[butter_stick]

The Lost Levels is for men. Super Mario World is for connoisseurs.

Lost Levels is for sadists
Mario 1 is for old people
Fake Mario 2 is for people that hate Mario games
Mario 3 is for manly men
World is for babby

[MisterHero]

Well, SMW doesn't really have a versus so there's that. The only use I have for 2 player is to steal lives :P

It actually improves upon the original use of the name Mario Bros., by taking the Arcade game and making it way more fun.

So that means World is for classy men since only babies need to classify what games are for men. Thanks for confirming :D

Or the 2D game based off of World. There's too much sucking SMB3's cock.

oh i see ;p

[PK Gaming]

I can't fathom why anyone would prefer SMB3 to SMW (ok I technically since it's an OPINION not an immutable fact, but still...). SMW was like... MY CHILDHOOD. A cape that lets you fly? (Superman much?) fucking Yoshi? It was like christmas every day when I played that game. My bro and I would spend hours trying to 100% the game as kids... good times. SMB3 was good... I GUESS, but the lack of a save feature kind of hurt the game for me as a kid.

[Magicpaint]

I can't fathom why anyone would prefer SMB3 to SMW (ok I technically since it's an OPINION not an immutable fact, but still...). SMW was like... MY CHILDHOOD. SMW for lyfe.

SMB3 was MY childhood. Ha.

[Combichristoffersen]

SMB3 was MY childhood. Ha.

SMB1-3 was MY childhood until I discovered Sonic and mostly stopped caring about Mario

[RockmanWhore]

I love Super Mario World, but it's just Super Mario Bros 3.5 on a much more powerful hardware.

[Neiteio]

Count me in the World camp. Kicking off the shell that hits a dozen Koopas in a row at the start of 1-2 is what turned me into a gamer for life. That and coming back to 1-2 with Yoshi and the cape and soaring through the whole level. I also like how you can, y'know, replay levels without starting a new file (even the castle levels -- just hold L and R when selecting). And often you can go back and find alternate exits that lead to new places on the overworld map. Flipping the hidden switches to fill in the different colored blocks provided another reason to revisit old levels to reach new places. And the whole dinosaur theme was charming and consistent, with great new characters like Rex (sadly not seen since). The castles were spectacular with their falling ceilings, crushing walls, spiked pillars and so on. The ghost houses made my head spin with their looping paths and false ends. I liked throwing shells vertically, dive-bombing the ground to shockwave enemies, and gliding with the cape. The Vanilla Dome and seeing Bowser's Castle all ablaze with neon lights under a stormy sky are sights and sounds forever etched into my mind. Bowser slowly descending in the Koopa Clown Car is still scary today. It's just one hell of a game, a real adventure, and Mario feels so acrobatic in it, able to grab and kick so many things, climbing fences, spinning and sliding and jumping and diving. It's just a special game.

Donkey Kong Country 2 is better than both games, though.

[Zeer0id]

I've never gotten the impression that more people prefer SMB3 to SMW.

[Red Arremer]

Super Mario Bros. 3 is superior, and it only needs one thing to be superior. This:


Best. Enemy. Ever.

I like both games pretty equally, but I honestly enjoy SMB3's vastly different stage themes much more than SMW's, although I think that SMW has a lot going for it as well.

[ElFly]

Lost Levels is for sadists Mario 1 is for old people Fake Mario 2 is for people that hate Mario games Mario 3 is for manly men World is for babby

Mario 3 is for furries.

Proof: the tanooki suit.

Yeah I went there.

[george_us]

The difficulty curve in SMW is absolutely perfect. It's astounding really.

[Combichristoffersen]

Super Mario Bros. 3 is superior, and it only needs one thing to be superior. This: Best. Enemy. Ever.

That shit was Nightmare Fuel when I was growing up. That, and the Phantos in SMB2.

[VGChampion]

Super Mario World was my favorite until NSMBWii. I would love a new Mario game to come out that feels just like World.

