mario 2 is the best mario

[VinnyVideo]

This is 100% speculation, but I'd bet Super Mario World incorporated a lot of placeholder graphics into the game's prototypes. Then the development team ran out of time and had to ship a game with plenty of graphical inconsistencies. Also, because of the way the game's graphics are compressed (some objects share pieces of different sprites), it may have become more difficult to fix things (although this certainly hasn't stopped ROM hackers from making SMW-inspired games with cohesive graphics).

If my hypothesis is true, the moral of the story is to have a consistent plan for your graphics, and to remember that placeholder graphics often make their way into the final product, so be careful!

I still think the graphics and animations in the DKC games are pretty cool. And yeah, Yoshi's Island is still one of the most graphically-appealing games I've ever seen.

Kirby's Dream Land 3 is another Super NES game with a great art style.

Course clear! You got a card.