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Wednesday 20 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY
I noticed during this session that I tended to try to rush through levels, often to my detriment when it sent me straight into enemies or bottomless pits. I think this was because it’s impossible to unlock everything from most levels in one run, and trying to find everything on my first run is normally one of my main motivations to take my time and explore. However, I still did some searching in the levels that I knew contained paths to special switches (rather than the usual series of secret levels), since I knew these would impact the difficulty of the game later.
I didn’t enjoy this session quite as much. I had enough other work that playing the game started to feel more like a chore, a feeling that was exacerbated by the fact that my cartridge didn’t keep my last save and I had to start over from the beginning. One interesting thing I noticed was that a good deal of the music was the same basic tune played in way that matched the scenery, a fact that had escaped me before.
DESIGN
Super Mario World keeps the player’s interest by regularly altering the appearance of the landscape and the style of play this requires. A level that involves passing through large groups of enemies might be followed by one that takes place primarily underwater, which may itself be followed by a Ghost House full of indestructible enemies and hidden passages. The bosses in each world that I played all required different strategies, though I recall that the bosses later in the game use more difficult versions of earlier patterns. The variation almost inevitably leads to certain challenges that aren’t as enjoyable as others; I remember disliking the first boss when I was younger because it had to be forced off a platform rather than dealt a particular amount of damage.
There are a few issues surrounding the powerups. The cape can potentially make a number of levels very easy. It appears that this was intended in some levels where groups of coins are placed high in the air, but it might have been a good idea to place obstacles in the air to deter flight. A few too many of the abilities are mapped to the same button, which creates problems at times. For example, if the player release the Y button after catching a shell in Yoshi’s mouth, Yoshi will be unable to run without also spitting out the shell. Finally, while it is nice that the game allows the player to store an extra powerup if it isn’t needed, it is a bit annoying that mushrooms will overwrite either of the other two (superior) powerups when this happens.
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