[schwabdizzle]

2 Words: Tanooki Suit.

[Kokonoe]

When it comes down to it I think Mario 3 is great, but it's a bit too challenging in the later levels that put off it's fun factor for me. The controls feel stiffer than Super Mario World, and I feel I have less control of doing all the crazy stunts I can pull off in the latter than I can in 3.

The level design in terms of art in Super Mario World is purely unmatched, and has this tremendous unique vibe that I cannot get from Mario 3. With Mario 3, it's not as unique and beautiful as World.

Either way. Both games are spectacular experiences, and if you love platforming, you cannot pass them up.

[Red Arremer]

That shit was Nightmare Fuel when I was growing up. That, and the Phantos in SMB2.

Admit it, though, you've grown to love it. What's not to love about just the fucking concept? A sun with an angry face swooping down on you. I was squealing like a little girl when I saw it make a cameo in the desert course on Mario Kart DS. They really need to use it more, just cause it's so damn awesome.

[Jucksalbe]

I thought this argument was settled a short while ago with a very decisive tie.

[Combichristoffersen]

Admit it, though, you've grown to love it. What's not to love about just the fucking concept? A sun with an angry face swooping down on you. I was squealing like a little girl when I saw it make a cameo in the desert course on Mario Kart DS. They really need to use it more, just cause it's so damn awesome.

Yeah, nowadays I find the sun and Phanto more thrilling than scary.

[JohnsonUT]

Super Mario World is superior because of the multiple exits in many of the levels. I love adventuring and I loved exploring and trying to find an alternate way to beat a level I knew had another exit. I was disappointed with how obvious the alternate exits in NSMB and NSMBWii were.


SM3 is definitely more challenging (a good thing) because there are no easy ways to get infinite lives. SMW had the secret area and the levels where you can star-destroy everything for multiple 1ups. SM3 was also stiffer so if you made a mis-jump, it was much harder to correct. At the same time, the star levels are better than any collection of levels in SM3.


Finally, the sounds and music of SMW is far more memorable. Though SM3 is a exceptional game and memorable (first game I ever became obsessed with, The Wizard premiere), SMW is one of my favorite games ever.

[AbsoluteZero]

I like the scope and scale of Super Mario World, but I could never pick a favorite between it and SMB3. It's impossible.

[PhoReal]

I'm actually surprised to see that SMB3 is loved more than SMW on NeoGAF. Both are great games, but I've always cherished SMW and thought of it as the better game since my childhood.

I'm with you OP. :)

[Neiteio]

Well that settles it: DKC2 is better than SMW and SMB3 combined. Good work people. Let's tackle cancer and interplanetary travel next.

[Kuramu]

I played World before I played 3, so this isn't Nostalgia talking. I Loved the Music in World and I loved looking for alternate paths. I really enjoyed perfecting cape flight.

However, when I later started playing 3, it struck me hard how much more fun 3 was. It had more creativity, more to do, more to see. World felt barren in comparison.

[LakeEarth]

I am too of the World > SMB3 opinion. But 3 is definitely the better challenge.

[EmCeeGramr]

3 is better because I like platforming in my platformer, not just half-baked Kirbies and gimmick levels.

[KillGore]

2 Words: Tanooki Suit.

Keep your tanooki suit, I prefer:



I loved the whole dropping down and making the earth shake, cape-spin and the fact that if you learn how to use it, you can even skip whole levels or find secrets, etc

[dreamcastmaster]

Mario 3 is the better game, SMW started as a NES game and was up-ported to the SNES. Most of the extras were just add on tech demos to sell the SNES.

[Regulus Tera]

This is like choosing between two over-achieving sons. It's just wrong.

[ViewtifulJC]

FUCK the SMW Cape. Give the Tanooki/tail any day of the week, twice on Sundays

[PK Gaming]

Well that settles it: DKC2 is better than SMW and SMB3 combined. Good work people. Let's tackle cancer and interplanetary travel next.

