43 replies to this topic

[pixelated]

Super Mario Bros. 3. Probably my favorite game ever. I was blown away by this game the first time I played it back when I was 10-11 years old. And it's still one of the few games I've really mastered.
I remember loving Super Mario World when it came out, being blown away by that too, but there's something about it that's very slightly disappointing coming off SMB3. I dunno what it is though....

[rockman_x_2002]

SMB3 definitely had its charm, and I loved the feeling I had playing that game. SMW didn't quite have the same feeling, but the graphics were better, there was more to do, the levels were larger, and there were a lot more of them. So my vote has to go to SMW because of the amount of content in the game. But I love both and for differing reasons, although they are basically the same game.

[Nateo]

50 votes in and its split right down the middle! Surely this is a question for the ages.


Btw, I voted for Mario 3. It just keeps beckoning my return.

[Robert Carrion]

I used to play hours on end with Super Mario 3. I played it before school, after school, sick days. While I did go to a Genesis, not an SNES. Of course I played World (friends/kiosks, later on emulators) and they are both fantastic, they deserve to be 50/50. I liked the format of 3, I liked the look of it. Super Mario 3 did things with the NES, that you just may have not thought possible. While World was just a great entry game into SNES. I think how most people will vote for this is what they played more when they were younger. But even then I go with 3, I always felt 3 had the perfect difficulty layout, every world was harder then the last. I also liked the powerups in 3 more.

[Asaki]

Weird, I didn't think this would be as close as it is. I vote for 3, all the way.

[NinjaWarrior]

I broke the tie

I choose Super Mario Bros. 3

[eggomania]

I caused the tie again by voting Super Mario World!

Both games are great but World took the Mario franchise to a whole new level. It's one of the best of the platform games.

[Rikkarr]

Super Mario World. For some reason, I was never good at SMB3, so I never got into it.

[toptenmaterial]

3 was harder, that's for damn sure! I must confess, I always beat it using the same tricks: play worlds 1 to the beginning of 7, warp to eight, play the ships and tanks (they aren't too hard, also extremely fun), and cloud/p-wing through 8-1 and 8-2, cloud over the fortress, p-wing through Bowser's castle and whop his punk Koopa ass!

SMB 2 is hard as hell by the way.

[DemonoidTentacle]

Maybe if nintendo saw this they might start putting some aspects of SMW in their newer Mario games, as opposed to flooding them with SMB3 nostalgia.

[thegoldenband]

I think highly of SMB3, but I enjoyed SMW more. The saving makes a big difference, honestly, but it's also just the aesthetic of the game and the way in which its secrets are handled -- I prefer SMW's approach to hidden areas and so forth.

I'm also less than fond of the SMB3 bonus areas, e.g. the Concentration-style game which should be 100% random, but isn't, thus encouraging the "Buy our strategy guide and you'll be sitting pretty!" phenomenon. And I always felt a little frustrated by how fleeting the coolest items are, like Kuribo's shoe and the Tanooki and (especially) Hammer Bros. outfits.

[Silent Hill]

Super Mario Bros 3 took a far larger innovative leap than Super Mario World and for that reason it made a far bigger impression on me when it was released. I first played it in a pub near the art college I was attending at the time and it became the reason I eventually bought a NES.

I remember being disctinctly underwhelmed when I saw the graphics for Super Mario World when it later came out, it didn't exactly seem to show of the hardware the way the former title did. Super Mario World probably is the more polished game, but it stands on the larger shoulders of SMB 3 ~ which is why the earlier iteration definitely gets my vote.

If the question was simply which game do you think was more influential, then I think it's a no brainer!

Edited by Silent Hill, Thu Dec 8, 2011 10:04 AM.

[lushgirl_80]

SMW for me


Loved SMB 3 when it first came out but when I first saw SMW it really blew my mind. Great graphics and sound that still hold up well today. SMB 3 is still fun but the graphics seem a bit dated.

