Breaking the Game: Super Mario World

Mario games aren't known for their quantifiable, exploitable mechanics, but somehow, this Mario title, among all others, is the one I found the most breakable. Several of the features of the game factored together while I played it and I got the feeling that I was preverting the system into something that wasn't quite what the developers intended. Here's a few of them:

Infinite Lives

There are a couple levels where you can get massive amounts of extra lives in short order, similar to the koopa bounce trick in the original Super Mario Bros, only much easier to perform. In one level in particular, after you pass a horde of enemies, there is a Silver P-block which turns enemies into special coins, which if you collect enough of them in a row they give you extra lives. If you ignore the setup nearby the block, which will only net you a couple lives, and instead carry it back to the horde of enemies you passed earlier, if you hit the block and run as fast as you can, you can grab over 50 lives. This takes roughly 20 seconds, though, since the lives rack up one at a time, it might take several minutes for the effects of your mad dash to fully rack up (if you quit the level, however, you get all the lives right away). Repeat this twice and you hit the maximum 99 lives right away.

This many lives makes it so that you don't have to worry about dying ever again, and you're free to approach any level however you see fit.

The Spin Jump

The A button on the controller is a jump that is remarkably similar to the normal jump, only much more powerful. It make you invulnerable to many things that would normally damage you, inluding spikes and some fire, and often will destroy enemies that normally are only temporarily incapacitated by a normal jump, such as koopas and goombas.

The downside of this jump is that it is located in an akward position on the default nintendo controller, which makes it hard to use regularly. Also, the spin makes the jump appear to have a different momentum than a normal jump - despite being exactly the same - which can be misleading when performing serious platforming. However, these downsides can be mitigated with proper timing, and ably intermingling the Spin Jump with your normal Jump can turn a grave situation into a victory in just a few seconds.

The Cape

Every Mario game has it's own unique powerups, but off all of them, the Cape perhaps takes the crown for the most game-breaking. Many, many levels can be bypassed entirely simply by flying over them (often offscreen, completely removed from danger), and while flying, if you have the misfortune of being hit, you get a free pass without taking damage (instead, you stop flying and fall gently to the ground) and even a few extra seconds of invulnerability. And, in case flight and temporary invulerability weren't enough, the Cape's attack, while limited in range, is as powerful as the spin jump, and can even remove enemies that any other attack cannot.

Yoshi

The last piece of the breaking-puzzle is the infamous Yoshi. His body is worth lots of things, mainly the free extra hit when damaged (he runs off and you are undamaged, and you can even go pick him up again, provided he doesn't run off a cliff), but also gives a nice emergency Super Jump when dismounting in mid-air and the power of the Spin Jump inherent in his feet. He can eat many things, including most enemies (even some that attacks can't destroy), and poops powerups on occasion. Yoshi can be a valuable, expendable tool. There are even a few instances where having Yoshi can turn a challenging level into an instant victory, and don't even get me started on the color-variants (the blue one is the best, as he can fly through levels as quick as the Cape).

Putting it all in one Basket

The funny thing about this game is when you break the game to beat the levels in a hurry, you only bypass the challenge that makes the game so enjoyable. While some levels are really annoying and worth the cheese, it is almost more fun to try and beat the level barehanded - with no powerups and just your skill and wits at your disposal.

Most of the levels in the game can be broken or diluted with the above bullet points, but this game is fun in it's own right, and breaking it only makes it feel more like a generic platformer rather than one of the legendary Mario games of yore. It is, however, the first game with which I really thrashed the in-game system, and it's an interesting begining to this series.