ash's stash

super mario world - 7/10

it's good, sure, but i look at it funny for what it's come to stand for

please note: this is a game i have reviewed multiple times! the prior versions of this review will be included below. enjoy!

tl;dr: i think that this is the best that mario has ever been or will ever be. however, it does little to spice up an admittedly really strong gameplay loop to where i find myself bored by the third world if doing a full playthrough, leading to my joy in speeding through it by finding the secret exits required to get through as shortly as possible. its really fun doing so, as this is by far the best mario has ever controlled, but i would really prefer it if i did have fun with the whole game, if it was consistently being as creative as its reputation would lead one to believe. not only this, but that reputation has landed it squarely as the cookie cutter from which the stale biscuits of the new super mario bros franchise were made, thus souring my time with this game retroactively. i see this game and i immediately think "the definitive mario", but that then in turn leads me to realize that very reaction has been nintendo's largest moneymaker for 30 years and counting. i am deeply cynical.

oh thank fucking GOD that this game really is good. the prior games had me sweating for a minute there!

and now that i have the ability to do so, i can quite easily say that this is my favorite traditional super mario game, hell even outright The Best. its all the trappings that make mario fun taken up to eleven, with a sprinkling of that snes magic. this is mario at his best by far. so many levels and secrets and exits and hell, even just ways to beat the game. itll never not be the funniest shit ever that bowser's castle has a back door.

this is a game that i usually beat low%, this time being no exception. that perhaps underqualifies me to talk about it with such immediate and sweeping reverence to at least some degree, but at the same time, i hate to say this, but there's not exactly going to be much in the way to set me alight here. its mario world, i have not only played it before, not only does it very rarely truly spice up the main gameplay loop in any deeply meaningful diversion (and when they do, they still suck. seriously fuck water stages and the p-balloon), but due to their over-reliance on nostalgia for a moment there, i have played poorly photocopied versions of this game for years thanks to nintendo, in many different forms, from new super mario bros all the way up to, controversially, wonder. a LOT of what wonder gets right, it only gets right because this was the game to set it into stone. that does also leave me with the rather scathing take that mario fundamentally can't really evolve past this game in a 2D space, there's no real unique spins that you can give on this formula in my opinion. this is both a blessing and a curse, as it does make this game the best by default and the pinnacle of all 2D mario... but of course, that does also come with the downside that nintendo has been chasing this dragon for the last 35 years with no success. we peaked here, and whilst i can accept that, it feels as though nintendo cant.

i look at mario through an increasingly cynical lens every day. from the shittiness of those prior few games making me question why i even liked any of these games, to the, formally speaking, Cartoonishly Fucking Evil practices of nintendo today and their complete need to milk this poor bastard for all he's worth because he's their only true first party franchise that consistently sells even if they put out some bullshit, there is no escaping that mario has a storied past wrought with flaws upon flaws, mistakes upon mistakes.

with this game, though, its nice, its snacky, its a fluffy little game that brings me a smile. whether its playing it late at night as i have this time on my steam deck to lull myself into relaxation, or if its breathlessly discussing it with my wife, it always manages to bring me at least some trace amount of joy. i enjoy it a lot, but the weight that it holds in the grander mario lineage just makes me feel uneasy if i try to think about it too hard.

super mario world, if played with nostalgia for it in modern day, is a reassurance to oneself that there was once a nintendo that cared about offering competent competition to the others in the console race, one that was creative and passionate and innovative. a bit hotter, a bit cooler, a bit weirder, a bit more revolutionary, a bit more mario and a bit more of what i want. it is simultaneously a taciturn admission of defeat, that i acknowledge that this is the best that they were, and itll be the best they get.

its a reminder of when this series was competitive with sonic. when the two were on equal footing. before mario took to making the same damn game every few years and getting lauded for it whilst sonic went out of his way to try a new thing every time and got blasted for it.

this is mario on the cusp of still being an artistic expression of creativity, painting stunningly whimsical landscapes into playable form, prior to his transformation into a corporate soulless shell of his former self.