Super Mario World (SNES)/Version Differences

Title Screen
The game's logo was redrawn for the international release. The Japanese logo is very similiar to that of Super Mario Bros. 3, featuring much larger shadows and smaller Os than the international version. The international release also replaced the unique trademark symbol with standard blue letters. The wooden border was given more detail, and the copyright information was updated as well. Since the European release displays all 240 scanlines, the border was extended vertically.

Each version handles files with 96 goals differently. The Japanese version doesn't mark this with anything special, the North American version denotes this with a star, and the European version gives the 96 a blue palette.

In addition to these changes, the intro screen upon starting a new game dissolves automatically in the Japanese version after the jingle has ended. In other versions, the player can let the text box remain on screen until a button is pressed. This also applies to the text in the Switch Palaces.

Some of the letters of the file select font were redrawn for the international versions. This applies to the letters A and B, and the numbers 1 and 2.

Dolphins!


It's possible for Yoshi to eat the dolphins in the Japanese version, but not in the international versions. Gameplay change or localization? Who's to say? Actually, it may have been to prevent the player from getting stuck having to swim through the level with the puffer fish if Yoshi eats too many of the dolphins. So it could make the level easier. This change was undone for all versions of the GBA port.

Graphics Changes
In addition to the standard translation of Yoshi's name, the international version also adds some shading to the sign.

More localization changes to the graphics.

And again. The lights to the side were also spread further apart to squeeze in the new name.

Level Changes
A few changes were made to the original version's levels to make the game easier.

Donut Plains 2
An extra Yellow exclamation block was added to the beginning of the stage.

Donut Secret House
The walls at the end of the two main rooms were extended a bit to fill the whole screen.

Vanilla Dome 1


This turn block with a feather in it is a normal turn block in the Japanese release.

Lemmy's Castle
The time limit was changed from 300 seconds to 400 seconds in the international versions.

Chocolate Island 3
The secret exit for Chocolate Island 3 (required to move forward in the game) was made a bit more obvious by adding two more arrow signs.

Ghost Ship


The three 1-up mushrooms at the bottom of the Ghost Ship are not present in the Japanese version.

Funky
There are only 3 green berries in the Japanese version. The international versions changed 6 of the red berries to green berries, bringing the total up to 9: this resulted (for 20 seconds per berry), in 60 seconds in the Japanese release, and 180 seconds in the international releases.

Engrish in the Japanese version was fixed for the International release. This change moves the words "YOU ARE" further to the left as a result.

Map Changes
The digits in the Japanese version's level names use the same graphics as the lives counter. In the international versions, the numbers are part of the font.

Four levels in the Japanese version have extraneous numbers that were removed from other versions of the game: Pressing L and R to reenter beaten castles/fortresses doesn't work in the Japanese version.

Credits
The credits has a number of changes:
 * "Total Director" changed to "Main Director."
 * The "Map" in "Map Director" was pushed further to the right.
 * "Course Director" changed to "Area Director."
 * "Player and System Programer" changed to "Mario and System Programmer."
 * All other instances of "Programer" were changed to have the correct spelling.
 * "Back Ground" changed to "Background."
 * "Course Editor" changed to "Area Data Input"(?!)
 * "C.G. Designer" changed to "Character Graphic Designer."
 * The spacing of the credits were changed to add a new name, "Dayv Brooks", to the Special Thanks list.
 * A colon was added to "Special Thanks."
 * Hiroshi Yamauchi's name was moved further to the right.

The enemy cast list in the Japanese version does not have different names for the post-Funky enemies. This was a feature added to the International versions.

Nintendo Super System Differences
The version of Super Mario World released for the Nintendo Super System got some minor tweaks to fit better as an arcade game.




 * The most major change was the removal of the save system. Instead, you get to choose which world you start in from the title screen. If a world other than the first is chosen, the game unlocks the standard path through all previous castles (also unlocking all switch palaces of the previous worlds) up until the first level of the chosen world. As with SMA2, Sunken Ghost Ship is considered the first level of world 7.
 * If the player begins the game from the first world, the opening scene moves onto the map screen automatically, instead of waiting for the player's input.
 * For obvious reasons, the message in the switch palaces was altered to remove the reference to saving.
 * The ability to exit previously beaten levels with Start+Select was removed. The exact reason for this isn't clear.
 * The message box in the sub-level of Yoshi's Island 4 was removed as it described the Start+Select trick. This is the only change the NSS version did to any of the level data.
 * During the castle destruction cutscenes, one can now press any key to make the next line of text instantly appear (or instantly end the cutscene if all have been displayed already), essentially allowing you to speed up the cutscenes. Seeing as you pay for the play time on the NSS, this was probably added to prevent people from complaining about the game wasting your money by not letting you skip them. However, this feature was quite clumsily implemented and has two bugs:
 * If you press a key, the next line doesn't appear until you let go of the key. This allows you to pause the text reveal indefinitely.
 * Because how the timing works, the rubble in Iggy's, Morton's, Lemmy's and Roy's cutscenes won't show up until somewhere between line 1 and 2. Being able to pause the text thus also allows you to pause the rubble appearing while the smoke animates as normal. As a result, the smoke can clear without the rubble being present (making the flag float in the air) until the key is released, at which point the rubble pops into existence.
 * During a two-player game, players can no longer exchange extra lives with each other.