Super Mario Bros. 3 vs. Super Mario World
 

That's right, I went there. I'm asking something that, to many, is of the toughest questions ever in gaming history. Which game do you think is better: Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES or Super Mario World for the SNES?

Let's break it down:

Graphics: ...well SMB 3 is a slightly older game and it's for the NES, an 8-bit console, so ofc SMW is gonna have better graphics than it. That being said, SMB3 has pretty great graphics for an NES game.

Gameplay: Well, Mario games always have good control, but I find SMW to have more polished gameplay overall. The control just feels perfect in that game. As for the powerups, SMB 3 was more creative in that regard and had a wide variety of powerups such as the frog and the Tanuki suits. But SMW, on the other hand, compensated a lot for having Yoshi and the cape.

Challenge/Difficulty: SMB 3 is a harder game overall and I think everyone agrees with me on this one. Super Mario World is a fairly accessible game. The hardest levels in Super Mario World are in the Star World and Special World. I've beaten SMW countless times and haven't been able to beat SMB 3 after all these years yet.

Mini-games: Mario 3 wins by a landslide. World didn't have mini-games asides the switch palaces. Mario 3 had mini-games in every world where you could gain 1UPs, and it also had a Hammer Bros. stage or two per each world.

Boss fights: Super Mario World has better boss fights overall, imo.

Haunted houses: Introduced in SMW. SMB 3 didn't have them.

Secrets: World wins here. I mean, the game was built around finding every single secret exit. That's the most challenging aspect of the game, actually, and not beating it per se. You can skip the final "world" if you beat the star world early on and jump right onto Bowser.

Replay value: Well, Super Mario World is arguably my most played game of all time, but considering how much more I die in SMB 3 and have to go all the way back(without save states obviously...) once it's game over, that means SMB3 also has very high replay value. Both have equally high replay value in different ways: Super Mario World for the sheer fun of the game itself and Super Mario Bros. 3 for the challenge/difficulty of the game. The sense of accomplishment when you beat a world in SMB3 is higher than in SMW.

Level design: Well this one is difficult. Mario games tend to be equal as far as great level design goes. Although I think SMB3 has some genius levels latter on in the game while World seems to focus more on detailed backgrounds and adding more enemies to make levels harder. It seems to me developers used their creativity mostly in the star and special worlds.

So, overall, I think SMB3 is more challenging and has more variety than Super Mario World does. However, World is arguably my favourite game ever, so I can't help but go back to it more often. But I ask you in this thread which game do you think is better overall. And I'm undecided but leaning more towards SMB3. Super Mario World is considered the greatest Mario adventure ever by many... but SMB 3 was also a pretty damn large adventure/game, don't you think? World's world(hah funny!) does win on graphics and presentation, which definitely adds to the experience, but SMB 3 makes you work harder to beat levels.

So, what about you? What's your pick?

I vote Super Mario Bros 3 for nostalgia reasons as I played it alot in my childhood and remember it fondly for the power Ups, the music, and the gameplay.

I also like Super Mario World alot but didn't play it anywhere as much so I don't have as much of a connection to it

That's interesting because I played the 3 NES Super Mario Bros. games before playing World, but ended up liking World more. Then again, World was an easier game than any of the NES Mario games even when I was a kid and thus still a bad player. So I guess I ended up playing World more because I had trouble going far in SMB 3. But when we got Super Mario Advance 4 for the GBA I played SMB 3 again and this time got quite far in it ad thus began seeing what most of the game was like.

I've never gotten around to beat it, however. The last world is literally hell.

I never got to play our NES copy of SMB3 because it was my brother's favourite game and he was possessive of it. I've only played emulation/ports and while I enjoyed it, I never understood why people slobbered all over it, it wasn't that great for me. Since you pointed it out, it got me thinking that it's probably the difficulty that turns me off, but I didn't play it all the way through so I don't remember it being particularly hard.

