Super Mario World

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For the GBA enhanced remake, see Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2.
For the cartoon, see Super Mario World (cartoon).

Super Mario World

Developer(s)	Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)	^JPN Nintendo Co., Ltd. ^NA Nintendo of America ^EU Nintendo of Europe
Designer(s)	Takashi Tezuka (director)
Release date(s)	^JPN November 21, 1990 ^NA August 13, 1991 ^EU April 11,1992
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (re-release)
Platform(s)	SFC, SNES, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console
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 Co., Ltd. for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System. 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. It was released on November 21, 1990 in Japan, August 13, 1991 in North America and then April 11, 1992 in Europe. The game was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on February 5, 2007 for 800 Wii points. There were no changes from the original SNES version.

1 Game description
2 Development
- 2.1 Music
3 Reception
4 Impact
5 Related products
6 Trivia
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Game description

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[edit] Story

Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool set out on a vacation to Dinosaur Land. However, during this vacation Princess Toadstool is kidnapped and a spell is placed on the inhabitants of Dinosaur Land. Accidentally stumbling upon Yoshi, a dinosaur, Mario and Luigi hear that it is Bowser's doing. Wanting to take control of Dinosaur Land for its natural resources, Bowser has cast a powerful spell trapping the Yoshis in eggs since they tried to stop Bowser earlier. Waiting for someone to liberate them, Mario and Luigi must go through seven distant castles and defeat the Koopalings to reach Bowser and save the Princess - stopping his latest scheme.

[edit] Gameplay

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. In secret levels however, if you do not find the key and hole you will only go to world that the levels can bring you to. If you find all the keys and key holes, you will be able to go to the very last world in the game.

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). 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 amount of stages and exits are equal when in reality there are only 72 true levels. This is seen by some critics as an occurrence of soft scale false advertisement^{[citation needed]}.

The Yoshis appear in four different colors (green, yellow, red, and blue), each with slightly different abilities. 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 color.

[edit] Changes

Besides the obvious upgrades in graphics, design, and sound, there are some critical changes in gameplay from the NES Mario games. Mario is capable of a variety of moves. As in Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario can pick up/throw shells and other items, but is now also able to throw them upwards. In addition to the classic Fire Flower ability to project fireballs, the Super Feather allows Mario to fly with a cape. He can also use the cape to float down slowly or even glide across distances. Mario can receive Cape and Fire power ups even when he is small Mario, eliminating the need to "power-up" to Super Mario first. Mario also retains the ability to slide down hills to stomp enemies, as first seen in Super Mario Bros. 3. Mario can spin jump in this game as Super Mario, Cape Mario, and Fire Mario, allowing him to ricochet off of hazardous surfaces, break through blocks, 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 (see the Yoshi article for his abilities in SMW).

Blocks are 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 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.

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). Items can also be thrown upward or set down gently instead of just being thrown or kicked. 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 and then re-enters the level.

When Mario receives a power up, upon being hit, he will revert back to small Mario regardless of the power up (this was changed in Super Mario Advance 2). However, when Super Mario receives a better power up, his mushroom is transferred to a "reserve box" at the top of the screen. When he is hit, the mushroom drops down and he can catch it. When Mario receives a fireball powerup while he has a cape or vice versa, he changes to the new form and the old one goes to the box at the top. Getting hit 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. Then 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 halfway point marker in levels; if the player is able to activate the marker, and then dies or exits the level before reaching the end, they will arrive at the marker's location when re-entering the level (The original Super Mario Brothers game also had restart points in Worlds 1-7, but they were not marked). 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.

[edit] 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 color (blue, red, or yellow), which must be fed five enemies or coins for Mario to be able to ride it. Feeding a colored 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 color and the color of the shell. Blue color 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). 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 are eight additional levels of particular difficulty. In the American translation the levels are named with expressions from surfer lingo (in the following order: Gnarly, Tubular, Way Cool, Awesome, Groovy, Mondo, Outrageous, Funky) whereas the Japanese original had other names (each two levels would refer to itself as the same course). Completing the Special Zone results in major graphical changes, reversible only by erasing the file on which it was completed. However, it does not affect any other files. Piranha Plants become pumpkins, Koopa Troopas now wear Mario masks and their colors have been switched so rarer shells are now more common, and Bullet Bills become Pidgits. The world takes on a different color scheme, using more of an Autumn palette - however, the levels themselves do not change color. 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).^[1]

To change the world from Summer to Autumn, in the SNES version and in Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, you must clear all levels in Special Zone, in the GBA port you must find all the goals in every level of the game.

