Super Mario Bros. 3 vs. Super Mario World

[Prowler]

Oh nice to see this older thread of mine being bumped.

Also, this has to be the most even poll I've seen in here so far.

[billbot85]

*BUMP*

It's such a close call between these two, since they're basically my top two favorite Mario games. I'm a little bit more biased towards Super Mario World though, since it was THE game that got me hooked on everything Nintendo. I didn't have an NES as a kid (I went from the Atari 2600 to the SNES), so I didn't get to play SMB3 until a little later on.

Out of any Mario game, I replay these two the most. Plus, I loved the cartoon shows for both of these games growing up.

[ssjup81]

I thought I answered this. Well, for me I did like Super Mario Bros 3 and World, but as a kid (for the NES era Mario games), I actually preferred SMB2 to SMB3. I found it more fun and I guess it was because you could play as characters outside of Mario. Now, between SMB3 and SMW...I played SMW a lot more. Both games are fun...but SMW kinda wins it for me because of the save feature. It was nice being able to save your progress and giving you more time to explore things. I had rules as a kid, too regarding video games. I had to turn the game system and TV off and stuff after a certain amount of time. It sucked having to do that with a game without a save feature and I'm not the type to try to rush through games either and like to take my time. So for that, SMW was more playable to me.

The save thing also made the All Stars version of SMB3 more playable for me as well.

Now, if comparing the two cartoons, Super Mario Bros 3 hands down. SMW was awful.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

It's been some time since the last post, but I'll throw in my opinion.

I have to say Super Mario Bros. 3 as it introduced different themed worlds and wide assortment of obstacles never seen before in previous Mario games (i.e. airships), a variety of different power up suits (tanooki, frog, hammer, racoon), being surprise rewarded with white mushroom houses and coin ships, introducing the Koopa kids, providing a bit of game level variety on being able to choose which levels to play on the overworld map screen instead of a strict linear game play from one level to the next, being able to store power-ups in an inventory.

For Mario World, I definitely still enjoyed it, but I don't think it introduced/expanded as many elements as Super Mario Bros 3 did. The side-scrolling enemies were pre-historic themed, they introduced Yoshi, added the ghost-houses... but I just wasn't as impressed or excited. I enjoyed discovering the secret Star Road routes and portals, but not as much as SMB3's different themed worlds.

As others have said, playing the NES version of the SMB3 game can be tedious since there's no saving option, but I had so much fun with the game, I actually played through all the worlds straight through at least 10 times or so. Of course, it took about 4 hours or so each time... I loved the dark, mysterious, and difficult world 8 (i.e the tank level, the ship level, the superfast airship, the dark levels 1 & 2) of SMB3 as it felt more fulfilling in completing a more arduous journey in quick hand-eye coordination than in World's labyrinth of discovering new ways to shortcut to Bowser's castle.

5 month late reply but the bolded paragraph has some pretty good observations. You mentioned some things about SMB 3 that I did not in my rather long OP.

Yes, SMB 3 was quite massive for an NES game, but I enjoyed World more when I was a kid because I was able to get much farther in it. I'd usually not get past World 1 in SMB 3. I do remember watching my brother play the game all the way through and World 8 being hell. To this day I haven't been able to beat SMB 3. I can get to World 8, but that's it.

This poll is a bit even, with SMB 3 winning by two votes with 14 votes against 12 of World. This is a question that always sparks up online debates. I won't cast my vote, though. Because I know I'd feel guilty about it, regardless on which game I voted for.