6 ms·

How old were you in 1990? Because I was 12 and remember SMW's arrival very clearly. I had played video games enthusiastically for years. Super Mario World was n

by ebbv 10y ago

How old were you in 1990? Because I was 12 and remember SMW's arrival very clearly. I had played video games enthusiastically for years. Super Mario World was not at all modest looking for its time. It was absolutely mind blowing. It was gorgeous and everything was so smooth, and the number of different animations Mario had, plus being able to ride Yoshi, it was a total revelation.

cpach 10y ago
For the record, it was only in Japan that SMW was released in 1990.
- ebbv 10y ago
  Yep, but we started seeing images of it over here then. And I was lucky enough to have a friend who had a Super Famicom w/the Japanese edition. Even without being able to understand any of the tutorial blocks it was still amazing. (I know it sounds like I'm making that up but it's true. I knew at the time how lucky I was to be playing it early.) After playing his Super Famicom I was a little disappointed with the SNES hardware's purple buttons instead of the rainbow buttons on the Super Famicom.
  - cpach 10y ago
    Wonderful video game anecdote! I’m from Sweden so we had the rainbow buttons just like in Japan. The purple ones look super weird :D I hadn’t even started in 1st grade in 1990. I think SMW showed up on my radar in 1993 or so. Still love that game!
faragon 10y ago
SMW was released in 1990... in Japan. In Europe it was released in 1992, and I was 16 years old then, with knowledge about software (I started programming at 12). Anyway, in both 1990 and 1992 there were much better looking video games (richer backgrounds, etc.). My point was that SMW focused in playability and fun, instead of the color count and overloaded graphics.
- ebbv 10y ago
  > Anyway, in both 1990 and 1992 there were much better looking video games (richer backgrounds, etc.). Maybe in the arcade, certainly not at home in 1990 and 1991, SMW was one of the best looking games of the time. Look at the games in 1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_in_video_gaming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_in_video_gaming Some of the best looking games of that year: SMB3 just came out to the US, SMW was light years beyond it. Bonk's Adventure was good looking for the time but doesn't hold a candle to SMW. On the PC we had the original Commander Keen, which while a great PC game of the era, doesn't even begin to approach the quality of SMW. Secret of Monkey Island was a beautiful game, but it is an adventure game. The screen is mostly static. SMW is far more impressive, being side scrolling and having parallax scrolling of multiple background layers (and occasionally foreground layers as you see in the forest.) Nothing in 1990 compares to SMW. If we jump forward to 1992 (by which point SMW is 2 years old): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_in_video_gaming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_in_video_gaming Then we see Wolf 3D come out for the PC, which was really impressive and of course changed everything. But it wasn't like it made SMW look dated (besides being FPS vs. side scroller, Wolf didn't have very many types of enemies, had static ceiling and floor, etc.) For side scrollers we have Ecco the Dolphin, which is a cool game but I don't think as visually complex as SMW. Mega Man 4 looks great but is not doing anything graphically that SMW hasn't already done. It has a different art style that you may personally prefer. On the Genesis we have Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which looks good but again doesn't have as much going on as SMW. I'm struggling to find these games that were much better looking. Can you give me some examples?
  - buzzybee 10y ago
    When someone is a European game snob of that era they are almost assuredly referring to Amiga games like those produced by Psygnosis(e.g. Shadow of the Beast) which have some gorgeous painterly work in them, make good use of the hardware, play smoothly with largish sprites, and on occasion, showcased parallax scrolling effects. There were some pretty solid side-scroller and shooter games made for that platform - it was the lead for "Another World", which was groundbreaking on a number of levels. And there were also many games on that platform that were mostly-static adventure games not of the Sierra or Lucasarts imprint, but beautiful looking all the same: Silmarils made some of those, as did Horrorsoft. That said, those kinds of games weren't actually the norm on the Amiga, either - there was far more low-end drek that threw higher fidelity, but artistically underwhelming, graphics on the screen sluggishly and semi-competently(ports from other platforms, licensed tie-ins). Console games did tend to have a higher average level of polish along most axes.

by ebbv 10y ago

cpach 10y ago

For the record, it was only in Japan that SMW was released in 1990.

ebbv 10y ago
Yep, but we started seeing images of it over here then. And I was lucky enough to have a friend who had a Super Famicom w/the Japanese edition. Even without being able to understand any of the tutorial blocks it was still amazing. (I know it sounds like I'm making that up but it's true. I knew at the time how lucky I was to be playing it early.) After playing his Super Famicom I was a little disappointed with the SNES hardware's purple buttons instead of the rainbow buttons on the Super Famicom.
- cpach 10y ago
  Wonderful video game anecdote! I’m from Sweden so we had the rainbow buttons just like in Japan. The purple ones look super weird :D I hadn’t even started in 1st grade in 1990. I think SMW showed up on my radar in 1993 or so. Still love that game!

faragon 10y ago

SMW was released in 1990... in Japan. In Europe it was released in 1992, and I was 16 years old then, with knowledge about software (I started programming at 12). Anyway, in both 1990 and 1992 there were much better looking video games (richer backgrounds, etc.). My point was that SMW focused in playability and fun, instead of the color count and overloaded graphics.

ebbv 10y ago
> Anyway, in both 1990 and 1992 there were much better looking video games (richer backgrounds, etc.). Maybe in the arcade, certainly not at home in 1990 and 1991, SMW was one of the best looking games of the time. Look at the games in 1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_in_video_gaming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_in_video_gaming Some of the best looking games of that year: SMB3 just came out to the US, SMW was light years beyond it. Bonk's Adventure was good looking for the time but doesn't hold a candle to SMW. On the PC we had the original Commander Keen, which while a great PC game of the era, doesn't even begin to approach the quality of SMW. Secret of Monkey Island was a beautiful game, but it is an adventure game. The screen is mostly static. SMW is far more impressive, being side scrolling and having parallax scrolling of multiple background layers (and occasionally foreground layers as you see in the forest.) Nothing in 1990 compares to SMW. If we jump forward to 1992 (by which point SMW is 2 years old): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_in_video_gaming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_in_video_gaming Then we see Wolf 3D come out for the PC, which was really impressive and of course changed everything. But it wasn't like it made SMW look dated (besides being FPS vs. side scroller, Wolf didn't have very many types of enemies, had static ceiling and floor, etc.) For side scrollers we have Ecco the Dolphin, which is a cool game but I don't think as visually complex as SMW. Mega Man 4 looks great but is not doing anything graphically that SMW hasn't already done. It has a different art style that you may personally prefer. On the Genesis we have Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which looks good but again doesn't have as much going on as SMW. I'm struggling to find these games that were much better looking. Can you give me some examples?
- buzzybee 10y ago
  When someone is a European game snob of that era they are almost assuredly referring to Amiga games like those produced by Psygnosis(e.g. Shadow of the Beast) which have some gorgeous painterly work in them, make good use of the hardware, play smoothly with largish sprites, and on occasion, showcased parallax scrolling effects. There were some pretty solid side-scroller and shooter games made for that platform - it was the lead for "Another World", which was groundbreaking on a number of levels. And there were also many games on that platform that were mostly-static adventure games not of the Sierra or Lucasarts imprint, but beautiful looking all the same: Silmarils made some of those, as did Horrorsoft. That said, those kinds of games weren't actually the norm on the Amiga, either - there was far more low-end drek that threw higher fidelity, but artistically underwhelming, graphics on the screen sluggishly and semi-competently(ports from other platforms, licensed tie-ins). Console games did tend to have a higher average level of polish along most axes.