Using Star Road also allows more experienced players to complete the game in only 11 stages. However, the stages are more difficult as the switch palaces have been skipped.

[edit] Development

The game was produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, the music was composed by Koji Kondo, and the graphics were designed by Shigefumi Hino.

[edit] Music

Music sample:

Super Mario World "Overworld Theme" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- 14 second sample of the Overworld Theme from Super Mario World.
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.

Koji Kondo composed all of the music used in Super Mario World. Most of the music used in the game, with the exception of the Title Screen 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 is accompanied by bongo drums.

The Castle Theme and Ghost House theme have remnants of the basic SMW theme, but are also joined with a minor harmony making the melody somewhat different.

Waiting around on the Special Zone map screen for about two minutes 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.

[edit] Reception

At the time, Nintendo was late to the 16 bit video game market, which was slowly being taken away by Sega and their Mega Drive/Genesis system.^[2] A new game, Sonic the Hedgehog, helped create numerous sales and greater popularity for Sega.^[2] When Super Mario World was released in the USA, it wasn't particularly well received ^[2], as the story was very similar to Super Mario Bros. and especially Super Mario Bros. 3. Consequently, many children found the new Sonic character more appealing.^[2] Shigeru Miyamoto stated at the time that because of the very limited production time, the game was not as good as he had hoped and that with time the quality of games for the system would increase allowing more emotion and story.^[2] However, Super Mario World still became a huge success and eventually became a Player's Choice title, outselling even Sonic, and is regarded today as one of the best video games ever made.

[edit] Impact

The game has often been compared to Super Mario Bros., in the sense that both games "set the bar" for all subsequent side-scrollers released on their respective systems. Super Mario World introduced many now-common concepts to action gaming, such as giving the player the ability to revisit levels to find overlooked secrets. It was one of the first games to reward the player for "getting one-hundred percent" (finding all the secret exits in the levels, many of which lead to secret levels), an idea that has since become very popular. Super Mario World is still considered by many to be one of the greatest games ever because of its simple yet creative and addictive gameplay.^{[citation needed]}

In addition, with the augmented capabilities of the SNES, Super Mario World was a step forward for the graphics in Mario games. All of the objects and characters in the game moved from the flat sprites in the NES 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. However, parallax scrolling was not used to the extent of subsequent Mario games.

A copy of Super Mario World came with each Super Nintendo upon the system's release in Europe and America.^{[citation needed]} Though this package deal was later dropped, it helped Super Mario World on its path to becoming one of the best-selling video games of all time internationally. A sequel was made in 1995 entitled Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island featuring Yoshi as the main protagonist. The sequel bears little resemblance to its predecessor due to Miyamoto's change in art and gameplay styles, and in fact does not carry the "Super Mario World" name in the original Japanese title, suggesting it was appended to boost American sales.

[edit] Related products

Gameplay screenshot of the game

The game was packaged in a special version of Super Mario All-Stars called Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, which was released in 1994 only in the United States 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, re-designed by Nintendo of America, so Luigi does not look like Mario in green.

It has also been released for Game Boy Advance as Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. It was marketed heavily and became the best-selling Game Boy Advance game of all time so far (if discounting the combined sales of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire). In this game, Luigi can kick his feet when he jumps, and when he rides Yoshi, he can make Yoshi spit out anything (eg. berries, Goombas, Jumping Pirahna Plants, Koopa Troopas with no shells or masks).

Less than a month after the game's American release, DiC produced an animated TV show 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.

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, and was originally intended to be ready for the North American launch of the console. Nintendo of America later removed the game from its list of Virtual Console games for 2006. Eventually it was released in Japan on December 2, 2006, the day of the Japanese launch, in America on February 5, 2007^[3] and in Europe on February 9, 2007.

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.

This is the first Mario game in which Yoshi appears.
This is the first Mario game where Princess Toadstool is depicted with blonde hair and white gloves, in line with her official character design.
The four colors of the Yoshi dinosaurs match those of the main buttons of the Super Famicom and PAL SNES controller. Also, in the special road, the familiar SFC / PAL SNES logo is shown.
There was a direct sequel to Super Mario World planned for the Philips CD-i, Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, but this game was canceled during development because of the CD-i's infamous popularity.