Super Mario World is a fairly obsolete platformer in 2020, I think. The New Super Mario Bros. games and 3D Land/World have had the advantage of getting to spend more time polishing the art of level design, almost down to a science - and the adventuring and worldbuilding aspect of Dinosaur Land lives on in games like Rabi-Ribi, I think.
But despite that, it's still fun to go back to. I don't know why, but there's a je ne sais quoi to it that still lets it stand on its own, even thirty years (wow!) after its release.
If Super Mario Bros. 1 is a streamlined, single-sitting platformer, and Super Mario Bros. 3 is a game with shorter levels that often get to the synthesis part of the modern four-step level design philosophy...
I think Super Mario World is a game that stands strong by being more than just the sum of its parts.
But despite that, it's still fun to go back to. I don't know why, but there's a je ne sais quoi to it that still lets it stand on its own, even thirty years (wow!) after its release.
If Super Mario Bros. 1 is a streamlined, single-sitting platformer, and Super Mario Bros. 3 is a game with shorter levels that often get to the synthesis part of the modern four-step level design philosophy...
I think Super Mario World is a game that stands strong by being more than just the sum of its parts.