Miyamoto says his favorite Mario game is Super Mario World

Shigeru Miyamoto has said his favorite Nintendo game starring Mario was Super Mario World for the SNES, which likely has to do with finally being technologically able to give Mario a dinosaur companion like he always wanted.

Speaking with USA Today, Miyamoto also believes it was the game which gave the sixteen or so staff which worked on it a leg up within the company. Super Mario World also introduced Yoshi to the world as Mario's dinosaur companion.

"Super Mario World is something that included of course all the action you saw in Super Mario Bros., but it also had the map features, so it also had that element of players having to think about where they were going and what they were going to do next," he said. "I also think that it is a game that developed a large number of staff people who became producers and directors."

It's funny to hear Miyamoto say this about the game, because he had previously called the game "incomplete" and "rushed". No matter. The game was awesome, it's still one of our favorites of all time, and we're not the only ones who feel this way. Proof of its popularity can be found in the sales figures: over 20 million copies have been sold worldwide.

Packaged with SNES, it helped the console move 49.1 million units worldwide in a market where Sega Mega Drive and Sonic were king.

Super Mario World was released in Japan during November 1990, and hit the US the following year.