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Did you mean there were three different kinds of enemies? Because there was only one level.
I too, would play that thing for hours with my best friend without playing a single level. We wouldn’t even try to compete, all we wanted to do was stay alive as long as we could because we knew stuff happened like fireballs that would appear and go through the stage. We would also turn the enemies purple, which made them faster.
When we played the game, we sometimes played the battle mode because you could steal the other person’s star or flower or mushroom (you know the ones you get at the end of a level). Though we usually did it to maximize the amount of lives we could get. So if I had one star and one flower, and he had a flower, I would give him one so he could try to have 3 lives and I had another chance a getting five lives upon getting two other stars. And man would we get pissed when someone would die before the exchange was over, because if the card was still floating around, it meant we had lost it!
Your comparison of Super Mario World to Twilight Princess is so good. The only thing I would change is I would have a second party make a new Star Tropics. Donkey Kong was already a platformer, though I guess Star Tropics was never really popular.
I can’t remember the time I played Super Mario World clearly, I was about 8 or 9 and since I owned SMB 3 and didn’t have a Super Nintendo (Nintendo lost me to Sonic 2’s ability to play as Tails), SMB 3 was always going to be my favorite. I remember enjoying the hell out of it though. My best friend and I went through it in about 2 weeks (I think I managed to beat SMB 3 for the first time in the same year, it was a lot harder). I also played a lot of it at my cousin’s. What I do remember though is not feeling attached to it as much. I think it had to do with Mario having more pastel colors. The game already looked like it was more for babies, where as SMB 3, even with all it’s colors, was more for everybody.
My other gripe with the game was the precision. Mario’s sprite was rounder and that meant you lost an indicator for precision platforming. The controls also felt a bit looser. If I have one serious complaint about NSMB DS and Wii it’s that they put 3D Mario in my 2D game with his loose running (again with the “this is the way it has to be” mentality simply because 3D is possible). I don’t want to see Mario’s feet slide when starting to run, I want to see him move!
At least Yoshi is back to somewhat save the game again, hehe.
There were three battle stages. They randomly appeared. Most of the battle stages were the Mario Brothers stage. But one was the one with ladders and another with a pipe that shot out coins and fire.
Above: One of the odd Battle Mode stages in SMB 3.
There were twelve variations on the Battle Mode in SMB 3. They are all listed here.
So it is incorrect for “game journalists” to say that NSMB Wii is the first Platform Mario game to feature multiplayer since Mario Brothers of the arcade. They leave out the Battle Mode stages in Super Mario Brothers 3!
When NSMB Wii was unveiled, the “game journalists” said, “It is Zelda Four Swords, oh noes!” I instantly thought of the original Mario Brothers and the addictive Battle Mode in Super Mario Brothers 3. I guess the “game journalists” don’t even know about Battle Mode in Super Mario Brothers 3 since they apparently had no friends growing up.
Anyway, I’m glad to put up your history on Super Mario World. It does appear as graphics got better, the Japanese eccentricities began to reveal themselves more and more within the art design. If you thought Super Mario World was beginning to look a little too ‘colorful’, I shudder at what you thought of Yoshi’s Island! Even I blanched at the saccharine overload that Yoshi’s Island with its babies and crayon color world with happy stars. It is a good game, but it is a little *too* colorful!
