We celebrate video game anniversaries all the time here at Nintendo Life. Who doesn't like a birthday or anniversary? Now, we all know Super Mario World is going to be 32 years old in November this year (who remembers playing it when it first came out?), but it's already reached another milestone in digits.
Blogger Supper Mario Broth has worked out that this incredible SNES platformer, and console launch title, will have existed in its completed form, out in the public, for one billion seconds. 1,000,000,000 seconds. So if you're also 32 this year, then you'll also be about that old in seconds. Makes us feel very old.
It's an amusingly high number, and we're kind of amazed someone figured it out. This is all based on the 21st November Japanese release date, and — at the time of writing this — it's 30th July 2022 in Japan. And while we can't pinpoint the exact moment Super Mario World hits the big one billion, it's at some point today at the very least.
Hey, why can't one of the best Super NES platformers of all time have multiple birthdays this year? We don't see why not.
But, that also means that the original F-Zero is also one billion seconds old today. And does that also technically mean the Super Famicom is too? Of course, if you get down to the technicalities, the console and the cartridges definitely existed before they were released to the public, or even shipped to stores, but as a product? These three things are all one billion seconds old. Pretty fun.
We're not sure we have one billion of anything to celebrate. So how's 31 and a half candles, Mario?
Do you know any other unusual anniversaries? Or does remembering seeing Super Mario World around one billion seconds ago caused another year to shed off of your life? Let us know!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 32
Dang, this makes me feel multi-billions of seconds old 👵🏽
Sounds like we've waited long enough for an actual sequel.
I was only 375000000 seconds old when Mario World came out. Boy have those 1000000000 seconds flown by!
Super random.
SM World is the quintessential 2D Mario game.
Ah Mario World: the Mario game everyone loves.....that I vehemently do not. I like a lot of things about it like the graphical style, enemies and music. But between the far too slippery controls, annoying Ghost Houses, at times convoluted as sin level progression and the (once again, at times) absolutely infuriating Cape Feather, every time I try to give it another chance, I put it down after about 20 minutes. It's one of the objectively best 2D platformers, one that laid the groundwork for what could be done with them ever since and I'll always highly respect it because of it but I'll always choose 2, 3 and even NSMB over it.
Let's see, er... um...
((32 x 365 x 24 x 60 x 60) - (113 x 24 x 60 x 60)) = 999,388,800.
So, erm, er... nah! Not on a Friday night! 😆
EDIT - Oh! I didn't take leap years into account. Erm... I... NOPE!!! 😆
33 actually lmao
Great game overall, but I don't get why they made the cape so overpowered. Flying over entire levels, seriously?
@Fizza A lot praise it as the best, but I’m glad I’m not the only one who walked away with a bit of a shoulder shrug. I liked playing it but I guess what was revolutionary then is less so today, so the impact won’t be the same. Always find it nice to see a different view on these wildly praised games either way. : P
@chipia Yeah but not all levels are that open. Some levels had sections where you had to enter pipes and some are auto-scroll, underground, ghost house, underwater, and fortress levels.
The game is still fun 1,000,000,000 seconds on
I'll be lucky to see the 2 billion mark.
Wow… so… how about some news for a new game?
I genuinely feel sorry for whoever sat around and thought about this.
@Serpenterror Yes, it doesn't work in every level, but for the open levels it kinda ruins their purpose if you can just fly over them. Also, they already got it right with the raccoon tail in SMB3, that had only limited flying capability. To fly over entire levels you needed the P-Wing which was rare. It's baffling that they changed a system that already worked well in the earlier games to an unbalanced one
@Slowdive Yes, SMW was the point where Mario games started to get too easy. It's funny, because I've just read two old interviews with Miyamoto about SMW, where he said that challenge is one of the most important things to him in the game. But he said, he expects players to adjust the difficulty themselves with challenges like not activating the big switches, or by beating the game without collecting a coin. Sounds like a nice idea for the next playthrough, too bad I wasn't that creative when I played this as a child! If this was the intended way to play, they should have provided these ideas in the manual, IMO.
Can't believe I missed that milestone.
@chipia The raccoon tail is fun but there's no skill involved. With the cape, you need to actually know what you're doing. It's not incredibly hard to control, no, but it's not automatic either. And even if I could do it effortlessly, I still wouldn't fly over whole levels because I'd be worried I'd miss a secret somewhere, even during replays when I know where most stuff is (but I always forget something).
Can we get an SMW version of Mario 35 back as Mario 1,000,000,000? Although that would be a lot of spinies falling on your head.
They all laughed at me for counting the seconds. But finally my work is recognized!!
Still one of my top favourite games really. Introduced my favourite character, it had great gameplay, sound design, character design- it was almost perfect.
Remains my favourite Mario game to date.
how does it ruin the game? you wont find any secrets or powerups that way, and you also wont have much fun either. so, dont do that?
perfect game, its in my bones. its not the hardest mario (possibly the easiest, as someone said) but it is the best by a nose. and i mean it's close.
Quick, someone think of something to write an article about!
@chipia
Thank you for sharing this! i love this! 😃
"But [Miyamoto] said, he expects players to adjust the difficulty themselves with challenges like not activating the big switches, or by beating the game without collecting a coin."
Time for a proper Super Mario World sequel. 2D, Colourful, Sprite-based awesomeness nostalgic homage. That would be lovely!
... Wun can only hope.
yet so timeless
@chipia You could do the same thing in Mario Bros.3 P-suit power up. In fact, in Mario Bros. 3 you could just skip certain levels, and another power up just let you walk right over a level without even playing it. So it's not really anything new.
If I had to guess I'd say SMW is, hours-wise, my most-played game of all-time, and my second favorite game ever behind only Resident Evil 2 (N64 version).
@thinkhector It's not the same. The P-Wing was rare and can be used for only one(!) level. But the cape in SMW was literally everywhere and could be used for as many levels as you like.
Maybe that's Miyamoto's idea of the player adjusting the difficulty themselves, that I mentioned earlier. I like it, but I also think that the game did a poor job at communicating this philosophy.
Can't wait for the third billionth 👴
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...