Well that's not really fair is it :P

Truth be told, I actually vastly prefer World to DKC2 but I can admit its the better game.

Epic picture

Too cool, my eyes can't take it.

[v1oz]

I played Super Mario World before I played SM3. When Mario All Stars eventually came out, I played Mario Bros. 3 for the very first time and I said to myself this actually game feels like the sequel to Mario World not the prequel. To me SM3 had better graphics and more gameplay variety throughout all the worlds. The only downside to SM3 is that the levels are shorter lengthwise, but anyway they are still packed with lots of great gameplay. I also liked the fact that their were more powers, more than the mere 3 abilities you got in SMW. Oh and Luigi had his own sprite rather than the lazy palette swap they did in SMW. I would much rather be wearing the raccoon hat than riding those coloured yoshis.

[ciaossu]

I grew up on SMW, and did not play 3 until years later. I do love SMW more, but I can't deny my nostalgia bias.

[.la1n]

Never understood the love for this game. Even when I was a litte kid, I thought the game was too easy; I wanted more. Hell, I though the platforming was easy as fuck. At the end of the game, and finding secret levels, I was like, "is this it?" And I was probably around 10 years old. Now Mario 3 OTOH was a bitch to me when I was a kid.

Agreed, fighting my way to the end of World 8 with no knowledge of the double whistle trick? One of the greatest accomplishments of my childhood. World just did not compare.

[Lambtron]

Both are excellent games. World is better, though.

[Tain]

Everything I've played of 3 and World has me preferring 3, but I actually haven't finished World. I've had the cart for years, and as a kid I played most of the game off and on at various friends' places, but I've never actually sat down and played through the thing. I might do that soon.

The best game in the series seems to be, very clearly, FDS Super Mario Bros 2. It's a shame Nintendo never hit those heights a second time.

And while we're talking SMW, Yoshi's Island seems pretty boring.

[Kai Dracon]

Super Mario World is an idea.

The warm, rounded, richly textured concept art for the game - exemplified in its primary Japanese cover art - fleshes out the Mario world and gives the characters a more textured and personable flavor.

Its music is warmer than previous Mario games and is soothing. It doesn't get on the nerves after dozens of hours of playing.

Its game world is just that - an actual world that is meant to evoke a more natural environment for Mario.

Because of all this, it's a game that sticks with people. They WANT it to be the best Mario game, desperately so, and that's a perfectly reasonable desire. SMW itself desperately wants to be the finest Mario game of all time.

Sadly, where it falls down is in its execution. It's not that there's anything particularly wrong with it. It's just that it was a launch title, and doesn't fully explore its ideas. Its level designs are simplistic. It doesn't capture all of the richness of its thematic premise and design illustration inside the game itself. It doesn't bring the vast stable of new ideas to a Mario game that new entries typically do. (Even NSMB Wii, which some people insist on calling an unoriginal nostalgia cash-in, is jam packed with ideas and scenarios never seen in a 2d Mario game.)

By comparison, Yoshi's Island is everything that Super Mario World dreamed of being and more, as it had the time, developer maturity, and technology, to achieve it.

And so Mario World remains the game that will always be remembered as better than it really is due to its ambition and how good a job it does of selling that ambitious image to the player.

It's a fantastic game, make no mistake. Most other platformers that are not mainline Mario games wish they could be SMW.

[krae_man]

I agree, Mario World is better then 3. Well except for this stage:



Fuck Tubular.

[Pathetic Basement Virgin]

3 has better art, enemies, music, power ups & levels. World is great but so disappointing coming off of 3. SMB is better than world too.

[Canadian Psycho]

How can Mario World be godly to someone and Mario 3 be trash for that same person (or vice versa)? It doesn't make any sense. And also, how can someone say that Mario 3 or World is worst than Lost Levels? That is a terrible opinion to have. This thread is depressing.

