Episode X: Super Mario World & Christmas 1991 Welcome back to the Giraffe Feels Podcast. Please get in touch if you like the podcast or have ideas or comments. Social media coordinates can be found at the end of the episode. Listeners can also email the podcast at giraffexofeels@gmail.com; we can be found online at giraffefeels.net Also we are now on iTunes!, Stitcher, and Google Play. There should be a link in the show notes if you want to subscribe. Please rate the podcast and give it a review too. Christmas 1991 was a big day for me. The new Super Nintendo arrived along with a handful of games. Under the tree was the system plus Gradious III, Super Ghouls N Ghosts, a surprise pick by my parents because my mother thought it looked cool, and, of course, Super Mario World. This was a pretty good haul plus I got to see Super Castlevania IV at a friend's house later in the day. This was one of the most memorable days of my childhood. I can remember exactly where I was at a bunch of moments during the day. The Super Nintendo is my favorite system and heading into 1992 I began spending even more time than normal with video games. A lot of the best video games of all time like Final Fantasy 4 and 6, Earthbound, Mario Kart, Sim City, A Link To The Past, and today's topic game would be coming over the next few years. More on Super Ghouls and Ghosts in an upcoming episode. We will get to Castlevania IV eventually as well. Stay tuned at the end of this episode for more information about our tentative 2017 schedule. A few people in our neighborhood had switched allegiances to Sega that year, but we would hold strong for Nintendo because of games like this. I wouldn't get a Genesis until the next year. The SNES debut had an incredible lineup of games ready to play. We had a lot of family over for Christmas 1991. I think a few of my aunts and my grandparents were there. I remember spending a lot of the morning alternating between SMW and Super Ghouls and Ghosts. I got to the second world in SMW and then headed to a friend's house for a few hours. He had gotten Super Castlevania IV and I sat on his bed absolutely in awe at how Simon could move through doors into the background and flip his whip around. He got to the level where you needed to whip into the hooks that made the level rotate and I could not believe what I was seeing. He wanted to hear about SG&G and showed me another game he had gotten but not played yet: F Zero! He got a little farther than I did in World Two of SMW and discovered the Star World, which after I left I could not wait to discover myself after spending time with family. I loved how the world constantly changed as you advanced and it made me so curious for what would come next. I was pretty pleased with my progress and went back to SG&G and some Gradious III with a family member before everyone began leaving. A few days went by and I figured out the way to use the Star Road as a shortcut to Bowser's castle. I beat the game after a few tries and could not believe what I had done! There was still plenty of game to play, but I felt pretty cool for finding such a shortcut. Except....So did everyone else.... I forget if my friend called me or I called him, but either way we found out that both of us had discovered the short cut. Another kid in the neighborhood heard I had and came over to see it. There was still plenty of game to play and it would be at least a few more months, I think into the spring, before we all began clearing all or most of the gates in the game. My friend definitely did it before I did because I remember going over to his house to see how to beat a tricky level near Bowser's castle. I got there as well. After my family left I settled in for the night. There was NBA basketball on NBC and I leafed through a few issues of various gaming magazines rereading information about the SNES to see what new insights I could gain now that I actually had the system. I remember hanging up the huge poster that came with the system. I stared up at it and thjought about how happy I had been that day. Happy days did not come around too often back then and it was so nice to just sit there watching basketball with a pile of Nintendo related boxes. As I have discussed on previous episodes, especially our episode about Castlevania III, this was right around when some pretty devastating things happened in my life. Video games made me happy in ways that helped me to survive my problems. This fall I downloaded Super Mario World on the 3DS and played it for a little bit each night before bed. What I love about modern save states is I can play a few levels a night, save, and then return to where I left of without having to back track. Too many retro games were unreasonable about this, most famously games like Ninja Gaiden or some of the dungeons in the first Final Fantasy game, but these days I see no reason for it. When I played around with Super Mario Maker this year I spent a lot of time thinking, obviously, about level design. This highly influenced this playthrough of SMW. The first few levels are very instructive about new aspects of game play. Sliding is much improved from previous games and feels a lot smoother than before. Spin jumps are also new and really fun to use in the game. Their implementation, particularly in later levels, is well done. There are parts of the game you cannot access without it. The way levels and platforms tilt have really interesting psychical aspects to them. Like Castlevania IV, you can go behind walls in the game. This seemed absolutely revolutionary at the time. The game also teases what is to come. When you first encounter a yellow block that is not filled in, it is clear something will need to be done about that. During my first playthrough I got so excited to try and figure out what I would need to do and what would be coming next in the game. When the world began to change around me, I could not wait to see where I could go next. SMW isn't really a big game by the standards of today, but at the time it seemed huge. The biggest thing that Super Mario World makes very clear to the player is that they need to slow down. My mother recently played her first Mario game, Mario 3D Land, and I had to teach her to not just try to sprint across a level. Slow down, look around, see what is coming. This is the key to platform gaming whether it is Mario, Mega Man, or Castlevania. I wasted a lot of time back then rushing too much. These days every time I slow down to access a level in a new Mario game, all I can think of is the Super Nintendo and the Christmas of 1991... Again, the Giraffe Feels podcast is written, edited, produced, and performed by William Wend. Giraffefeelspod is the user name to follow on Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. We have a Youtube page that is linked on the website. Subscribe via RSS, Soundcloud, or on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher. Links are on the website. Make sure you rate and review the podcast. Here is a preview of our next episode..