Super Mario World

Development

Super Mario World was directed by Takashi Tezuka, with Shigeru Miyamoto as producer. Shigefumi Hino was the graphics designer. Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development handled development with a team of fifteen people, including three main programmers and a character designer, most of whom had worked on past Super Mario games. In a retrospective interview, the core team said Miyamoto wielded the most authority during development.

Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi noted that Famicom sales were dropping and that continued support would lead players to move on. Super Mario World was the first Mario game for the SNES, and the team anticipated difficulty with the new hardware. According to Tezuka, software tools were not fully developed. Miyamoto acknowledged the team no longer had restrictions on scrolling and colour count.

As a hardware experiment, the team ported Super Mario Bros. 3 to the SNES, but it felt like the same game. Miyamoto then realized the goal was to create something totally new. Development of a fourth Super Mario installment began in October 1988, shortly after Super Mario Bros. 3's release. About a month later, the team began implementing ideas impossible for the third installment due to hardware limitations.

Release

Super Mario World launched in Japan on 21 November 1990 under the title Super Mario World: Super Mario Bros. 4. It was one of two games available at the Japanese launch of the SNES, the other being F-Zero. The North American release followed on 23 August 1991. Nintendo also produced an arcade cabinet version so players could sample the game before purchasing it.

In December 1994, the game was re-released as part of a special SNES pack-in titled Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World. While the other games in that collection received enhanced remakes, Super Mario World remained largely unchanged, except that Luigi’s sprites were revised to make him a distinct character rather than a simple palette swap of Mario. The game was ported to the Game Boy Advance as Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 between 2001 and 2002.

This version kept the same number of levels, added Luigi as a playable character in single-player with his characteristic behavior from Super Mario Bros. 2, supported four-player Game Link Cable play in the Mario Bros. Classic mode, and allowed saving at any point instead of only after Ghost houses or Castles. Difficulty was reduced because taking a hit no longer stripped the player of all power-ups. The alternate overworld map and enemy sprites, previously unlocked by beating the Special World, were now unlocked by finding every exit in each level.

Critics praised the port for its new features and for retaining the feel of the SNES original. GameSpot named it the best video game of February 2002. The SNES version reached the Wii Virtual Console on 2 December 2006 in Japan, 5 February 2007 in the United States, and 9 February 2007 in Europe. It arrived on the Wii U Virtual Console in North America and Japan on 26 April 2013, and in Europe on 27 April 2013.

On 3 March 2016, it was released for the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. Super Mario World was one of 21 SNES games included in the Super NES Classic Edition, which launched in September 2017. Nintendo released the game on its Nintendo Classics service on 5 September 2019, and the Super Mario Advance 2 version followed on 25 May 2023.

Reception

Super Mario World is the best-selling game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, with 20.61 million copies sold worldwide. Its Game Boy Advance port, Super Mario Advance 2, sold 2.5 million copies in the United States and earned $74 million in revenue by August 2006. Between January 2000 and that same August, it was the second highest-selling portable game in the country. The original game was widely praised by critics.

In December 2019, GameRankings placed it 78th on its list of the highest-rated games ever, with a 94% aggregate score from nine reviews. The visuals and presentation drew particular acclaim. At launch, Rob Swan of Computer and Video Games called the graphics a strong demonstration of the SNES's abilities, while Paul Glancey described them as stunning. Four Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewers agreed the game looked great but felt it didn't fully use the system's power compared to other titles.

Later critics still found the visuals high-quality. Karn Bianco of Cubed3 liked the relaxed art style and praised Nintendo for keeping the design simple and child-friendly. IGN's Lucas Thomas saw it as a major step up from 8-bit graphics but thought it was essentially a visually upgraded version of Super Mario Bros. 3. Frédéric Goyon of Jeuxvideo.com believed it showed off the SNES's potential, though less so than Donkey Kong Country.

Nadia Oxford of USGamer considered it a less rigid take on its predecessor. Reviewers from AllGames and GameSpot highlighted the characters, colorful visuals, and animation. Morgan Sleeper of Nintendo Life called it the "graphical holy grail" that retro-style games still aim for, insisting its design remains strong today.