>Get to the next portal on Star Road
>Can't really go anywhere from there
Damn. Always felt like a missed opportunity to jump to the next world quickly, like in SMB1/3. Why didn't they allow it?
And one more hot take: I prefer the GBA control scheme, spin jump mapped to R. Far less retarded switching between Y/X to run.

>>11870542 (OP)
I think its purpose it just to get your around the map faster in the late game. At the time the game came out the branching paths were probably foreign to most players, and the devs assumed you wouldn’t figure it out until you were pretty far along.

>>11870542 (OP)
What the FUCK >>11871215
Are you retards talking about
Everyone knows you can go straight to Bowser keep backdoor via star roads is this some kind of reverse troll

>>11871268
Yeah I guess this was OP's joke.
It was cool how the game initially tricks you into thinking you can't go further, for someone coming from the previous Mario games that threw you off. Not quite a punishment like Lost Levels' warp to 1-1 but still an unexpected turn of events that added mystery. Then when you discovered there was a secret exit it paid off. This was one of the things that made SMW crazy when it came out. It wasn't just finding a bonus room or a bonus level, it was a matrioshka of secrets, layers upon layers of them, and the way secret levels spred and open different paths, makes the game very fun to replay. I always chose unconventional paths, like skipping star world entirely but doing the other secret levels like donut secret and the vanilla secret levels, always feels fresh. Love Vanilla Fortress. SMW's water levels are underrated. It finally made underwater mario controls good without the need of the frog suit.

My friends had no idea how to get to Soda Lake. During the end credits you see the underwater rocket enemy that only appears in that one level so you know you've missed something. Bidirectional star road markers eliminate that.

>>11871268
I meant that the OTHER portals don't open anything to you, by themselves. If, say, you unlock a portal to Soda Lake, you won't be able to go the bridge from there. Unless, of course, you unlocked the portal going FROM the bridge already.

>>11871315
Yeah I always thought it was so cool how special world was like a secret world within a secret world. Are there other old school games that had something like that?

>>11870542 (OP)
SMW and ALttP both had better control schemes on GBA, despite having fewer buttons

>>11871268
what ever happened to this mushroomheaded faggot

Bumping my own thread to say Chocolate Island sucks. Cool setting, bad levels. Also had to remember how to get that secret exit in the stage where coins determine the next room.

>>11871268
Who the fuck is Dylann Roof

>>11874364
>Dylann Storm Roof[1] (born April 3, 1994) is an American mass murderer, white supremacist and neo-Nazi who perpetrated the Charleston church shooting.

>>11874354
>bad levels
Skill issue
https://youtu.be/rWgvPSkgMzY?si=kIUkdGUaxDUlwtTx

Star bizZARE!

>>11871215
Yep. Basically you might realize that keys exist around Forest of Illusion.

Chocolate island is just bad, because it doesn't have an identity, levels were more of the same and 4-5 werent even hard.

>>11874403
They're not hard, they're just boring. Chocolate Island 1 is simply lazy level design, they said "fuck it" and made an empty level with copypasted dino enemies. Such a letdown after forest of illusion, where every level had something memorable. The ghost house is… whatever. Challenging but annoying first part, wtf second part with boos that turn into blocks. That level where your coin count determines the next room is also almost empty.

>>11876201
>levels were more of the same and 4-5 werent even hard.
It introduced new enemies, and has the only mandatory (at least without using star road) fortress and as far as aesthetics, it has the chocolate theme meaning most of the ground/mountains are dark brown, also the "hot chocolate" lava.

>>11876228
>empty level with copypasted dino enemies
I dunno what you mean by copypaste, they introduce the dino-rhino and there's several variants of them: the big ones, the small ones that spit fire upwards, and the running and jumping ones.
>Challenging but annoying first part,
I thought the moving floor gimmick was actually neat and wished there was more of it.
>wtf second part with boos that turn into blocks.
A puzzle, which ghost houses are known for.
>That level where your coin count determines the next room is also almost empty.
It has some cool platforming part with the diagonal-oriented platforms. There's rooms like the one filled with mushrooms on bubbles but that's also the worst path you can take. This level was very memorable to me.

>>11876242
The problem is, all that level does is introduce the enemies. It's a clear nosedive in terms of level design, it's incredibly simplistic by Mario standards, tucked away in the last part of the game because no one is gonna notice.
And btw, the small running ones and the fire breathing ones are the same enemy.
The first half of the ghost house has too much stuff that is random and hard to avoid. You also run in a straight line the whole time. The "puzzle" feels pretty unpolished, the whole boo block mechanic doesn't feel responsive.
The coin level is memorable for the concept. The room with the bubbles is fun but completely pointless. At least the platforming section with 45 degree platforms was decent.
Honestly, to me it's still a low point of the game, almost feels like an optional level because of how phoned in it felt. That said, being a low point of one of the best games ever is passable I guess

>>11876274
>And btw, the small running ones and the fire breathing ones are the same enemy.
IIRC the running ones only jump (maybe sporadically breath fire?) but the small ones that appear when you kill the big ones breath fire immediatelly.
I don't remember random stuff in the ghost house. I can do it without taking damage every time. It is tricky though, as a kid I struggled with it.
The point of the bubble room is to be a soft-punishment (it's hard to avoid getting a mushroom so it can fuck up your backup item, likely a feather)
Spoiler alert: World 7's levels aren't the hardest ever either, but, it has new mechanics and ideas, and while not super hard (as smb3's world 8), still not easy.
World's tougher levels are on Special World

>>11876292
Yeah I beat SMW before, so I know that.
Anyway, chocolate Island does pick up a little bit after a while. Though I'm still gonna say the last stretch of SMW had some of my least favorite levels. I think I enjoyed Special World a bit more, you can tell they put effort in those levels, though they're hard as balls

>>11876781
Yeah Special has some unique ideas like Mondo (which uses the SMB3's rising water idea but makes it better by allowing you to do underwater platforming