered-up form of Mario gets hit by an enemy, he will revert back to Regular Mario. However, when Super Mario receives another power-up, his previous item is transferred to a "reserve box" at the top of the screen. When he is hit, the item drops down and he can catch it. For example, Fire Mario can interchange with Caped Mario at any time as long as the reserved item is held. However a Super Mushroom will never change Fire or Caped Mario, as he is already "super". Getting hit to the point to Regular Mario or pressing SELECT releases the item in the box.
Super Mario World was the first Mario game to provide the option of exiting a level without losing a life or completing it. This capability is only activated after the player has finished the level at least once. When replaying a level, players can exit to the map screen by pressing the START button to pause the game, then pressing SELECT. It 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. The marker will stay "set" even if the player does not immediately re-enter the level, and will not be reset until that level is completed. The marker will even turn Regular Mario into Super Mario.
Star World and Special Zone
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 colour (blue, red, or yellow), which must be fed five enemies or coins or eat a star (if available) for Mario to be able to ride it. Feeding a coloured Yoshi a power-up results in it growing up immediately. Yoshis have special abilities when holding Koopa shells in their mouths, based on both their own colour and the colour of the shell. Blue colour allows the Yoshi to fly, red spits fireballs instead of releasing the shell, and yellow stomps the ground to stun or kill all nearby enemies (green has no special ability, but is the only one that turns enemies into coins once swallowed). For example, a blue Yoshi who holds a red shell in its mouth can fly, and then will spit the shell out as fireballs, and a red Yoshi who eats a yellow shell can stomp, then shoot fireballs.
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 is a Super Famicom logo in the top-left corner of the screen. This logo is also part of the European SNES logo. In the Special Zone, there are eight additional levels which are often said to be of particular difficulty. Some have unique characteristics not seen in any other part of the game. In the American translation, the levels are named with expressions from surfer slang (in the following order: Gnarly, Tubular, Way Cool, Awesome, Groovy, Mondo, Outrageous and Funky) whereas the Japanese version has other names describing the approximate difficulty of the courses (each two levels would refer to itself as the same course). Save points are provided after every other level.
Completing the Special Zone results in a drastic change in graphics on whichever file the levels were completed on. Piranha Plants become pumpkins, Koopa Troopas now wear Mario masks and their colours have been switched so blue and yellow shells are now more common, and Bullet Bills become Pidgits. The world map takes on a different colour scheme, using more of an Autumn palette - however, the levels themselves do not change colour. In the Game Boy Advance port, however, this change does not take effect until all 96 exits are found.
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 12 stages. However, the stages are more difficult as the switch palaces have been skipped.
At the end of the game, after defeating Bowser and saving the Princess, Mario, Princess, and Yoshi return to Yoshi's home where Yoshi babies of different colours hatch. After they all cheer and thank you, the credits roll. During the credits, photos of the various character and villains appear with their designated name given. This is similar to the ending of SNES's Donkey Kong Country.
Development
The game was produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, the music was composed by Koji Kondo, and the graphics were designed by Shigefumi Hino.
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