Super Mario Maker 2 is just around the corner
and I could not be more excited. Thinking of all the level ideas and crazy
situations we’ll be able to build has made me reflect on the joy of getting into
in design in the first place with Mario ROM hacks, or on a wider sense how much of an
impact Super Mario World has had on platforming in general. So today on Good Game Design I wanted to see
how the other 2D titles before and after stack up to this 1990 classic, and analyze how it
innovated in ways we haven't really seen the Italian wonder do since. Let’s talk about it. Before his first outing on the Super Nintendo,
Super Mario Bros. 3 brought a ton of new elements to the table. I mean sure Mario 2 was wacky, but the third
installment felt like the fully realized Mario formula - hoards of new enemy types and level
concepts, powerups that completely change how your character controlled and a fully explorable
map screen with secrets and interactivity galore. They weren’t afraid to throw in one-off
gimmicks like the Goomba shoe or the angry sun and then move on to the next thing without
skipping a beat. I mean look at this, what the heck is a Tanooki? This is the first time we see the Koopalings,
and Bowser’s army seems to be more intimidating than ever. Worlds had way more stages this time around
and creative themes to them like everything being giant, or climbing a tall tower and
ending up in the clouds. The whole experience felt expanded, with toad
houses to visit, an inventory so you can use items at will, and even dipping your toes
into vertical movement with the racoon leaf. It was Mario on steroids which meant that
Super Mario World had massive shoes to fill, but luckily the processing power of the SNES
let the developers add so much more than just a fresh coat of paint. It’s funny to think of how many staples
of the franchise started with this pivotal game - the most obvious being the inclusion
of an animal companion named Yoshi. This guy is so versatile, not only can he
lick up enemies and walk on spikes but he’s also a permanent extra hit when you take damage,
meaning you have a greater chance than ever to keep those crucial powerups. He can even gain special abilities by eating
certain baddies like a fire blast and straight up flight. He can’t enter castles or scary mansions,
but he quickly became the go-to item to have the best chance at surviving the obstacles
ahead of you. I like how they added a bunch of other dinosaur
enemies throughout the game too, to really sell the idea that you’re investigating
Yoshi’s home world. Mario himself had new mechanics as well, like
the spin-jump which lets him bounce on enemies’ heads and even destroy bricks below his feet,
while the cape offered a never before seen amount of freedom in terms of traversal. We saw significant quality of life improvements,
like the spare item holder so you can stay powered up on the go, midway checkpoints allowing
for longer stages, or turn blocks which have way more functionality than the typical question
box. Coolest of all they added special stages like
the head-scratching boo houses or mysterious switch palaces which were all about opening
up hidden pathways in previous stages. So not only did these make tough sections
easier to cross, but they also encouraged my favorite aspect of Super Mario World - finding
secret exits. The biggest change this time around was a
fully interconnected map that had a bevy of extra content for those willing to search
and explore. Like all good Mario games, it puts the idea
right in your face from the beginning so you know about it, but expands it to crazy lengths
later on. They’ll tease you with a red level marker
or a keyhole just out in the open, which leads to a huge sense of satisfaction when you figure
out the solution - you just had to see what it unlocks next! The Forest of Illusion is all about secret
exits, and even requires finding them to progress the game. But it reaches its apex in Star Road. These levels not only further emphasize finding
the hidden keys to move on, but also act as a shortcut to quickly reach other parts of
the island. You didn’t just travel from world to world
anymore, you needed to go back and explore old areas if you wanted to find all 96 exits. Star Road was like the warp whistle but with
actual stages to play through and an even cooler secret set that have...lets just say
dated names if you can reach them. The Special Zone has the hardest courses in
the game and makes this the first Mario title to have a rudimentary completion bonus if
you beat them all - it turns piranha plants into pumpkins, koopas into Mario heads, and
bullets into birds. Super silly but I kind of love it. These might seem like relatively simple changes
today, but compared to other platformers back then, Super Mario World provided a crazy amount
of depth. The inclusion of Star Road made it possible
to beat the game in well under 30 minutes if you know what you’re doing, and the maneuverability
from the cape made it a must-have item for speedruns. They took what Mario 3 started with adding
in all sorts of wild creatures and just ran with it. Now you have charging football players, ghosts
that turn into cement blocks, running up the sides of pipes and giant moles wearing sunglasses. It didn’t have to make sense! There’s so many quirks and nuances under
the hood that it spawned a thriving community through ROM hacks which bring the game engine
