History YMMV / SuperMarioWorld

* SpecialEffectFailure: The Magikoopa's sprite in all SNES versions has incorrect shading; the parts that are supposed to be lighter are dark, and vice versa. This is fixed in the GBA port.

** Soda Lake easily takes the cake for being the most difficult underwater level in the game, being the only level with Torpedo Teds, which spawn endlessly, and can move much faster than Mario, at many times spawning 3 or 4 at a time. To make matters worse, while you can kill monsters like Cheep Cheeps, Rip Van Fishes and even the Urchins, the Torpedo Teds are completely invincible. Just getting to the level is no small feat either, requiring you to either be very good at cape flight or be willing to sacrifice your Yoshi.

** Soda Lake easily takes the cake for being the most difficult underwater level in the game, being the only level with Torpedo Teds, which spawn endlessly, and can move much faster than Mario, at many times spawning 3 or 4 at a time. Just getting to the level is no small feat either, requiring you to either be very good at cape flight or be willing to sacrifice your Yoshi.

* BrokenBase: While the ''Super Mario Advance 2'' UpdatedRerelease is widely agreed to hold up extremely well in terms of gameplay and graphics, the remixed soundtrack is pretty divisive, with opinions ranging all the way from considering it even better than the SNES original, to a complete butchery on par with the soundtrack to the UsefulNotes/Sega32X version of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''.

** Yoshi. While riding Yoshi, Mario can walk over or bounce off of a lot of hazards and enemies, and KO enemies that normally require a spin jump in one hit, Yoshi can grab power-ups or eat enemies with his tongue, he can take a hit from enemies in Mario's place, and by eating colored shells he can shoot fireballs, fly, or release dust clouds when he lands that damage enemies. And, infamously, Mario can jump with Yoshi and then leap off of him in midair to do a DoubleJump. Yoshi is an invaluable partner in many levels, and if you get a Blue Yoshi from the Star World, then ''any'' shell it swallows lets it fly.

** Even if Luigi is the one that defeats one of the Koopalings and destroys a castle, Mario is still the one that gets credit for it in the text. Unsurprisingly, this turns up in "Luigi gets no respect" memes.

* PolishedPort: While the GBA port — ''Super Mario Advance 2'' — has the usual drawbacks that come with most SNES-to-GBA conversions (inferior audio, washed out colors, screen crunch, etc), it is still a very good port that improves upon the SNES original in a few ways. It adds in an intro cutscene that [[AdaptationExpansion gives more context]] to the game's ExcusePlot, gives Luigi his unique physics and redesigns his sprites to be more distinctive like the ''All-Stars+World'' rerelease, while also allowing you to play as him in single player, fixes many of the glitches present in the original game, and adds in a few quality of life improvements that make the game more accessible, such as a modern quick save system that allows you to save anytime (as opposed to just castles and ghost houses), while also maintaining your extra lives, the ability to replay castles/fortresses at any time (something you can only do in the original game after beating Bowser), and a checklist that allows you to keep track of your progress (including the Dragon Coins you collected), amongst other improvements.

* ContestedSequel: Asking other fans whether or not ''Super Mario World'' is an EvenBetterSequel than ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' will get you a variety of answers. Fans of ''3'' cite the more plentiful power ups, slightly smoother controls, higher number of levels (90 versus 73) and the addition of Airship levels (absent in ''World''). ''World'' fans prefer its smoother level of difficulty, longer levels, availability of secret exits and a fully featured World Map, addition of Ghost House levels, addition of a save system (at least until it was added to the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars'' version of ''3'') and the introduction of Yoshi. Most will admit to enjoying both, however.

* ToughActToFollow: As far as 2D ''Mario'' titles go, ''World'' is widely regarded to be the best by critics and fans, with many feeling that none of Mario's future 2D adventures — such as ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' and the ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' series — have come close to living up to ''World'''s gameplay, mechanics, and level design (though most are generally well-regarded titles in their own right). Even the developers have acknowledged this in interviews, admitting that the reason why they shifted away from Mario to focus on Yoshi in the game's [[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland follow-up]] [[note]]Outside Japan, the game was [[MarketBasedTitle marketed]] as a direct sequel to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' due to its popularity, but it's actually a distant prequel to the entire series and doesn't share many gameplay elements with it or the other 2D games, being its [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland own thing]]. In Japan, it's called ''Super Mario: Yoshi Island'', where the title just shows it's part of the greater ''Mario'' series.[[/note]] was that they had done all they wanted to do at the time with the 2D ''Mario'' gameplay with ''World'' and wanted to do something different instead.

