Hi Malstrom.
As you’ve been getting hostile email about being disappointed in Super Mario World, i decided to write non-hostile email.
So, count me in. I too was disappointed in Super Mario World.
I don’t know what disappointed you and Jeremy Parish, but to me, being able (having) to save the game was a huge disappointment. I wanted my Mario games to be fast action based games that you play over and over again and never look back, so long that you could master the game with your eyes closed (i could beat 1-1 like that back in the 80’s).
Saving the game made a fundamental difference to the nature of the game since you didn’t have to go back to the stages you already cleared.
However, the game was full of secrets with multiple exits on selected levels and the way you could play a level was different depending on what kind of power-ups you used, whether you had the cape, fire flower or Yoshi, it was very different experience every time, so my disappointment eventually vanished and the game turned out to be one of the best games ever made.
I came to think about what i wrote above about a week ago when i played SMW for the first time in a decade. I brought my SNES from my childhood home a couple of months ago and hooked it to my bedroom TV to play every once and awhile. So far, me and my kids have played mostly Super Mario Kart, Stunt Race FX and Another World with it, but due to anticipation of NSMB Wii, i decided to play SMW. I didn’t remember how good the game actually is, so after a few minutes i was just as amazed as i was back in 1992.
So, i beat the game and my kids were watching. After beating it, i left the kids playing the game and went to help my wife. I came back after half an hour to see if the kids already got bored, but my oldest kid (five years old) was still playing the first level of the game and i saw something i can’t remember seeing since SMB 3, a player turning the controller and jumping when pressing the jump button. Another amazing thing was, that, unlike usually, the kid wasn’t giving me the controller to beat a level for him, even when he just kept on dying on the level. After about ten minutes more, he did beat the level and he and his brothers had a “big celebration” for “winning” the level.
While i played the game, my kids got introduced to koopa kids, which they instantly loved. They already know who Bowser jr. (actually they even think Baby Bowser is Bowser jr.) is, but this was instant win for koopa kids (we all know Bowser jr. is the suckiest Nintendo villain ever created and my kids may agree).
Without proper context, the above may not sound interesting at all, but my kids have already played quite a lot of games, including all 3D Marios and NSMB. Since NSMB didn’t interest them at all after trying it, unlike 3D Marios, i thought they don’t like 2D Mario. But obviously, the reason for this was, that nobody showed them how the game “works” and how it’s played, while 3D Marios start in an open environment where you can fool around without dying. This can be seen in 3D GTA games just aswell, that under ten years old kids love to play for them being able to fool around without dying (you know how some parents are…).
Oh, and i see Malstrom has been on fire in the last couple of days. Keep up the good work, it’s always enjoyable to read what you put up on your blog.
I bold a few lines there for our friend, that unfortunate Nintendo employee who is assigned to look at this site, can read more easily.
Your stories of your kids interacting with the old games is very interesting.
I, thankfully, do not have kids. I have nephews in which I have corrupted in them a love of playing cool games. When I had to watch one when he was home from school sick, I brought over my Wii and introduced him to Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Contra, and Bubble Bobble (NES). Am I not the coolest uncle? He liked Bubble Bobble the most and stopped at the beginning of world 2 in Super Mario Brothers 3 because “the game is too scary!” I guess at his age I, too, would be freaked out about the sun flying down to attack me.
I play with my nephews on the VS mode in NSMB DS. They really like that.
But your story aptly describes how old school Mario is truly classic and is for all generations. Even before Super Mario Brothers, we had Pitfall and the original Mario Brothers. We had Donkey Kong. Those of us that are older, we had gaming with a starting curve and grew more complicated as the games did.
And I have to agree with you about Super Mario World. The game does seem slower than Super Mario Brothers 3. But the game is very good. I give SMB 3 the nod because the fact that SMW and SMB3 is even debatable, of comparing an 8-bit and 16-bit game, really shows how strong SMB3 is. SMB3 also had Battle Mode which SMW disappointingly did not.
The save mode is an interesting point. I just replayed SMB 3. One of the reasons I think that game is so strong, despite how short the levels are and all, is that you cannot replay levels. The usual power-ups of the mushroom, star, leaf, and fire flower are common. However, the tanooki suit, the hammer brothers suit, and the frog suit (somewhat) are rare.
What is rare is valuable. Hammer Brothers suits are very rare in the game so getting one makes you shout. I only got one the entire play through I did (and I played every level). I think I got two tanooki suits, maybe six frog suits as they are more common in World 3.
Kuribo’s Shoe is so popular because it is rare. It only appears in one level. Only. One.
And you cannot replay it. Once you beat it, it is done. You have to start the game all over in order to reach it again. Now, I don’t have a problem with this as there are whistles and P-wings where you can pretty much go to any level in the game when you want to. But with Super Mario World, you can just replay any level at any time. And that kills the rarity. The colored Yoshis would be more interesting if you couldn’t enter and exit levels at will to take them as if they were a farm.
Imagine if SMB 3 had the save state and replay level feature that SMW had. Everyone would just be replaying 5-3 and keep playing with Kuribo’s Shoe. Or someone would keep replaying that level where you get a Tanooki Suit. These items would lose their value since they would become common.
SMB3 still amazes me with its secrets. For example, it is rare to have the treasure ship appear. It is rare for a White Mushroom house to appear.
I noticed the same problem with rarity occurred with Mega Man 4. Mega Man 4 is the first Mega Man where you can replay the stages (and farm Energy Tanks from Skull Man’s stage). Mega Man 4 is not a bad game. But something seems off it from Mega Man 2 and 3. Perhaps this replayability is a problem. Without rarity, it doesn’t seem special.