Game

Super Mario World

1990

Insufficient evidence

We did not find enough credible, independent evidence to publish a numeric cash-grab score. Unrated is more honest than a guess.

What counts as a cash grab?

Commercial extraction prioritized over meaningful consumer or creative value. Profit, popularity, adaptations, sequels, remakes, high budgets, and normal marketing do not count by themselves.

Why?

Super Mario World is a 1990 Super Famicom/SNES platform game developed by Nintendo EAD that introduced Yoshi, a save feature, an expanded overworld and 96 level exits, and was widely praised on release. Contemporary and retrospective sources record substantial original design and technical work, strong critical acclaim, and over 20 million sales aided by its inclusion in SNES bundles. I found no credible reporting of predatory monetization, deceptive pricing, or rushed-release practices for the original 1990/1991 cartridge release.

Documented original development work, new mechanics, and technical use of SNES hardware.
Large, substantive content offering including 96 exits, overworld exploration, and Yoshi gameplay.
Included as a pack-in or bundled title in many SNES packages, increasing consumer value.

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Score factors

Direction	Factor	Evidence	Impact
Against	Notable development and craft	Development reporting and retrospectives credit Nintendo EAD with new design work, Yoshi's introduction, and SNES-specific engineering for Super Mario World.[1][2][3]	-18
Against	Substantial new gameplay content	The game introduced Yoshi, an expanded less-linear world map, the ability to save progress, and 96 level exits representing significant new content versus previous entries.[1][4][2]	-18
Against	Bundled with the console in many regions	Contemporary sources and archival listings note Super Mario World was included with various SNES console bundles, increasing consumer value at purchase.[1][3][6]	-12
Against	Critical acclaim and commercial success	Reviews and sales records show Super Mario World received strong critical praise and sold over 20 million copies, making it one of the SNES best-sellers.[1][5][2]	-13
Against	No evidence of predatory monetization	I found no credible reports or contemporaneous documentation that the 1990/1991 SNES cartridge release used microtransactions, deceptive pricing, or other exploitative monetization practices.[1][3][7]	-5

Confidence: Low · No source-backed commercial-extraction signal was found. · Researched 2026-07-30

Sources reviewed

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