to its absolute limits. Overall, its flexibility and influence is
remarkable and is without a doubt the major reason we even have Super Mario Maker today. Sadly, we wouldn’t see another 2D Mario
on home consoles for almost 20 years - but then the New Super Mario Bros series brought
back our nostalgia while also adding some innovations of its own. Consecutive 4 player action was the big draw
of course, along with some new powerups and the ability to walljump, but they also continued
the tradition of bonus content with the collection of star coins - there’s 3 in every level. After beating the game you unlock world 9
which only lets you play its stages if you’ve gathered all the coins in a world, which is
a tubular reward for going the extra mile. And you guessed it - these are some of the
hardest levels Mario has seen yet. I hate this ice-muncher one, it can go die
a painful death, that’d be great. Unfortunately, other than that, the series
seemed to regress in more ways than it improved. Things resemble Mario 3 a lot more than it
does Mario World here, in that its much more linear overall. There are secret exits, but for the most part
they merely unlock warp cannons to launch you into later areas. There are exceptions, but searching around
the hub world is mostly forgone in favor or in-level exploration to find those star coins. Like here, they did actually include a red
switch button, giving a nice call back to Mario World, but it only changes things in
2 stages and is the required action to move on and reach the castle in world 3. That’s it. On top of this, mechanics are more streamlined
and only utilized for single level gimmicks - you can’t take Yoshi with you when you
leave, the cape is nowhere to be found and instead replaced with the propellor shroom,
which only gives you a small vertical boost, and hey where’d the extra powerup holder
go? I really miss that thing. In essence, Nintendo ditched the sense of
freedom for a lot more handholding, slower gameplay, and less interesting themes overall. To be fair, they did fix some of these issues
in the WiiU version, by allowing you to take baby Yoshis with you to other stages, and
cranking up the challenge in Luigi U, but the spirit is nowhere near the same as before. Freedom really does sum up what Super Mario
World represented - freedom for the player and for the developers: they weren’t afraid
to try something crazy just to see if it works. One of the unlockable levels called Top Secret
Area, is just a hub to collect whatever powerup you need - it’s like they’re saying, “Hey,
go nuts. Search every nook and cranny you can!” “Should we include a little balloon that
Mario eats and he gets real fat and floats around? Why not?! Who cares!” You know the meme of killing Yoshi to get
an extra jump and reach a farther ledge? That’s actually the real way to reach one
of the secret exits in this game! You can jump beyond the goal tape and run
through a 2nd one behind it. Bye Yoshi. All of this leads to each location feeling
like a real place that’s full of unique inhabitants and ripe for exploration, not
just linear gauntlets one after another. In fact, that was the one feature I was hoping
for more than any other in Mario Maker 2 - a map editor where we could place our own levels
down in whatever way we wanted and create our own pseudo Mario game with secrets left
and right. Looks like we won’t be that lucky this time
around, but who knows, maybe we’ll get it in Mario Maker 3 along with 3D level creation. Heh, one can dream, right? Regardless, the legacy of Super Mario World
still lives on in its community. It struck the perfect balance of sharp visuals
and eccentric ideas without becoming too rigid or predictable in its structure. We haven’t really seen a 2D Mario game quite
like this again, and while we can always hope for the future, at least for now if Mario
Maker 1 is anything to go off of, the potential for creativity is greater than ever before. Maybe we’ll still see hidden collectibles
with the use of large coins, perhaps 4 player battles will really spice up the formula. Heck, conditional win states might spawn a
whole new type of challenge run community. No matter what, we owe it all to the dev team
in 1990 who were willing to hand the reigns to the player and let them take control of
their experience. If you’ve played Super Mario World, what
was your favorite aspect of it? I talk a lot about secrets and bonus content
on this channel, but maybe there was an entirely different thing that set it a cut above for
you. Let me know in the comments below and let’s
talk about it! Thanks for watching another episode of Good
Game Design, I’ll see you guys next time, stay frosty my friends! Hey did you know you can get all kinds
of frosty swag over at the Snoman Merch Store? My favorite is the snowman sunbathing
t-shirt designed by Miski herself, but you can also get the banner logo, my face on there,
whatever you want. There’s tons of colors to choose from and
more than just shirts too - longsleeve, sweatshirts, tank tops; even mugs & stickers. You name it, we got it. Come check it out at teespring.com/stores/snomangaming,
it would mean the world to me if you wanted to rep your favorite Snoman out there in public. And I wanted to thank you all for your continued support because it helps keep the show running. So I'll see you later, buh-bye! Buh-bye!
