Super Mario Brothers 3 vs. Super Mario World

[MajesticSiN]

Having played both on release I'm partial to Super Mario World. It's still my go to this day when I want to play a Mario game.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Super Mario All-Star + World and it's a win/win.

 

[pauringu]

this is tough! the power ups in 3 are so charming! but the ost and overall sound design in world is magical! i think if i had to choose, probably world.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

I’m sad to say that Sonic the Hedgehog erased all my memories of Mario.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

This is the “content VS polish” debate. Both of these games are goated, but I think World is a bit more refined. I keep thinking, when going back, that Mario 3 could have been even better if it was more focused on speed using the P system.

 

[Dyne]

I'll go ahead and say World, but its very close.
They're both Legends in my book

 

[RetroCasual]

Just as always, it's a personal choice and I respect anyone's choice, but I have my own reasons to have a clear winner here. And for me that's an easy pick... Super Mario Bros 3 was the real best among them two.
I find it comprehensive to new retro-players to go to SMW, but I started playing videogames with a NES instead of a SNES. Think about the slight quality differences between SMB3 and SMW and now do the same with SMB3 and SMB2 USA or SMB The Lost Levels... SMB3 was the real mind-blowing game at its time, so mind-blowing that SMW did not really surprised anyone that played SMB3 before. It's something similar to Zelda BOTW and Zelda TOTK... TOTK expanded and polished it all from BOTW, but BOTW is considered the real best Zelda game of all time.
Big questions apart, I hate Mario's desing from SMW when the cap turns up when jumping, almost falling from his head (exactly the same with Super Mario Wonder). Please Nintendo, fix Mario's cap for the sake of god...
Besides that, when talking about levels designed in Super Mario Maker 2 with the SMB3 engine, I find them much prettier than the ones done with the SMW engine.
And of course there is one of the best remakes of all time in the contest, which is Super Mario All Stars. The amazing re-work done with this quadrilogy is a piece of history of the pixel art. I'd still pick SMB3 from All Stars over SMW.
Maximum respect to SMW (A.K.A. Super Mario Bros 4 in Japan), 4th place in my list of best 2D Mario retro-games, but that's my humble opinion.

 

[DrunkGecko]

for the base game: mario 3
for the rom hacks: mario world

 

[Duke_11037]

Mario world, it's birthed some of the best romhacks ever made. The vanilla game itself is fun and challenging.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Honestly if a mad lad could actually mix the best of both:

SMB3 but you can go back to the previous levels if you want to, having all powerups from both games, having the possibility to have a Luigi with his own control style (like SMB2 The Lost Levels), enhanced graphics (because SMW, being an early title, was simpler compared to the more complex late NES SMB3), Yoshi included and many other QoL improvements from both.

 

[diet_orange]

3 feels more like the culmination of years of hard work creating and fine tuning the platformer genre. I like World a lot too, but it feels more like it was made purely as a reason to get people to buy a new console (didn't it come out like only a year or two after 3?)

 

[MemeAlert]

Excluding hacks because why bring them up? I would say Super Mario Bros 3 because I think it defines what a Mario game should be. Yea Super Mario World is easy to get into but its lacking in power ups, not counting Yoshi. Why didn't you just said Yoshi's Island? Thats clearly the best Mario game.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Yea Super Mario World is easy to get into but its lacking in power ups.

I'd argue that quantity doesn't equal quality. I'm fine with a few powerups that can be used all the time than situational ones. Even NSMB dropping the shell one was not a bad idea seeing how the penguin suit worked better while retaining the ice flower properties.

but it feels more like it was made purely as a reason to get people to buy a new console.

I mean Mario 64 was also meant to sell the N64, they're system sellers.



Sorry for asking but SMB3 on the GBA allowed to go back to previous worlds?

 

[MemeAlert]

Big questions apart, I hate Mario's desing from SMW when the cap turns up when jumping, almost falling from his head (exactly the same with Super Mario Wonder). Please Nintendo, fix Mario's cap for the sake of god...

...Sometimes I just don't get people, how is this even an issue?

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

...Sometimes I just don't get people, how is this even an issue?

In fact I see it more as a good thing animation wise even if it physically makes no sense but then again you're not asking for realism in a game about a plumber jumping three times his height.

 

[MemeAlert]

I'd argue that quantity doesn't equal quality. I'm fine with a few powerups that can be used all the time than situational ones. Even NSMB dropping the shell one was not a bad idea seeing how the penguin suit worked better while retaining the ice flower properties.

Yea but they didn't just remove a powerup, they just replaced it.

 

[diet_orange]

I mean Mario 64 was also meant to sell the N64, they're system sellers.

Which is, you know, fair. I'm not denouncing it's quality, moreso the lack of advancement creatively speaking. Yes, it does look much better than 3, there's no denying and I'd be a fool if I didn't mention how much I adore Yoshi, but it feels a bit more hollow and cookie cutter I guess is what I'm trying to say?

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Yea but they didn't just remove a powerup, they just replaced it.

The cape had at least the ability to have a form of flying up and down. I think that the hammer bro suit is too rare and not as convenient as the fire flower.

