Mario: 3 or World?

Cafe Society
1

When Super Mario World was released, there was much debate over whether it surpassed Super Mario Bros. 3 as the “best game ever”. Now that over a decade passed since their debut, and they’ve both been re-released on the Gameboy Advance, maybe we can finally settle on which gives the superior gaming experience. Lets look at a few categories.

Sound:
For music, I’d give this to 3. 3 had two level tunes, both memorable. World had one level theme which, though great, was merely recycled into various styles throughout the game. A few of 3’s world themes were memorable too, while World’s were immediately forgettable and repetative. Same for each game’s boss music. And lastly, 3’s hammer bros. theme is a universally accepted classic.
As for sound effects, I’d say World wins. While 3’s new sounds were clever, most of them were recycled from the first SMB. World gave us cute remixes of all the original effects, like a higher pitched, stacatto fireball sound, and great new ones that followed in the Mario tradition of seeming perfectly natural while not really being logical (why should Yoshi’s tongue make the sound it does?).

Graphics:
This seems like a no-brainer due to Worlds superior technology, being on the SNES, but 3 had a few pluses going for it. It’s dot-eyed Mario with black overalls, a red shirt, and a set of racoon tail and ears was much cuter than the glimmery full-colored World Mario with a yellow cape and whites around his eyes. Plus, they effectively gave 3’s Mario a 3D look by making him turn back and forth a bit as he ran. Otherwise, Word’s lush, 16bit color color pallette, larger size, and better processing technology gave much better visuals than 3, which had mediocre graphics even for its time.

Gameplay:
The big category. I don’t want to fully compare and contrast the gameplay of the games right here, but I just throw out a few points:
Level replay: 3, you get one chance a level and one chance a world. World, go back to any level of the game as many times as you want and uncover all the secrets on your time.
Power Ups: 3, plenty - the originals, the big, new, box-cover one, three new suits, and more. You can store a multitude of powerups to use before starting a level. World, streamlined. The originals, and the new, box-cover one. That’s it. However, Yoshi’s big deal addition, and he can get three different powers from koopa shells. Only one powerup can be saved but it can be employed at any point during the level.
Overworld play: strategy is necessary in 3’s overworlds. You can use powerups to break rocks and open secret routes, or float over entire levels, skipping them. You can use pipes, boats, and bridges to travel across the map, avoid hammer brothers reach bonus levels. In World, the only action you get on the overworld map is making fork-in-the-road type choices. However, you can alter the lanscape of the overworld maps by uncovering secrets in the levels.

Well I can’t list everything, and I want to leave room for some input so…what do you think?

2

The original leaves them both in the dust.

3

This is the reason why I love World and never was a big fan of 3. Going back to the levels you already played, but with new abilities, new secret blocks uncovered etc. is great. In 3 (which I only played after I had finished World several times) I always had the feeling that I had missed something, that I didn’t do it quite right ans was now denied the chance to try it again.

This is also why I love 64 where I could try a level again and again until I had all the stars.

4

World for me.

3 I liked, but World was the first and only Mario game that I’ve played again and again.

5

( I’ve changed the thread title to be a bit more descriptive, so people don’t wonder and then waste time if they’re not interested.)

6

World for me. Still the best platformer I’ve ever played. The secret levels on Star Road are brutal.

7

Yeah, you have to go with SMW over SMB3. SMW was just a deeper and more enjoyable game. I think if you changed it to SM64 and SMW, you might see some differing opinions.

8

3 has a special place in my heart, mostly because never had an SNES as a kid so I only played World off and on at friend’s houses.

Plus, 3 was the brand new game unveiled in the finals of the ultimate video game tournament to determine the champion, as chronicled in the epic motion picture The Wizard. That kid found the secret whistle warp by instinct!

9

Nintendo apparently disagrees with most of you. SMB3 was positioned as the final classic Mario game re-released on the GBA, and was given the grandest treatment - a nice, redesigned cover, updated graphics and sound, and gameplay extensions such as having Luigi jump higher and e-cards that add new levels and power-ups.

About the level replay, perhaps SMW makes it too easy to exhaust the game. With SMB3, each round of play is precious as you know you have only one chance a game to fully experience each level. With World, you can just hurry through to get the board over with knowing you can go back and really play later.

Flight was more exciting in 3. Besides being the first time Mario flies, it was more satisfying to control each flap of Mario’s tail to propel him into the sky than it was to just hold Y hand have him shoot into the air for a few seconds.

The words were also more defined in SMB3. There was no reason a Yoshi’s Island level couldn’t have been a Donut Plains, Butter Bridge, or Forest of Illusion level, but in 3, Giant Land was Giant Land.

I don’t think either can be compared to SM64. Late in the game, most of its levels are tedious enough to be completely skipable, and its power-up array is the weakest of them all (no mushroom OR fire flower!).

10

[QUOTE=pizzabrat]

About the level replay, perhaps SMW makes it too easy to exhaust the game. With SMB3, each round of play is precious as you know you have only one chance a game to fully experience each level. With World, you can just hurry through to get the board over with knowing you can go back and really play later.
QUOTE]

The thing is, there are those of us who don’t want to go replay the game as soon as we beat it. We played it for as much as we wanted, either going straight through or looking for all the secrets, and then when we finished, we want to move onto something else.

Or maybe we don’t want to spend the only time per round looking for every single little secret. Maybe we just want to finish the level and come back later.

The themed worlds was one thing Mario 3 did better then Mario World, but overall, I like Mario world much better for allowing you to go at your own pace.

11

So, in the name of research, my wife and I stayed up late last night playing the first half of Super Mario World. The critiquing isn’t done quite yet, but I want to keep the conversation moving (and reply before the topic drifts too far into the bowels of the message board). Here’s where we are so far:

-3 for being far too easy to 1up. There isn’t any danger of losing the game. I had 27 Luigis by the time I finished 2.1. That’s only playing half the areas, too, since it was a two player game.

+2 for the Yoshi coins. The in-area goal is a nice touch, one that gets developed even further in SMW2 (which ought to be added to the discussion, IMO).

+2 for the star block. Another in-area goal and another reason to be thorough.

+2 for the switch palaces. Making them optional allows for variable difficulty. I’ve still never beaten the game without hitting any switches (can it be done?).

+1 for the chain link fences. A neat way to use the third dimension in a two-dimensional platformer.

+3 for the automatically scrolling areas. Hands down the most difficult parts of the game.

-1 for kickable Goombas. Call me a purist, but they’re supposed to squish when you stomp on them.

-1 for Bob-ombs that explode into stars. Call me a purist, but they’re supposed to say “BOMB!” when they explode.

+1 for the upgraded Koopa Troopas. They pop out of their shells when you stomp them (homage to Mario Bros.?), the different shells colors give Yoshi different abilities, sometimes when out of their shells the Troopas kick them at you.

-2 for removing PvP. Some of my favorite memories of SMB3 involve stealing my brother’s star cards while playing the Mario Bros. clone.

+2 for the ice levels. The Vanilla secret level that overlooks Bowser’s castle is fiendish.

+3 for the secret exits. Making the game non-linear gives those of us that want to uncover everything a good goal and lets those who aren’t interested just plow through the main path. While my wife was working on the primary goals in the Vanilla Dome, I was opening up Star Road and the Butter Bridge.

SMW score so far: +9