As a Super Mario 64 Speedrunner and someone passionate about Super Mario World [My First Video Game], I would like to say that the current progress on this mod is absolutely fantastic. This mod does an excellent job in translating the SNES moveset from 2D to 3D. The physics took a little time to get used to, but still handled fairly well- albeit a tiny bit slippery in some places like downward slopes. Momentum plays a pretty big part in this and i found myself slipping off ledges often when trying to instinctively jump to stifle my speed but its still very fun to control. I currently have attempted a full completion of the game using this moveset and so far have only found a few stars that are unobtainable [as of v0.5.5 / on 7/25/25] - reaching 116 out of 120 stars.
The model is pretty faithful to the original sprite art and its initial color values, which is a nice treat. I smiled from ear-to-ear hearing the classic Boss Cleared jingle upon defeating Bowser and seeing the iconic Peace Sign Mario throws up. Being able to completely scoop up Bowser and just punt him into the explosives genuinely caught me by surprise and caused me to burst out laughing.
I couldn't seem to change the color palette however, it wouldn't function despite the prompt being available in the recent version of the Character Select mod; I also noticed that when trying to return to the title screen or rehost a lobby with different mods that the game would sometimes hard-crash and close entirely without providing an error message. Alongside these, i encountered 3 other smaller issues. One with getting Mips to spawn the stars after catching him in the castle- as i had to drop him on a sharp enough slope to trigger the star spawn cutscene. The second is getting Crazy Boxes to drop coins when thrown against something. And the third is that in-level warp spots did not seem to work.
Beyond these few things, I am quite satisfied with the quality of the mod and I am looking forward to seeing how the power-ups will be implemented. Its apparent that this project had a lot of work and passion put into it and i eagerly await its next update alongside more works by the creator in the future.
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So far, i was able to collect all but 4 stars:
• Tower of the Wing Cap - 8 reds: Inability to take flight with wing cap, which i assume will be patched in later updates with inclusion of Cape Feather (i assume)
• Mario Wings over the Rainbow - 8 Reds: For the same reason as above.
• Hazy Maze Cave - Navigating the Toxic Maze: Unable to get enough speed/height to make the jump from the ground up to the ledge where the star is located. Could be fixed with adding another crescent block.
• Wet-Dry World - Secrets in the Shallows & Sky: 4/5 are accessible but the one hidden behind the box is unreachable due to a lack of a pushing animation for Mario.
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Notes for things i'd love to potentially see in this mod in the future:
• Full implementation of the 4 Power-ups from SMW. (Mushroom, Fire Flower, Cape Feather, Starman)
• Color Palette compatibility for custom color values.
• Luigi model with additional option for Super Mario World Advanced physics (Luigi with slipperier handling, but higher and Floatier jump).
• Physics alteration that makes Mario swim faster if he's holding an object while in the water.
• Physics addition where holding the jump button down when landing on an enemy bounces you higher in the air.
• Slight Physics tweak to increase Mario's aerial mobility, including when leaping off of poles. to fit more in line with the original game.
• Aesthetic addition of replacing the Bowser Key model with the Orb. [from the Sunken Ghost Ship]
• Potential inclusion of more interactable objects scattered about in levels (respawnable Boxes/Shells), including other objects from SMW; such as Purple Breakable Blocks, Springboard, P-Balloon, P-Switches, and/or the Key.