ABSTRACT
The Super Mario World was overflowing with game mechanics, enemies, environments, and player abilities. The vertical levels in Super Mario World show where the design team scraped up against the edges of their design. The two levels in this mini-theme are Vanilla Secret 1 and Gnarly, which have a lot in common. In Vanilla Secret 1, there are climbable vines, springboards of various kinds, and plenty of patrolling Wing Koopas. Gnarly does more than Vanilla Secret 1, as it should, considering its position in the game, but it also shows the limits of what the designers could do with vertical design. Groovy is about the action uses of Yoshi, as directly as any level can be "about" some single idea in this game. Yoshi's Island 1 does a good job of introducing a variety of terrain types that will be important in challenges throughout the game. One other unexpected thing in Yoshi's Island 1 leaps out: it features unusual enemies.