SMW on the other hand I have extremely fond memories of. Yoshi was what got me to start drawing, the music is what made me want to learn to whistle, and if I had somehow skipped this one I don't think I'd even like video games as much as I do now. It was hugely influential on me. I considered SMW my favourite video game for a very long time and if I had to define my early childhood with a single video game there's no doubt this one would be it

I get what you mean. Super Mario World is just magical and is also unarguably one of the very few games that I could play in 20 years from now and still love it as much as I used to back when I was a kid. However, I can't ignore how great of a game SMB 3 was as well.

It also be that I played the GBA port of SMB 3 which could save, had better graphics and was probably easier.

I played both the NES and GBA versions. And also a bit on the All-Stars versions.

Even with saves SMB 3 is still a challenging game overall. I was playing it on GBA when I was a teenager and couldn't beat it either. And died a lot of times until I reached the final world.

SMB3 all the way. World is fantastic, but 3 is just a timeless classic. The amount of game on that cart is impressive for NES standards.
I used to hate World for some reason as a kid. I guess I thought it was ruining the franchise or something. Boy was I dumb. When I actually played it for the first time I had loads of fun. I love the game now.
But SMB3 is still my favorite between the two (SMB2 being my favorite overall) and I now know which Mario game I really need to hate: SM64. :flaming:

Hate?? Super Mario World?! How was that possible?

I don't hate any major Mario game at all, but my least favourite was probably Sunshine. I still liked it and was a good game overall but I guess I didn't like much how different it was from your average Mario game.

I don't know! I was a complete fool! Thankfully I'm able to appreciate that amazing game now.

What I said about SM64 still stands though.

And why do you hate SM 64? It's been over 20 years since it came out and hasn't exactly been getting remakes/ports for every console like the older 2D Mario games did.

Also, you said your favourite Mario game was SMB2... do you mean the Doki Doki Panic like game or the Japanese SMB 2?

World is my all time favorite Mario game.

World. It's not even that hard of a question.

Yeah. It's like, "What do you like better? The wheel, or the car?"

but the wheel was first and therefore better than the car which just did the same thing but better. The wheel also gets nostalgia points.

Eh no, not really? Even if you prefer a game to the other, that analogy makes it sound like World is bounds and leaps better than SMB 3, making it an average game in comparison.

But it is. I think the ability to save your game alone brings it out of the stone age.

World all day. Easy.

For anyone who really loves it, check out SMW-Central. There's a huuuge community of people making new games based in it. Romhacks or whatever.

Oh? I totally forgot you couldn't save at all in SMB 3. Come to think of it that's kinda weird. I mean the original LoZ had a save feature and that game is older than SMB 3.

never heard of that. Seems cool.

Also lots of great Super Mario Maker levels made with Super Mario World.

I owned World as a kid, and SMB3 on All Stars eventually, but I always played it at friends' and cousins' houses who owned the NES original, and I like 3 better. More power ups (loved frog suit and hammer bros suit). More interesting worlds (Giant World was my all-time favorite). It had some difficulty, but not some of the craziness of some of the hidden Star Road levels (I'm looking at you Tubular.)

You know what Mario game really sucks? Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

Horrific. Unplayable. Huge disappointment. Cute, with good use of the "Mode 6" SFX (or whatever was touted as being state of the art with SNES) but that's all.

Tubular is special world and not star world ;)

And yes that level seems impossible at first, but once you figure it out it's actually not that hard. But it's definitely the level where I died the most often in SMW. And the special world isn't even compulsory anyway. Beating it only changes the colours of the overworld. But you gotta beat the World 8 in SMB 3 in order to beat the game...

Wow...and with that, Andrew makes me question everything he's said in this thread.

Have never played it. Not sure if I should play the SNES game or the 3DS game.

