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Saturday 16 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY
Continuing to play Super Mario World Ive found that the variety of levels combined with its art direction is its greatest appeal to me. Though like any platformer, the levels are variations on a theme, Mario World does an excellent job keeping things mixed up. One level I might be doing the standard Jump And Bop the whole way through, the next I might have to bet timing jumps between moving platforms, the next riding a boat on a pool of lava watching for enemies leaping up from below.
I also found I enjoy the light puzzle elements that Mario World throws in, particularly on the ghost house levels, where you have to position move a power button around to the right position before activating it in order to make platforms appear for you to jump on.
My personal favorite aspect of the game is when you get the cape power up, and be able to fly about and glide across levels, just plain fun.
I have a hard time coming up with negatives for this game despite my normal animosity towards platform games (mostly stemming from the fact I suck at them). The levels are colorful and interesting, the music is entertaining, the game world is fun and light hearted, and there is a wide variety of play available between the numerous levels.
DESIGN
Though my ignorance of the time (I was very young when it came out) must be taken into account, it is my opinion that Super Mario World really pushed the platformer genre ahead in many areas.
The game had excellent music for its time, it was lively, energetic and accentuated the mood of any given level.
The visuals cant be overstated, at the time they were wonderful and light years ahead of most platformers available. Pleasant, bright, and colorful.
The variety of levels and enemies is also paramount to this games success.
The continuous game world and the ability to save was new for platform games, no more did you have to beat in one sitting or keep the power on.
The check points in the level were of extreme importance for lousy or less experienced players like myself. This saves a tremendous amount of frustration in having to redo the level for those of us who almost finish only to die at the last moment.
Given the time it came out, its very difficult to find something wrong with the design of Super Mario World, it truly was revolutionary for its time.
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