LogFAQs > #875138473

3. Super Mario World (SNES)

It's been awhile since we've seen Mario on this list, but this game is far and away the greatest Mario game of all-time, and frankly, will always be. I'm extremely nostalgic towards this game, but even without the rose-tinted glasses, this game is still an all-time classic.

I've thrown around the phrase "I've played this game my whole life" more than a few times over the course of these rankings, but if I thought that one game truly fit that description, it'd be this one. I feel like I remember every instance of myself completing this game over the course of the over 15 years I've been playing it. I'm struggling to remember what I had for Lunch a couple days ago, but ask me where I was every time I've beaten Super Mario World, and I'd have a story to tell you. The Super Nintendo, along with the Sega Genesis, were my introduction to gaming, and SMW is a part of some of my very first gaming memories. It's also a part of my recent gaming memories, as I completed a 96 exit run in January. When I think about the future, it's a memory that I'd like to pass on to my kids, and hope it can be one of their first gaming memories as well.

Why is this game so good? Honestly, I'm not sure where to begin, and what I can even really say that anyone hasn't heard before or experienced themselves? I mean, it's Super Mario World. At the age of 22, I'm on the younger side of B8, but I'm sure a lot of people here have similarly fond memories of this game and their childhood. I played this game before any of the NES Mario's, so I don't even have the "wow" factor that one would get having been around for the transition from 8 to 16 bit Mario. All I can really say is that this game is still the epitome of platforming to me. It's incredibly simple, but hard enough to master that even today I find myself getting better every time I play it.

The music is great, both the overworld and individual level designs are clever and varied, Yoshi is a fun character, and above all else, it's just fun to play. Some of the secret exits are difficult, yet mind blowing when you actually find them. At the age of 4 or 5, it wasn't hard to stumble upon the Star World and then the Special World, but it wasn't until 5 or 6 years later that I came across the Top Secret Area, and it took me even longer to find all 96 exits by myself. For a long time, this game had a new experience in store for me every time I played it. My girlfriend doesn't even play video games, and even she's a casual fan of this game. She's never heard of those aforementioned secret areas, and when I showed them to her for the first time, it was like 10 year old me all over again.

That last bit doesn't really have anything to do with my specific experience with this game, but when I think about all the time I've spent with Super Mario World in my life, and all the great memories it's brought me, to have it still provide a new experience to someone else just makes me feel good.
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https://psnprofiles.com/Simmons-94