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Cambdoranononononono's Super Mario World (SNES)
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| [February 20, 2008 11:50:13 PM]
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GAMEPLAY
I noticed during this session that I tended to try to rush through levels, often to my detriment when it sent me straight into enemies or bottomless pits. I think this was because it’s impossible to unlock everything from most levels in one run, and trying to find everything on my first run is normally one of my main motivations to take my time and explore. However, I still did some searching in the levels that I knew contained paths to special switches (rather than the usual series of secret levels), since I knew these would impact the difficulty of the game later.
I didn’t enjoy this session quite as much. I had enough other work that playing the game started to feel more like a chore, a feeling that was exacerbated by the fact that my cartridge didn’t keep my last save and I had to start over from the beginning. One interesting thing I noticed was that a good deal of the music was the same basic tune played in way that matched the scenery, a fact that had escaped me before.
DESIGN
Super Mario World keeps the player’s interest by regularly altering the appearance of the landscape and the style of play this requires. A level that involves passing through large groups of enemies might be followed by one that takes place primarily underwater, which may itself be followed by a Ghost House full of indestructible enemies and hidden passages. The bosses in each world that I played all required different strategies, though I recall that the bosses later in the game use more difficult versions of earlier patterns. The variation almost inevitably leads to certain challenges that aren’t as enjoyable as others; I remember disliking the first boss when I was younger because it had to be forced off a platform rather than dealt a particular amount of damage.
There are a few issues surrounding the powerups. The cape can potentially make a number of levels very easy. It appears that this was intended in some levels where groups of coins are placed high in the air, but it might have been a good idea to place obstacles in the air to deter flight. A few too many of the abilities are mapped to the same button, which creates problems at times. For example, if the player release the Y button after catching a shell in Yoshi’s mouth, Yoshi will be unable to run without also spitting out the shell. Finally, while it is nice that the game allows the player to store an extra powerup if it isn’t needed, it is a bit annoying that mushrooms will overwrite either of the other two (superior) powerups when this happens.
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| [February 20, 2008 01:34:04 AM]
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SUMMARY
Super Mario World is a two-dimensional platformer. The player controls the character, Mario, to navigate through levels while avoiding obstacles and defeating enemies, mostly through variations on running and jumping. The player can collect a limited number of powerups that allow Mario to take extra damage and give him special abilities, such as flight and projectile attacks.
GAMEPLAY
As it had been a while since I had last played this game, I was surprised by how demanding the early levels were. They weren’t extremely difficult, but they were certainly less safe than the tutorial sections to which I’m accustomed. Part of this probably stemmed from my instinct to try to defeat every enemy I encountered, though; Mario isn’t really built for combat in this game, with his low tolerance for damage and very limited repertoire of attacks. (Without powerups, it consists solely of the ability to jump on enemies.)
Once I got used to the game, it was fun. My favorite levels were generally the more open ones that focused on navigating across platforms from left to right, as opposed to, say, the walled-in underground levels or the segments that focused on avoiding a pillar that was trying to crush me. The one problem with the open levels, though, was that it was tempting to abuse the cape powerup to simply bypass the entire level; the lack of obstacles often allowed me to fly straight from one side of the level to the other.
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Cambdoranononononono's Super Mario World (SNES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 19 February, 2008
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