The Super Nintendo is perhaps best known for excelling at two genres: RPGs and platformers. In the case of the latter, it’s really only a given platformers thrived so well on the SNES. Platformers are arguably Nintendo’s bread & butter, and the SNES has two of the best in Super Mario World & Donkey Kong Country– first party titles that showed off the full potential of the 16-bit console.
Both Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country are strong contenders for the best game on SNES and testaments to the fact that good game design doesn’t age. Where Super Mario World was helmed by Nintendo themselves, RareWare took developmental reigns of Donkey Kong Country. That said, both games are so high in quality it’s hard to believe they weren’t made by the same genius dev team.
10 SMW: Perfect Launch Title
No company knows how to perfect a launch title quite like Nintendo. Super Mario World is a simply outstanding display of what the Super Nintendo is capable of and the scope of the home console’s potential. While SMW is comparatively quite simple compared to other Super Nintendo games, it’s a massive step up in terms of design sophistication.
Not only is there an overworld Mario can traverse, Super Mario World actively saves your progress, keeps track of how many exits players have completed, and features copious amounts of hidden levels to find.
9 DKC: Incredible Use Of SNES’ Hardware
Of course, the drawback of any launch title is that it won’t realistically be using the hardware to the fullest. It tends to be only later in a console’s life cycle that the more technologically impressive titles come out and Donkey Kong Country is no exception in this regard. If Super Mario World is the potential of the SNES, Donkey Kong Country is its actualization. Sophisticated lighting, shading, weather effects, and textures make DKC a genuine marvel to behold in action.
8 SMW: Better Secrets
Both Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country showcase the value of hiding thoughtful secrets throughout a game, but they differ in their approach to hidden content. For DKC, secrets tend to be little more than an extra room– either a mini-game or an opportunity to stock up on lives or bananas.
For Super Mario World, secrets always open up more of the game. Between the Block Palaces, Star Road, all the hidden shortcuts scattered throughout the game, and the Special World, Super Mario World completely outdoes Donkey Kong Country when it comes to pure secrets.
7 DKC: Better Multiplayer
It’s important to remember that multiplayer in 16-bit platformers usually amounted to players swapping the controller between each other. In the case of Super Mario World, one player would control Mario while the other would control Luigi, both players alternating between levels. Donkey Kong Country is comparatively far more ambitious.
Since both Donkey Kong and Diddy can be on-screen at the same time, multiplayer is now seamless & actually cooperative. When the player controlling Donkey dies, the player controlling Diddy takes the reins. It’s an incredibly creative approach to multiplayer and makes DKC one of the best co-op games on the SNES.
6 SMW: Level Design
Super Mario World’s level design is arguably the apex of 2D platformers. Every stage is meticulously designed, the main game finding an ebb & flow for the difficulty curve that ensures the challenge is neither braindead nor too extreme. SMW only indulges in challenge when it can afford to– in optional stages. It’s not that Donkey Kong Country’s level design is poor (far from it,) but Super Mario World is in a league of its own. A masterful blending of pacing, momentum, and thoughtful stage design.
5 DKC: Boss Design
Super Mario World doesn’t have bad boss design, but they’re as simple as they are underwhelming compared to other bosses in the genre. Bowser himself is a fine final boss, but virtually every boss in Donkey Kong Country outdoes SMW’s roster. Not only are bosses considerably harder with harder AI to keep track of, their attack patterns change over the course of battle and there’s a larger than life quality to DKC’s sprite work that makes each boss fight an imposing challenge.
4 SMW: Air Tight Controls
No other platformer franchise– 2D or 3D– nails player control as masterfully, consistently, and near-effortlessly as Nintendo. Super Mario World’s controls are simply splendid. Even compared to the already fantastic to play Donkey Kong Country, Mario’s mobility is on another level entirely.
From building momentum to jump trajectory and the precision of Mario’s movement, Donkey Kong and Diddy just can’t compare. Of course, it should be kept in mind that Mario controls are designed for a much faster paced game whereas Donkey Kong’s are suited for a slower gameplay loop.
3 DKC: Sound Design
Musically, atmospherically, and just artistically, the Donkey Kong Country trilogy might very well have the best sound design on the Super Nintendo. For as silly as the franchise’s image has become, the original Donkey Kong Country sought to set a specific mood with each level.
Stages are somber, almost melancholic, while settling on a style of sound that’s true to Donkey Kong Country’s jungle aesthetic. Donkey Kong Country’s sound design can almost be called cinematic, with direction whose main priority is to bolster gameplay. Several tracks are repeated, but never to the point where they lose their charm.
2 SMW: Pacing
Above all else, Super Mario World’s key to success is pacing. There are little to no interruption to gameplay, each stage seamlessly transitions into the next, and players are almost always guaranteed to make some semblance of progress– either through the main game or by uncovering secrets. Even the levels themselves are perfectly paced, always giving players a generous timer that’s never too generous when hunting for secrets. More importantly, levels prioritize non-stop gameplay & movement, leading to a frenetic gameplay loop that can carry players all the way to Bowser’s Castle in the flash of an eye.
1 DKC: Art Direction
Donkey Kong Country’s art direction is downright gorgeous. While DKC2 & 3 are logical improvements in terms of graphical fidelity, the first Donkey Kong Country is aesthetically quite mature. It never gets too outlandish, sticking to settings that are grounded in some degree of reality. As a result, the game’s color palette isn’t as bold or whimsical as Super Mario World, but it’s still quite vibrant. Colors pop, but to create the sense that Donkey Kong Country is a genuinely lived-in land with history and culture.
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