In the glowing reviews for Super Mario Bros. Wonder flooding the internet, many are praising the game as the best 2D Mario since 1990’s Super Mario World. The question of what, exactly, is the best 2D Mario game has made the rounds across social media comment sections, threads, and websites like The Escapist. I even ranked the best 2D Mario games – from worst to best – for The Escapist not too long ago and placed Super Mario World at the top over Super Mario Bros. 3.
I received some good-natured comments about how wrong I was to do so. Pretty much every fan of the mustachioed hero’s more dimensionally-limited adventures admits that the top spot comes down to preference between the two – unless Super Mario Wonder shakes things up – but I’ve never seen it that way: Super Mario World is superior by almost every single metric and the only people that claim otherwise are blinded by nostalgia.
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Super Mario Bros. 3 came near the end of the Nintendo Entertainment System’s lifespan and is often hailed as its best game. It pushed the hardware to the limit, with gorgeously rendered zones – from grasslands to airship flotillas – with unbeatable controls and secrets to uncover for the era. Throw in an iconic soundtrack, and Super Mario Bros. 3 edges out the competition, only being seriously threatened by the original The Legend of Zelda. Plus the Tanooki suit is perhaps Mario’s best power-up. How can you best that?
Easy. Super Mario World did all of the above while releasing the beginning of a console generation, maintaining a top spot for the nearly the entire Super Nintendo Entertainment System’s lifespan, rivaled only by the likes of Chrono Trigger, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Final Fantasy VI for the console’s best game. From Donut Land to the Special Zone, Super Mario World is a vibrant 16-bit adventure matched by few. It plays just as tight as its predecessor with far more secrets and shortcuts to uncover. The soundtrack is just as iconic, and I believe the tunes are the only completely subjective part of the two games. And while the Tanooki suit clearly beats out Mario’s Cape, there’s no Yoshi in Super Mario Bros. 3.
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Yoshi alone makes Super Mario World a superior 2D Mario. The added notes to the soundtrack when Mario hops on his dinosaur pal, the different colors with their special abilities, baby Yoshi growing large after eating a certain amount of enemies, sacrificing Yoshi for a little bit more height – all of this makes Yoshi an unforgettable layer to the 2D Mario formula that Super Mario Bros 3. just does not have.
Whether or not you agree with me, you likely acknowledge that the 2D Mario golden age was decades ago. 2D Mario games from the Wii onward failed to hit the same level of discovery, both in terms of additions to the formula and secrets to discover, though New Super Mario Bros. U came close.
However, with what’s being said about Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I hope we can move on from this decades old argument – that I’m clearly right about – and begin a new debate: is Super Mario Bros. Wonder better than Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World? I can’t wait to find out how it stacks up with two of the best platformers ever made after I’ve gotten a chance to really delve into it, though I bet Super Mario World still comes out on top.