[GKC]

Super Mario World for me. Believe it or not I never played Super Mario 3 until I picked up a copy of it this past year. My family all but ceased buying NES games towards the end of the NES and missed out on most of its late releases including SM3. Not saying SM3 isn't a great Mario game but for me the progression on playing Mario games was Super Mario Bros. and then SMW. SMW was such a huge leap for me it terms of everything that I hold a similar opinion of it that some hold of Mario 64.

Edited by GKC, Fri Dec 9, 2011 8:51 AM.

[toptenmaterial]

GKC, on Fri Dec 9, 2011 8:50 AM, said:

Super Mario World for me. Believe it or not I never played Super Mario 3 until I picked up a copy of it this past year. My family all but ceased buying NES games towards the end of the NES and missed out on most of its late releases including SM3. Not saying SM3 isn't a great Mario game but for me the progression on playing Mario games was Super Mario Bros. and then SMW. SMW was such a huge leap for me it terms of everything that I hold a similar opinion of it that some hold of Mario 64.

So GKC, do you believe that the progression continued with Sunshine and Galaxy?

[goatdan]

I almost brought it back to even...

To me, it's SMB3 all day, every day. I never really found the same love for SMW that it seems like so many did. For me, they took away things that I thought were precise and intuitive, and replace them with things that were difficult -- like the difference between the tail and the cape. I know that you can learn the cape pretty easily, but I never felt like I had to "learn" the tail. It just worked.

The different land themes in 8, the different ways to get through the lands, the music, the little secrets that you could figure out how to do without a strategy guide, and then the deeper secrets that usually you might stumble across but would need help to figure out (White Mushroom houses, I'm lookin' at you!) are just amazing. The entire progression is about as perfect as I think it could be done.

For me, the order would easily go:

1 - SMB3
2 - SMB
3 - SMB LL
4 - NSMB DS
5 - NSMB Wii
6 - SMW

All great games, it's just SMW is the least of them I think. Oh, and I *hate* the 3D incarnations.

[GKC]

toptenmaterial, on Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:02 AM, said:

GKC, on Fri Dec 9, 2011 8:50 AM, said:

Super Mario World for me. Believe it or not I never played Super Mario 3 until I picked up a copy of it this past year. My family all but ceased buying NES games towards the end of the NES and missed out on most of its late releases including SM3. Not saying SM3 isn't a great Mario game but for me the progression on playing Mario games was Super Mario Bros. and then SMW. SMW was such a huge leap for me it terms of everything that I hold a similar opinion of it that some hold of Mario 64.

So GKC, do you believe that the progression continued with Sunshine and Galaxy?

I was referring to my personal progression in Mario games. I went from Super Mario Bros. to SMW missing everything inbetween. I like the Galaxy games a lot but remember not liking Sunshine as much As Mario 64. The whole vacation theme didn't really do it for me.

[DemonoidTentacle]

goatdan, on Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:37 AM, said:

For me, they took away things that I thought were precise and intuitive, and replace them with things that were difficult -- like the difference between the tail and the cape. I know that you can learn the cape pretty easily, but I never felt like I had to "learn" the tail. It just worked.

I notice this is a common thought amongst people when discussing this topic, but I feel the comparison is wrong and unfair, as another powerup exists in SMW which I find makes this comment void. Blue Yoshi. He takes everything learnt from the tail, and makes it better. It feels more fluid.

Now yes, your comment is opinion, and it's your opinion. I just feel that a lot of the time the powerups of the Yoshi's get left out.

[goatdan]

DemonoidTentacle, on Sun Dec 11, 2011 4:44 AM, said:

I notice this is a common thought amongst people when discussing this topic, but I feel the comparison is wrong and unfair, as another powerup exists in SMW which I find makes this comment void. Blue Yoshi. He takes everything learnt from the tail, and makes it better. It feels more fluid.

Now yes, your comment is opinion, and it's your opinion. I just feel that a lot of the time the powerups of the Yoshi's get left out.

With the Yoshi's, you add the complexity of jumping on and off them, and then having to figure out what color does what. If anything, the Yoshi situation highlights to me the lack of precision put into the power ups. Sure, the blue one can fly, but I have to remember that, and not accidentally hop off of him while attempting to use that ability.