As for me, I love them almost equally, giving a very slight edge to SMB 3. Anyways, both of these games along with SMB 2 and Yoshi's Island are in my top 10 games of all time. 2D Mario games have a rare power: more than 20 years after first experiencing them, they are as playable as ever.

[Boss Doggie]

I prefer YI's mix of both over SMW. SMW feels relatively light on BOTH.

Well I'm not arguing about YI :P

oh i see ;p

What :P

[Mike M]

SM3 is definitely more challenging (a good thing) because there are no easy ways to get infinite lives.

Whaaaaaaa?

There were multiple opportunities to rack up 99 lives without breaking a sweat, my favorite was a level with Lakitu where I'd kick a koopa shell between a pair of pipes to kill spinys and rack up lives until I maxed out the counter.

Granted you couldn't do it again once you beat the level, but if you can't beat SMB3 in a hundred lives...

[Razlo]

Without even getting into the argument of which is better, SMB3 has gotten so much love in the last few Mario games, that it's time for SMW to get a new Mario game based on it.

I want my cape and my dinosaur world!

[Tain]

And also, how can someone say that Mario 3 or World is worst than Lost Levels? That is a terrible opinion to have.

Why?

FDS 2 / Lost Levels is not for sadists. It's for people that like challenging 2D action games.

[Boss Doggie]

Agreed, fighting my way to the end of World 8 with no knowledge of the double whistle trick? One of the greatest accomplishments of my childhood. World just did not compare.

And what of those 100% SMW routes?

[RPG Wizard]

Oh and Luigi had his own sprite rather than the lazy palette swap they did in SMW.

...that's a change for All-stars, not pure SMB3. If we're counting enhanced ports, there's a lot more silliness we can throw in. Like 3 being totally better because it has the cape from World and you can throw giant turnips from 2USA, and there being bonus levels.

All hail the E-Reader, am I right?

[Hot Coldman]

Why? FDS 2 / Lost Levels is not for sadists. It's for people that like challenging 2D action games.

It's also still from the same school of level design as SMB1. It's good, just inferior.

[ElFly]

...that's a change for All-stars, not pure SMB3. If we're counting enhanced ports, there's a lot more silliness we can throw in. Like 3 being totally better because it has the cape from World and you can throw giant turnips from 2USA, and there being bonus levels. All hail the E-Reader, am I right?

That raises a good point, though. The tail from 3 is more annoying to use than the cape.

[Tain]

It's also still from the same school of level design as SMB1. It's good, just inferior.

Similar to SMB1, sure, but I'm not seeing the inferiority at all.

I'll say that I'd like to see stages as well-made as SMB and SMB2's built around the lessened technical restrictions that came with 3 and World's tech, though, I guess.

[Lord British]

In my opinion, SMW is a collection of awesome mechanics applied very unmemorably. There are a handful of iconic sequences but it doesn't match SMB3's constant onslaught of memorable scenarios; Airships! Mini-fortresses! The Angry Sun! The warp whistles! Getting eaten by a giant Cheep-Cheep! Big World! The Sky world having a whole other layer atop the clouds! The Kuribo's shoe! Lava on the ceiling! P-Wings! Dark World! Sinking through the quicksand to find a 3-up! Getting a starman and somersaulting!

Super Mario World: Boring ghost houses, a meandering map, and switch palaces. Yeah.

Of course, Super Mario World is nothing if not a wonderful platforming experience. It just never struck me the same way as 3. It didn't innovate outside of the (frankly, boring) map, and controlling the cape, while satisfying, didn't really amount to much.

[Boss Doggie]

When people argue about suits...

They're pretty much baggage. Cape, Yoshi and Fire Flower offer distinct abilities on how you traverse the stages (doubly so for Cape), but for 3 the powers never really altered the way you traverse the stage, save for Frog and Tail/Tanuki (and even then those are limited).

Super Mario World: Boring ghost houses, a meandering map, and switch palaces. Yeah.

I can also make Mario 3 sound boring if I use that statement.

Also you just dissed World's best trait (map).