I have very simple tastes: if a game has dinosaurs in it, then that means it's a good game for me.

It's very hard to talk about Super Mario World without sounding too repetitive, I mean you could almost say all that for all of the Mario's but for this one is especially true. It's considered by many the pinnacle of 2D Mario, and for many others just second to Super Mario Bros. 3, and its community is still thriving to this very day: Rom Hacks, speedruns, video-essays, you name it, this game's fans are more than pleased to talk about it. So coming as a newcomer, what I have very few news perspectives to bring, other than one particular thing that I realized while I was playing half-way through: it's a game that seems to be having fun.

The game itself of course it's fun, mechanically speaking it's (almost) perfect. It takes Mario's preexisting move set and expands on it, introducing the spin-jump and Yoshi, the first changing completely how you can approach both enemies obstacle that would otherwise kill you and can be used to do incredible tricks that reward you from experimenting with it (the Kaizo community definitely didn't pass on that) and Yoshi it's just a straight up upgrade, it kills most enemies with one jump, eating is fast and can let you pick items, and eating colored shells can grant abilities like spitting fire and flying, and that adds yet another layer how you approach the levels. However, Mario still retains the slipperiness form the past entries, and while this shouldn't be a problem, after all in past games this helped to go as fast as possible through the levels, in Super Mario World it's a much prominent problems, you can still go fast in some levels no doubt, but this game demands more precision, and while Mario's momentum and weight do help make the game feel more mechanically sound, it can still be a pain in some of the harder levels. The levels itself are a weird can of worms on its own, there are stellar designs here, and because how the map it's connected it does feel like a world and levels share themes, but aside from some of the castle levels and one of two levels that introduce a new obstacle, it's really hard for me to remember a particular level past world 1. They are all competent, there's not a level I could call ''bad'', but most of them just aren't that memorable. Also, one thing I just found plain underwhelming is how the reward for most things, like secret areas or getting enough points after ending the level, is 1-Ups, and when every time you boot the game again they reset back to 5, most actions you do to get them just feel... pointless. And despite of that, despite of the few minor problems, I still had a ton of fun, 'cause again, the game itself is fun, but as I said earlier, it seems like the game itself is having fun as well.

It's by far the most experimental out of all the 2D Mario's, it isn't scared of implementing brand new things or changing what once known; it toys with the idea of being a soft reboot for the series, and after this one, many of the ideas it implemented would remain staples of the series, with others being limited to this game only, which gives it a fairly unique aura that few other titles in the series have. it's PACKED with secret, from switches that once activated affect all the levels, to two entirely secret worlds with totally unique levels. As I said before, the levels itself may not be the most memorable thing in the world, but the mechanics and enemies are; in that regard, it's like these things were perfectioned to the extreme, and the levels were more of playground to make you use all that the games give you, and just have a blast.

I know I've been critical to the game, but that's just because I ended up loving it, and as such some of its flaws became more apparent. The fact of the matter is that there's no other game in the whole series as this one, it may not be the best one for many, but is sure is unique and incredibly fun, a true jump forward that was needed for the series to continue, and a really, really fantastic game.