Super Mario Bros 3 I felt was better. Graphics and color wise yeah SMW had it beat but for some reason I just felt that SMB3 the levels had more variety oh and of course the giant boot. Plus the number of power ups the game had. It just felt that it had more.
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3 and it's not even close. I feel like it absolutely perfected classic 2D Mario: highly varied level themes for a NES game, a cool selection of powerups (with Tanooki Mario being one of the most fun and rewarding ones we've ever seen), great iconic music and laying the groundwork for staples to come like the Airships, Koopalings, an item inventory and many more. World on the other hand, whilst also contributing a lot to the series and even more to 2D platformers as a whole (in addition to having an excellent graphical style, music and enemy design), is one of those games where it's only really fun for about 20 minutes (at least to me). The controls are the main culprit really: no matter what I try to do, it feels like I'm constantly on ice, slipping and sliding around the place before being able to come to a standstill, leading to many deaths that could've been prevented if it had more precise movement like 3. Couple that with some truly baffling logic in order to progress sometimes (looking at you Forest of Illusion), Ghost Houses being quite hit and miss (something I think they actually fixed in the NSMB series) and the absolute infuriation in trying to use the Cape Feather effectively and it is probably my second least favourite 2D Mario game, ahead of the original. I still highly respect it for what it did for the genre but I'd much rather play 3 and Yoshi's Island over it any day of the week.
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Do I have to pick between the two? Both are excellent games in their own ways! I'll go ahead and compare and contrast the two.
Super Mario Bros. 3 has more power-ups (including the awesome Tanooki Suit), and its levels are more varied and challenging. Super Mario World has this massive overworld map with levels that have multiple goals, it marked the debut of Yoshi, and I like how Mario controls in that game quite a bit more. I also like SMW's art style and soundtrack, and its levels are just the right length, I find. SMB3's levels are kind of short.
Objectively speaking, SMB3 might just be the better game. But I think I had a tiny bit more enjoyment from SMW, if that makes sense. I've fully completed SMW many times, as well, so I also have a bit of a soft spot for it.
Mario World for me. I know that may be an unpopular opinion 😅.
The reason being is that it's one of the first games I 100%ed as a kid. It was certainly one of the first games I ever played a long with the All-Stars version of Mario 3.
I just got way more in to World back then and I've gone back and finished it a couple times since then! I think it's probably in my top 10 games ever. (I might update that to top 50 or top 100 because I've played so many games since then 😅)
I have gone back and forth on which of these two I prefer. I have always considered them very close. I used to Prefer SMW, but now prefer SMB3. Both games do things very well. Obviously, SMW is more technically advanced. I love the length of the levels in SMW with the checkpoint in the middle. SMB3's levels are a bit short, so SMW's stage length feels perfect. SMW's overworld also feels more alive and important.
On the flip side, I think SMB3's worlds and power ups are more interesting. What has put SMB3 on top for me more recently though is the level of challenge. SMW feels much easier to me now, and the challenge builds more slowly. SMB3 isn't super hard, but it does feel tougher than SMW in a way that I find to be more satisfying. That has made the difference for me in recent years. However, they're both fantastic games that hold up amazingly well to the test of time, and I tend to play them back to back every couple of years.
I run a weekly retro video game poll on Reddit.
For the NES/Master System Era, Super Mario Bros. 3 was voted the #1 game.
For the SNES/Genesis/TG-16 Era, Super Mario World was voted the #3 game (behind The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Chrono Trigger).
In terms of being clearly the best game of its era, then you've got to go with 3.
But on the other hand...flying with your cape? And Yoshi? Come on...who didn't LOVE Yoshi??
It's a tough one to answer, but I'd have to go with Mario 3 here. It's one of my favorite games of all time. I really like the level design, variety in levels, and all of the different power-ups.
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Topic: Super Mario World vs. Super Mario Bros. 3
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