Which is, you know, fair. I'm not denouncing it's quality, moreso the lack of advancement creatively speaking. Yes, it does look much better than 3, there's no denying and I'd be a fool if I didn't mention how much I adore Yoshi, but it feels a bit more hollow and cookie cutter I guess is what I'm trying to say?

2D platformers can quickly get limited I would say.

The enemy roster is at least creative.

 

[RetroCasual]

...Sometimes I just don't get people, how is this even an issue?

I don't consider it as an issue, but I find it ugly.
Every time Mario jumps feels like his cap is glued to the nape of his neck. Maybe it is an exaggerated attempt to show funnier animations, just like if his cap is about to fall at any moment, but I'd prefer a less exaggerated movement of the cap or even the previous jumping desing from SMB3.
Another things I find ugly in SMW are the too light blue from his plumber suit, or the borderless design of Mario when you move him across the World Map...
Of course, uglier/prettier depends on the tastes of every person, and these are just small details that don't really worsen the great experience that is playing this game, but I find them one step back from its predecessor.
Do you get it now?

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

I really like the super Mario bros 3 because I like the 8 worlds Grassland, Dessert, Water land, Giant land, Sky Land, Ice Land, the Maze, and The Bowser kingdom I love the variety of the world here the music is also my favorite here and of course are the power-up many tanuki and Hammer suit are my favorites this game introduce to me the world map and this why when I play ff1 I remember Mario different land environment Thanks to this that I love rpg I go for three and of course the tank, ship and airship are my favorite stage.


The problem with world is that Yoshi's Island defeat it (I have to admit it even defeat Super Mario Bros 3) the land variety the Music is so good

I guess in my part I don't have a Super Famicom growing up I only play them on gba unlike the bros 3 which I have a Famicom (and is Japanese ver)

 

[ThunderBoy]

I prefer Super Mario World

 

[Isegrim]

I loved both but Super Mario Bros. 3 edges it out because of nostalgia. We had a Famicom and being the huge Mario fans back then, we bought Super Mario Bros. 3 the Japanese version the moment we saw the box in our local store. Yes, the one where you'd turn into Small Mario instantly if you get hit even with a Racoon tail or suit. (Plus all of Peach's letters were in incomprehensible Japanese...)

We got it so early that when we watched the 1989 movie "The Wizard" about a whiz kid who wins a video game tournament and the climax involved the revelation of Super Mario Bros 3 to western audiences, we just said..."We already finished that." I remember in the original showing, the kid gets the third star in the goal box, gets the star fireworks display (which gives you a 5up) and immediately, he gets a ton of points clinching the tournament. I remember thinking to myself...that doesn't get you any points at all...WTF? When I tried to look for that scene years later in the internet, the fireworks display scene seems to be...cut?

Also, I used to annoy my sister a lot with Super Mario Bros. 3. When she passed my luigi in the map, I'd hit the button and we'd get into the head-to-head Mario Bros. level. I usually win with her turn getting forfeited...and she'd get really TICKED OFF! Memories.

 

[Ne0Griever]

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Vs.
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Both of these games are widely considered not only the best 2d Mario games ever made but are also considered among the best games released on their respective consoles. I've been playing a lot of both of them lately. Both the og games and romhacks of both and I really can't decide which I like better.

I grew up with both games. I had the nes and the all stars version of Mario 3 as a kid and me and my cousins both had a copy of super Mario world. Both Mario games are some of the few games my mom actually enjoyed playing and super Mario world is the only video game my aunt actually ever played to completion(with help from me and my cousins.)

I think I slightly prefer the physics in Mario 3. It feels faster and more frantic. I don't know why but having to slow down after landing a jump just makes it feel more fun. It makes every jump feel riskier and it feels easier to maintain p-speed than it does maintaining top speed in SMW. I do prefer the grabbing and shell mechanics of Mario World though and I'm playing the SMB3 definitive edition hack right now which adds in those mechanics and it makes SMB3 feel a lot better.

I do prefer the longer levels in SMW but I find a lot of the SMB3 levels to be more fun than SMW's. I also sort of prefer how SMB3 doesn't make you replay the same levels over and over but I do kind of miss the secret exits and hidden levels when I play SMB3. The levels in SMB3 also feel a lot more varied than the ones in SMW.

The SMW world romhacking scene is a lot better though. A large chunk of the SMB3 hacks seem to be kaizo hacks and the ones that aren't are still kind of lackluster compared to the SMW ones. It does look like SMB3 has a relatively new, fairly fully featured level editor out for it now so maybe better hacks will start popping up. But right now, SMW has so many more high quality hacks it's not even really comparable.

Whichever one you think is the best you're really not wrong. They're both great games that hold up well and are just as great to play today as they were when they came out.

And if you're reading this and you haven't played one or both of these games, go play them now.

So which of these two is your favourite?

I think it depends on your childhood and the environment, never had a NES

My father got an SNES for me when I got sick for almost 8 months from chicken pox (Varicella) so am bias, when ever i played SMB 3 it was on the SNES remake of all stars and found it wierd.

Both are worth a play and are excellent.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

Never played the third one on the nes, only the original and doki doki mario vs.
Played both around the same time with the mario all stars + Mario world combo system and I can say that i prefer the world and level design in Smb3, while I enjoyed the music and the sense of exploration and wonder in World.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I also think that SMB3 in Mario All Star is better.