Al Creed: This game will always, always be number one on my own, personal list. This game is saturated with so much sentimental value, it’s hard to stay objective. While most kids cut their teeth on the NES, I got into the wonderful world of video games with the Super Nintendo, and this was the system’s first hit single. Every now and then, I come back to this game. The last time I played it, I beat the game in one evening, SPECIAL World and all. The second level of SPECIAL World still stands the test of time as one of the HARDEST ever programmed for a sidescroller.

Nintendo Legend: One can study its nuances and perform a detailed analysis of the expert choices made in the additions to the Mario canon of gameplay and just how cool or uncool the yellow cape is, but the point of Super Mario World is this: It showed, in tour de force fashion, that Nintendo was a legitimate game-maker and Mario was going to stick around for a very long time.

Gun Sage: I’m seeing a lot of Mario on this list. Me gusta. Well, Super Mario World is a pretty damn good Mario game. Honestly, I would go far enough to say it’s better than SMB3 and apparently the list would, too. There were many new elements included such as gate flipping, awkward cape flying, dive bombing, spin jumping, Yoshi, multiple exits, LOTS of branching paths, Star Road, a ridiculous amount of depth, 16 bit, reverb when in caves, additional drums when riding a Yoshi, all kinds of crazy (and often frustrating) new enemies, the ability for koopas to get in and get knocked out of turtle shells, the ability for koopas to STOP TURTLE SHELLS AND KICK THEM BACK (yeah I certainly didn’t see that coming), and so on. This was the first Mario game to be more than just a simple playthrough, too. Because of the amount of depth, you could literally spend as much time on this as you would on a modern RPG. I think that’s one of the things I truly liked about it. Not only did most gamers get this as their first SNES title, but there was a good chance that unless you were like me and went around hunting out EVERYTHING, you didn’t truly complete the game…just beat it. Fun, lots of new elements, and an insane amount of depth, especially for a Mario game at the time, SMW is an instant classic.

G: Considering how much love the Super Mario Brothers series is getting in this project, it should come as no surprise to see this game rank this high. I would be a liar if I said I haven’t spent countless hours of my life playing through this game (and many lives of the fodder Yoshi performing the double jump trick). The graphics are still pretty decent to this day, and in a sense it’s cartoonish style is a testament to as why. The controls are smooth and to the point, which allows for a very enjoyable experience for players of any skill level. Furthermore, there is a great variety of environments to play through that keeps the game fresh and interesting upon replay… after replay… after replay…