The transition to 3D wasn't a good idea. I can sort of give the graphics a pass since they're a product of their time, but the three dimensional gameplay was too different from the games before it. The platforming wasn't tight-nit like it's predecessors (a series staple) and playing the game with that weird controller was just annoying. Levels aren't as clear cut as previous installments; instead of simply progressing through a level you have to just wander around 'till you find your objective. The whole hub world thing is kinda lame. And this game set the precedent for the cheap and lame 3D Mario games we've gotten since.

And yeah, the Yume Kōjō Doki Doki Panic SMB2 is my favorite. Would you believe Super Mario Land is my second favorite? Boy, do I have weird taste or what? :lol:

I'll never understand people that don't like the N64 controller. I know I'm in the minority but I loved it.

It was unavoidable. It would have been nice to include more traditional Mario stuff in it... like Flowers to shoot fireballs, and mushrooms and some method of flying, but it wasn't bad at all.

I don't like it because it's uncomfortable to play with.

Wandering around until you find your objective? You had about 7 stars or so per level. And you picked which one to look for and the name of the mission pretty much told you what to do/where to look for. I don't recall feeling lost in the game very often.

I've played some of SM 64 a few years ago and it still holds up for a 1996 3D game. Ofc it didn't age as well as other Nintendo games did but one can still see why it was a big deal back when it came out.

I liked it back in the day. Today it probably looks a bit too big and bulky but that was inevitable. Controllers had to evolve with time.

Honestly, I didn't even notice the lack of fireballs and invincibility in that game. I really loved the winged cap and metal Mario fine. I missed Yoshi but I don't think he'd have fit in the game, and you meet him briefly anyways.

Mushrooms? And then the game would have 2 hit deaths instead of a health bar? It'd be worse imo.

Oh. lol... *scratches head* I must have forgotten that.

Well, not necessarily. Could be like, when the health bar goes below 90%, you're not Super Mario anymore. Or something.

That's the whole thing the series forgot about. The first game was just "Mario Bros." because they're just normal guys. "Super Mario Bros." received the "Super" because you can become Super Mario (or Luigi) by eating a mushroom. In no other Super Mario game beyond the first 3 I'm aware of can you do that.

You get it pretty early on in the game so I don't blame you :lol:

I'm curious about how you feel about Mario Sunshine, Andrew.

I played the crap out of it on... what was it, Gamecube? Didn't beat it, and it was a little frustrating trying to find all the little splotches you're supposed to clean up or whatever, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. I liked how the joystick vibrates (ba-dum-bum) when you're hovering around and such, felt rather immersive.

Weird that there hasn't been a "real" Super Mario installment since Galaxy. That was a ways back, wasn't it?

Experimenting with the cape feather was fun and Yoshi was the real star, but I still prefer SMB3 because of the abundant variety of powerups and the ease of flying with the Raccoon tail.

I can't say too much bad about the gameplay other than the fact that it does not benefit from being called "Super Mario World 2." It was clearly it's own thing in the 1990s and it's spawned almost as many sequels as the Super Mario Bros. main series. Oh, also the incessant crying of baby Mario... yeah, it's already clear you have to grab him after taking damage... the countdown clock would have been enough of a hint. Oh... and the Yoshi formula is obsessed with 100% level completion runs, thus, it takes me forever to beat a single stage.

It felt like a SNES video game version of those home economics classes... you guys ever have those in middle school? Where everyone has to take care of the sugar baby, or whatever?

Yeah it was fun but not as great as SMB 3, World or 64 where when they came out. I never got around to beat it. That game was tough, especially those secret stages with hovering platforms or wtv.

Well Odyssey is coming out for the Switch.

Those are all personal problems, not actual problems with the game.

I think SMB3 is more interesting and has more variety, but World is just more fun. Also, Yoshi was a blast. :twink: World is easier, too, except for "Tubular"... damn whatever spawn of Satan invented that level. :flaming: :tlol:

Thankfully, I never had to do that. Dodged a bullet, I'm sure!