PieFed.WorldDon't make me choose!
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The Picard Maneuver
https://media.piefed.world/posts/uo/wA/uowAt3z7xvhScoo.jpg
I think I'd have to go with SMW
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.
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.
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.
This is extraordinarily wrong!
There are secrets that you need specific power ups to get to.
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.
OOOOOORRRRRRRRB
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.
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.
World has everything 3 introduced and more with better visuals. So SMW is the right answer.
Really it comes down to level design. And IMO, the secret star road levels are some of the best even counting later games. Tubular! Gnarly! Radical!
But if Yoshi's Island was an option...
SMBWorld had a much deeper realm of secrets and challenges, and a much sharper aesthetic, and was tied directly to the new, shining world of 16-bit gaming which it took full advantage of to make better visuals and audio. I would love to be able to relive those weeks of playing SMBWorld for the first time and the feelings of awe and amazement and discovery that went with them.
Can you be a frog tho? Just wondering.
You can hop.
...as a frog? Be honest, now...
World has everything 3 introduced, except you can't be a frog.
Kek. 🐸
The choice is obvious.
3 has Tanukis.
And kuribo's shoe
i swear i never saw a kuribo shoe on this and played the game for five months now
I can't see SMB3 without remembering that once I was playing it with my brother and my dad comes in, saying he hates that game.
Later, we ask him why does he hate the game, he says he's really got no reasons, but still hates the game.
My dad would routinely come in and see anything we had going on the TV, from cartoons to video games, and express how much he hated that thing, or how he didn't understand how we could enjoy it.
Parents out there... don't do this. Stop feeling envious or resentful of children for being able to be happy.
I would get this kind of weird "what the heck are you watching/playing" criticism and I think it was mainly a weird play to get to the TV so he could watch football or screaming heads cable news. . .
I felt really self conscious about anything I chose to watch myself in full view for a long time. Namely anime. Anime always knew when a parental figure lurked nearby and would choose that moment to get really weird.
One of my father's girlfriends did this to my younger brother and I as kids. She legitimately hated it when we experienced any kind of joy or contentment and would immediately try to cut us down or cause a problem to ruin it. She is one of the few people I've met in life that I consider a truly bad person.
That sounds like some serious jealousy/resentment/narcissism, I'm sorry you had to go through that.
As much as I love SMB3's powerups (hammer bro 4 life), I'd go with World because you can replay levels and even castles with L+R. Fuck Tubular, tho
SMW. Peak Mario on SNES.
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.
Yoshi's Island just casually over here being a revelation...
World and is not close
It's a very interesting question. In terms of which game I'd rather play, it's SMW. But in terms of technical achievement, SMB3 is unquestionably better (in my opinion of course).
SMB1 was a watershed moment for gaming - perhaps the biggest that there ever was. SMB3 was a revolutionary improvement on top of that. In light of that, SMW almost feels like a bland port. This isn't to say it's bad by any means, but in terms of the impact that it had on gaming as a whole, it's not very significant and just feels like an iterative improvement.
SMW is still a great game! And if I could only play one for the rest of my life, I would choose it over SMB3. But in terms of historical impact on gaming, I would say that SMB1, Mario64 and SMB3 were more revolutionary.
Yoshi's Island is my favorite however.
Don't feel bad, Yoshi's Island was always the right answer. It was a trick question.
3 is my favorite of the two, but World was objectively better in terms of mechanics and overall design. Still, I'll always play 3 if given the choice between them.
Super Mario World. More gameplay with better graphics and sound. It was the first video game I ever beat.
Don't forget its also pretty much the gold standard for secrets in video games!
SMB3 easy choice for me. I like the NES soundchip over muddy SNES just in general and the physics in SMB3.
World.
The meme options should have been B then A
SMW, easily. Being able to freely use the map to play levels at will and unlock secrets still hasn't been matched by any other 2D Mario game.
Graphics and music-wise, it's fair to use the SNES version as a comparison, so that's mostly a wash.
SMB3 is peak Mario, but Super Mario World is probably second place.
SMB3 has gotta take this but just barely.
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?
Hast thou considered: while holding an item, hold up on the D-pad, then release B, then jump up in front of a climbable surface like a vine or a fence and hold B in time to catch the item. Now you're climbing with the item.
3 is extremely cool and all, epecially for what NES can output. But SMW has an insane mechanics with higher skill ceiling. Speaking as a player who haven't played any of these two but watched some pros/speedrunners play them.
