I do feel insecure when I play an absolute classic and I'm not completely enamoured by it. A lot of my love for Mario comes from Galaxy onward. I do really like the original Super Mario Bros. and I love playing all the styles in Mario Maker but SMB3, Super Mario 64 and now Super Mario World don't fill me with the adoration they probably deserve. As dramatic as all that sounds, I still did enjoy the game. It is very fun. The level design is great and the influence it has had on gaming is undeniable. It is remarkable how many secrets there are in the level. There are so many secret exits to levels that in some ways, I found exhausting but it does add a lot of depth to it. I did find myself getting frustrated with the game which I can admit was a skill issue. I never fully grasped the movement options with the cape. It doesn't control like Mario Maker which was hard to get used to. I tried not to use save states but there definitely were some of the later levels that I gave into the temptation. The platforming is great though and having some challenge is nice after coming from Wonder. I wish I could appreciate it more but I can still see it is a fantastic game.

Reviewed on Jan 02, 2024


3 Comments


3 months ago

I relate to this, games with such a prestigious reputation are often difficult to love. Mario World for me is a game I find worthy of respect and admiration, in contrast to many other prestigious games of its time. But I also didn't have as much fun with it and likely won't get it until a subsequent playthrough

3 months ago

@Lickiwrath I think sometimes when games are really popular, hearing so many people gas them up overhypes them to an insane degree to the point it'll never really live up to expectations going in. For example games like mario 64 and Earthbound are great but I think for the average person their massive reputation does them more harm than good. At the end of the day the classics have aged (how much is up to personal opinion) but you never really hear that side of things when the loud majority people are just saying it's a cult classic that everyone should play

3 months ago

@Fisher agreed, tragically there is not enough acceptance in gaming discourse that there is no such thing as a perfect game, and it creates this awful cycle of impenetrable hype that eventually leads to propgandic hatred or dismissal