10 Reasons Super Mario World Is The Best 2D Mario Of All Time
Hop on your dinosaurs, we're saving Princess Peach! (again).
Nintendo came into the 1990s as the gaming company to beat. Though the console wars with SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog was just beginning to kick off, Nintendo were still riding high in the minds of gamers thanks mainly to their flagship series' of The Legend of Zelda and, most importantly, Super Mario.
Super Mario Bros. 3 had been released in 1988 and, along with its seventeen million copies sold worldwide, had gone down instantly as a classic and nailing down another impressive chapter in Nintendo's legacy.
However, for their new SNES console, the Japanese company wanted to really push the boat out and create something new and breathtaking.
Super Mario World was first released in Japan in 1990, the United States in 1991 and Europe in 1992, and quickly showed itself off to be unlike anything else that had come before it. The graphics, colours, animations, controls, story and levels were an astonishing leap forward from the games before, and its features became so iconic that most games that have followed it have continued to copy them.
With twenty million copies sold to date and plenty of accolades pointing it out to be one of the greatest video games ever made, here's our ten reasons why Super Mario World is the best 2D Mario game.
10. It Spawned A TV Show And A Prequel
Following its release in 1990, in Japan at least, Super Mario World recorded sales of over twenty million and would become one of the most talked about games across the decade. Its popularity grew so much that it even established its very own mini-franchise within the Super Mario series with a television show and a couple of prequel games.
The Super Mario World animated television series first began in 1991 and, though it would only last for thirteen episodes and completely forget about legendary characters such as Toad, can still be found referenced every now and again online to this day.
It also helped create the Yoshi's Island series of games starting from 1995. The unique and colourful origin story of babies Mario and Luigi being brought up by the cutest collection of dinosaurs going, Yoshi's Island would build on the level designs and colour schemes of Super Mario World and win critical acclaim, be followed by several sequels on various home consoles and sell four million copies.
All in all, no other game in the Mario series has established a universe and theme in the way Super Mario World did back in the 1990s.