I think I’d have to go with SMW
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SMW for me but that’s not to downplay just how unbelievably good SMB3 was at the time.
Especially coming from the Jank that was smb2.
Apples and oranges they’re both the best game ever.
Why choose when you’re an All Star, baby!
Edit: oh right. Only one version of All Stars included SMW, hehe
SMW. Peak Mario on SNES.
Between those two? SMW. Of all Mario games? That’s a much more interesting question.
Personal preference, but if you asked me “of all Mario games”, it would also come down to a decision between these two.
I realize it’s comparing apples to oranges but Paper Mario and Odyssey have to be in the discussion.
Is no one in this thread going to mention Sunshine? Clearly the best SM game without a doubt
Sunshine had some cool ideas and introduced Bowser Jr. but I wouldn’t put it over Galaxy or Odyssey as a 3D platformer.
Why would you rank those two as better platformers? I reckon FLUDD introduced a lot of fun ways to solve the level puzzles and the hub world is the best designed next to Mario 64.
FLUDD is pretty well done but, pun unintended, they still hadn’t nailed the fluidity of movement that the later titles have. (The existence of a hub world is pretty neutral for me, they mostly serve as a way to soft tutorial the controls.)
I think you’re right with odyssey, that game played beautifully but galaxy (the first one at least) felt as jank if not more jank than sunshine. The wiimote never felt good for platforming and the switch adaptation also struggles with awkward camera angles.
World. 1000%
Super Mario World all day long.
SMB3 was an absolute banger and revolutionised the platforming genre while making the hardware run things it had no business doing, so much so that even id Software took inspiration from it.
World just improved the formula in every single way though. Far from ragging on SMB3, World just took an amazing game and polished it up beyond what was expected.
SMB3 has better powerups, though.
They’re interesting but aren’t used in novel ways. Leaf is great and Cape expands on it. Frog is entirely optional, Tanooki and Hammer are nice upgrades to Leaf and Fire Flower but don’t meaningfully change how you approach the game, the Shoe exists for a single level gimmick, and the map items are all little shortcuts to play less of the game. SMB3 does not use its unique tools to build new kinds of puzzles or present alternate paths through a level they just make the challenges a little easier.
Cape, P-Balloon, and Yoshi are much better utilized.
SMB3 does not use its unique tools to build new kinds of puzzles or present alternate paths through a level they just make the challenges a little easier.
This is extraordinarily wrong!
There are secrets that you need specific power ups to get to.
- Raccoon/Tanuki are used to fly to secret areas or break blocks with the tail
- Fire is used to melt blocks in the ice world
- Frog can swim against strong currents
- If you start some levels with an invincible star from the map, it will cause some blocks to drop a star instead of a coin, letting you chain invincibility through the whole level
- Tanuki and Hammer aren’t necessary for anything in the main game, but they are for some e-reader levels where they can break blocks that can’t be broken normally
This is almost nothing, though. The secret areas are a handful of coins, or an extra power-up, or a magic whistle. Three sections of a water level or a wall of ice in one world is not a puzzle nor an “alternate path” in a meaningful way. E-reader? The niche peripheral adds a tiny bit of extra content for the GBA release of the NES game and that’s among your best arguments?
SMB3 is very good for what it is and a technical achievement but ranking it above World is pure nostalgia.
They made both games at the same time. In my opinion there isn’t even a competition. Both games are showcases of the best of each console.
Sorry, that’s not correct. SMB3 was released in 1988 in Japan. It was delayed in North America until 1990 and released in the same year as SMW, while Nintendo of America ironed out its Super Nintendo console launch.
Super Mario World, in fact, started development as a port of Super Mario Bros. 3.
making the hardware run things it had no business doing,
Speaking of hardware limitations, Kirby’s Adventure plays like a mid gen SNES game, I have no idea how they got it running on NES. I need to play through it again
Kirby’s Adventure is the largest NES game ever officially released in terms of ROM size, and has a frankly absurd amount of graphics tiles. Just consider all of those required for the copy abilities thumbnails alone and you’ll see what I mean. It pulled basically every trick the MMC3 mapper is capable of, and was definitely a masterpiece of the system in the original sense, i.e. it displays astonishing mastery of the mechanics of the Famicom/NES.
What I find more amazing is that the MMC3 isn’t one of the mappers that confers any additional sound channels and the American NES didn’t support that capability anyway. So the entirety of the game’s iconic soundtrack fits within the confines of the NES’ two square waves, one triangle wave, one noise channel, and singular PCM channel.
I think ultimately it ran into memory constraints, even with the additional 8 KB provided by the mapper. If you sit back and look at them as a whole, its levels are all quite short. It’s still my favorite NES game bar none, though.
Programming all the copy abilities had to be a nightmare. Not only the graphics but the controls for things like the wheel & hi jump, the pallet swaps for the Freeze abilities, the environment interactions from the Hammer… it’s a ridiculous amount of content by today’s standards and it was made over 30 years ago.
Then add in cutscenes (all in-game engine, but still), between level overworld sections, mini-games… It’s baffling!
Half of that game would be DLC/premium content if it was made today.
SMB3 was a revolution. SMW was an evolution.
I personally prefer SMB3 because the controls feel tighter, where SMW sometimes feels “floaty”. But it’s a subtle difference. SMW gives you way more content, but not all of it is as good or as well-designed as the levels from SMB3 (though again, the difference is subtle.)
They are both all-time top games, as is Mario 64.
Mario Sunshine’s level design was not as well structured, but it had a lot of really interesting content. SMB3, SMW, and Mario 64 are my top 3 Mario games, but I can’t decide the order.
Sunshine was rushed and it shows. I played it contemporaneously but never got terribly far.
I played it a couple years ago all the way through when I got my Steam Deck and it had a ton of rough edges. It was a bit of a struggle to get through.
World and is not close
ET.
I didn’t know monsters were allow in here.
SMB3 easy choice for me. I like the NES soundchip over muddy SNES just in general and the physics in SMB3.
SMB3 is peak Mario, but Super Mario World is probably second place.
Tough choice but I’m reluctantly picking World. It’s probably because as a kid I had a NES, but never a SNES, so all my SMW play was at friends or the demo kiosk at the store.
Not until I was a 20something when I traded a used motherboard for an old SNES and played the shit out of it.
The Best Buy demo kiosks added an absurd amount of shine to unworthy consoles. I’m still waiting on my $800 3D0. It can’t suck if it’s that expensive!? I played the Road Rash demo, mind you!
Sears is the one I remember using the most. My parents would let me hang out in the all but abandoned video game section while they bought a lawnmower, some pants or maybe a frying pan.
I definitely remember the lawnmowers. The pants. The apparently orgasmic tools. But I don’t think mine had a kiosk. Honestly, I probably spent more time at neck-breaking Walmart kiosks than at any other.
That one was my favorite because I don’t think many knew it was there, the section was always empty, and in the years they had it, the thing kept working unlike all the other stores…
Ah, yes, the pain of having the “IS MY TURN!” talk with a terrible child you’ve never met.
SMB3, it’s simpler.
I can never remember how to hold stuff in World.
You hold the “run” button, exactly the same as in 3.
You can hold stuff in 3?!
Have you played/finished the games?
The meme options should have been B then A