* ToughActToFollow: As far as 2D ''Mario'' titles go, ''World'' is widely regarded to be the best by critics and fans, with many feeling that none of Mario's future 2D adventures — such as ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' and the ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' series — have come close to living up to ''World'''s gameplay, mechanics, and level design (even if they're generally well-regarded titles in their own right). Even the developers have acknowledged this in interviews, admitting that the reason why they shifted away from Mario to focus on Yoshi in the game's [[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland follow-up]] [[note]]Outside Japan, the game was [[MarketBasedTitle marketed]] as a direct sequel to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' due to its popularity, but it's actually a distant prequel to the entire series and doesn't share many gameplay elements with it or the other 2D games, being its [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland own thing]]. In Japan, it's called ''Super Mario: Yoshi Island'', where the title just shows it's part of the greater ''Mario'' series.[[/note]] was that they had done all they wanted to do at the time with the 2D ''Mario'' gameplay with ''World'' and wanted to do something different instead.

* DisappointingLastLevel: Bowser's Castle is likely to be a letdown in difficulty after all the fortresses encountered earlier. There is a choice of eight different doors to take through the castle, each with its own unique challenges, but you only need to pick two of the eight gauntlets (A choice of doors 1-4 followed by 5-8), which greatly reduces how difficult things could be. Even if you pick the hardest paths, they are not as demanding as what you've already seen in the game. Becomes even more so if you complete the [[BrutalBonusLevel Valley Fortress]] and enter through the Back Door, skipping the gauntlet section altogether and starting on the relatively easy final stretch before Bowser's boss doors. Even Larry's Castle before the regular entrance is more likely to give players difficulty. The FinalBoss is [[[[AwesomeBosses/VideoGames
another story]] however.

* BestLevelEver: The Sunken Ghost Ship is well-regarded by many as one of the best ''SMW'' levels and 2D ''Mario'' levels overall. Primarily because its fans believe that the sunken airship theme and the free fall section grabbing stars at the end make it unique. It's also confirmed to be a sunken airship from the similarly fan favorite levels from ''Super Mario 3''.

* ContestedSequel: Trying to figure out whether or not ''Super Mario World'' is an EvenBetterSequel than ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' will get you a variety of answers. Fans of ''3'' cite the more plentiful power ups, slightly smoother controls, higher number of levels (90 versus 73) and the addition of Airship levels (absent in ''World''). ''World'' fans prefer its smoother level of difficulty, longer levels, availability of secret exits and a fully featured World Map, addition of Ghost House levels, addition of a save system (at least until it was added to the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars'' version of ''3'') and the introduction of Yoshi. Most will admit to enjoying both, however.

* DisappointingLastLevel: Bowser's Castle is likely to be a letdown in difficulty after all the fortresses encountered earlier. There is a choice of eight different doors to take through the castle, each with its own unique challenges, but you only need to pick two of the eight gauntlets (A choice of doors 1-4 followed by 5-8), which greatly reduces how difficult things could be. Even if you pick the hardest paths, they are not as demanding as what you've already seen in the game. Becomes even more so if you complete the [[BrutalBonusLevel Valley Fortress]] and enter through the Back Door, skipping the gauntlet section altogether and starting on the relatively easy final stretch before Bowser's boss doors. Even Larry's Castle before the regular entrance is more likely to give players difficulty.

* ToughActToFollow: As far as 2D Mario titles go, ''World'' is widely regarded to be the best by critics and fans, with many feeling that none of Mario's future 2D adventures — such as ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' and the ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' series — have come close to living up to ''World'''s gameplay, mechanics, and level design (even if they're well-regarded titles in their own right). Even the developers have acknowledged this in interviews, admitting that the reason why they shifted away from Mario to focus on Yoshi in the game's "[[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland sequel]]" was that they had done all they wanted to do with the 2D Mario gameplay with ''World'' and wanted to do something new instead.