There's people alive who haven't played these??
TIL
Probably going to be more common as we get further out. People who were born in the 2000s are technically adults now.
I have played and beaten both games too often to count, and while they're both excellent the way Mario controls in SMW always throws me off for the first couple of minutes. I can't quite put my finger on it, but SMB3 just feels better, more weighty I guess.
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.
Super Mario world is obviythe better game because that's the one I have more nostalgia for.
Apples and oranges they’re both the best game ever.
B. For the simple reason the color palette doesn't look like shit.
also it is full of more variety,Yoshi, better secrets, better audio, Yoshi, better physics, you can go backwards and Yoshi,
Yoshi, full stop.
The GBA remake of A got color improvements over the OG NES version
Me: pencils in SM64
Teacher: “I have nothing left to teach you.“
That funny. I love smb3 and smw. My girlfriend and I beat them both doing every thing loved them. And SMB 2 and yoshis island.
Then we tried Mario 64 when it came out. So boring we quit. Hated the design, the repetitiveness, the movement, the sound, Mario as well.
That was the end of Mario as far as we were concerned.
I find it strange to this day that it is so well liked.
I'm gonna go apparently against the grain and agree with OP. Choosing is hard. Both amazing games.
Why choose when you're an All Star, baby!
Edit: oh right. Only one version of All Stars included SMW, hehe
I'd pick SMB3 on the SNES/GBA vs. NES over SMW.
Huh? Those are things?
Yeah, essentially SMB3 for the NES was remastered in Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES. It was later ported to the GBA under the title Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3.
The graphics are much better in the ports, but the soundtrack doesn't quite hit the same when compared to the NES version. The physics are also different in the All-Stars/SMA4 versions and some people prefer the NES version's physics.
On a related note, there are some cool ROM hacks based off the NES SMB3 engine - Mario Adventure 3 released the other year and is a blast:
https://marioadventure3.com/
I liked 3 a lot, it introduced a lot of new elements paving the way for world. But world IMHO is better.
World. 1000%
SMB3 controls better.
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.)
For this, SMW. Of all time? SMB2 on Gameboy.
ET.
I didn't know monsters were allow in here.
SMW was my very first video game, so that's my choice. I've played both, but definitely prefer SMW because of its better controls, level design and graphics/sound. 3's levels are a bit too short for my liking, which is probably due to being crammed on an NES cart.
3 over World, but SMB2 is the best Mario game on the NES.
This is like people who prefer Star Trek IV over II or VI, and I respect the off-kilter energy.
Which SMB2 ? SMB2 in Japan was later released internationally as “The Lost Levels”. The SMB2 that got release in the US and Europe was actually a reskined Japanese game called “Doki Doki Panic” which means it wasn’t even really a Mario game in the first place!
I knew this comment was coming.
The SMB2 that was a direct sequel to SMB1 came out for Famicom Disk System, not NES. There's only one SMB2 that came out for NES.
Also, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was an advertising game released specifically for Fuji TV's Yume Kōjō entertainment expo in 1987. As such, because it was just a one-off event title, they took a prototype platform game that Miyamoto had already influenced Tanabe to make more "Mario-like" (but was shelved when the Famicom couldn't run it as intended), reskinned it to feature the characters and setting of the expo, and released it for the Disk System.
So, NES Super Mario Bros. 2 was a polished, Mario-themed reskin of a rushed reskin of a prototype Mario-esque platformer.
All of that is to say that, yes, Doki Doki Panic was in fact most likely a Mario game in the first place.
Fuck yeah! Mario 2 mofuckaaaaaaaas
I imagine they mean the US SMB2 aka Doki Doki Panic. I have actually played the "original" version and the SMB2 game is actually improved in some ways, not just reskinned. While I don't think it is better than SMB3, I think it is a great Mario game, even if not initially intended as one.
They should’ve made a sequel to the Wizard that featured SMW
Actually it's Kitsune Tails.
I played and beat world with my dad on a rented Super Famicom before Super Nintendo came out.
We didn't have an instruction booklet and all the tutorial stuff that came up was in Japanese so we went the entire game without knowing you could throw shells upwards. So when we got to Bowser at the end we thought you had to be able to fly so you could dive-bomb the motherfucker. Took us so many tries getting there with a cape and a backup before we eventually each got it. Man, did I feel dumb when SNES came out and I learned the truth, but also a perverse pride, like being one of the few people to beat something before it gets nerfed.
Not really related but this made me think of that for the first time in years.