** Castle #6, Wendy's Castle. Near its mid-level checkpoint you have to pass through three fast moving Skewers, and the room for mistakes here is small since mistiming your dodge basically means death as Skewers behave as walls in this game and thus can OneHitKill you if you get crushed by them. The worst part is that dying there means you'll have to re-do the level all over again since it's right before the checkpoint. What's more is that [[DummiedOut unused within the game]] is actually a version of this very level that's harder than the final version, meaning what the final game has is slightly easier, if still difficult.

* BestLevelEver: The Sunken Ghost Ship is well-regarded by many as one of the best ''SMW'' levels and 2D ''Mario'' levels overall. Primarily because its fans believe that the sunken airship theme and the free fall section grabbing stars at the end make it unique. It's also confirmed to be a sunken airship from the similarly fan favorite levels from ''[=SMB3=]''.

** Chocolate Island 2 has a quirk where depending on various factors (regular/dragon coins gathered, time remaining), the pipes will take you to separate areas, meaning that there are a few combinations of how the level can play out. Not only does this mechanic never show up again in this game, it never shows up again in ''any Mario game''. [[ScrappyMechanic Not that anybody really minds, and for good reason.]]

## Lastly, it's the first ''Mario'' game that allows the player to save their progress, making lives almost meaningless.

* BestLevelEver: The Sunken Ghost ship is well-regarded by many as one of the best ''SMW'' levels and 2D Mario levels overall. Primarily because its fans believe that the sunken airship theme and the free fall section grabbing stars at the end make it unique. And it's confirmed to be a sunken airship from the fan favorite levels from ''[=SMB3=]''.

* GoddamnBats:

* GoddamnBats: Rip Van Fishes aren't particularly hard to deal with, as they have a fixed acceleration speed and can be easily taken out by a Fire Flower, Cape Feather, Yoshi, Ice Block, or Starman, but place three or more in one area, and they're suddenly an obnoxious roadblock that can be dealt with, but are frustrating all the same. They're especially bad in Forest of Illusion 2, where a Chargin' Chuck can wake every Rip Van Fish up in its vicinity, and Star World 2, where they're horizontally aligned amidst a tight corridor.

** Magikoopas -- with their ability to cast aimed and very hard-to-avoid projectiles, appear in inconvenient spots, and [[RespawningEnemies respawn]] - are one of the most dangerous enemies in the game. This is especially evident in [[GameMod ROM Hacks]] where they are inserted in [[AutoScrollingLevel Auto-Scrolling Levels]] and block-oriented puzzles.

** The Star World itself is a friendly world compared to the regular worlds it's connected to, as all of the levels except for Star World 5 are reasonably easy, with secret exits that aren't too difficult to reach. This, of course, leads to the Special World.
** The secret level Groovy is preceded by [[PlatformHell Tubular]], [[BottomlessPit Way Cool]] and [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Awesome]]. Groovy itself is an easy grass land level which is even featured on the title screen with the only hazards being the baseball-throwing Chargin' Chucks and Pokeys, which Yoshi can eat. This is the reason why the level was chosen to serve as the main title's demo -- and as the Ground theme for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker''.
** Even Way Cool can qualify as this, considering it's sandwiched between Tubular and Awesome. The lined platforms are rather easy to follow (even more so than Cheese Bridge) and if you have a Yoshi with you, you can skip through half of the level to go through a very easy flying segment.

** The Valley Fortress is a plumber's deathtrap. It's full of skewers, and can even put Wendy's Fortress to shame with the strict timings and [[CheckpointStarvation lack of a checkpoint]]. The final section, where you need to hop over lava at the right moment to be able to avoid them is really hard to time, even with a cape. Jump too early, and Mario will run into one, fall and die; jump too late, and Mario will get [[OneHitKill crushed]]. And if that's not bad enough, it's the only Fortress in the game that doesn't have a mercy power-up outside Reznor's door. Again, there are no checkpoints, so you do it all in one go. The difficulty can easily rival the hardest of the Special Stages. It's potentially {{justified}}, since the Fortress guards Bowser's back door.

** Chocolate Island 2 has a quirk where depending on various factors (regular/dragon coins gathered, time remaining), the pipes will take you to separate areas, meaning that there are a few combinations of how the level can play out. Not only does this mechanic never show up again in this game, it never shows up again in ''any Mario game''.