why is the background translucent? anyway my favorite level is Vanilla Secret 1. Vanilla Dome is a great area.

>>12004213
Sunken ghost ship and Forest of Illusion 3

I really like all the areas in the game for one reason or another, but if I had to pick just one, I would do Donut Plains. It just has the level that I consider to be the most fun in the game and honestly probably the best level in any 2D platformer I've played. It has this amazing sort of open ended design where you can just have fun in different areas, lots of tricky placed enemies to make things more engaging and of course it's the unforgettable introduction of the feather. Who doesn't like to go to the coins in the sky sub area and soar it while grabbing all these coins, trying to balance it to grab as much as you can?
Also a fun underwater level (World just has the right physics for underwater levels, I enjoy it a lot), the ghost houses, one with Top Secret Area, and the other with a unique boss and a Star Road exit.
Morton Jr's castle is also pretty fun, love the vertical platforming that rewards quick execution.
Otherwise, Forest of Illusion left a big impact when I finally got there as a kid. I remember the sub-map and different music really soaked me on this new mysterious forest area that I would look from afar (by using the free camera on the world map pressing start)

>>12004213
That's a good one. There are so many damn good levels. I can't really choose.

Some of my favorites...
>Ludwig's Castle
>Cookie Mountain
>Vanilla Dome 3
>Vanilla Dome 4
>Donut Secret 2
>Morton's Castle
>Vanilla Dome 1
>Forest of Illusion 4
>Forest Fortress
>Gnarly (best of the Special World levels)
>Way Cool
>Outrageous (hardest level in the game)
>Chocolate Island 4
>Chocolate Island 5
>Wendy's Castle
>Bowser's Castle

One thing I noticed about how well designed this game was, that every single level had one new enemy, item or gimmick that up to that point hasn't been seen before. EVERY level. Go ahead and spend 3-4 hours playing through it and note what each level has. It's fun.

>>12004426
I personally liked that SMW has only 2 autoscrollers in the whole game. Makes it less of a slog to play through at 100% compared to SMB3. (Even though SMB3 is also great and has some of the best powerups.)

>>12004449
>SMW has only 2 autoscrollers

Forest Secret Area is one of them, right? I'm blanking on the other one.

Forest of Illusion 2 (the swimming level)
Lemmy's Castle
Vanilla Dome 2
Ludwig's Castle
Vanilla Dome 1

It'd be some Forest of Illusion level. The secret exits are my favorite thing in the game. Maybe Ludwig's Castle too.

>>12004449
I consider the yellow walls in the vanilla dome levels, the ones that crush you, to be autoscrollers cause if you don't want to die then you have to go at the pace set by the game, which is fucking slow as fuck. Hate replaying those.

It's the same reason I hate those snake blocks you have to ride on sometimes too. Larry's castle is the worst one imo cause it has that super long snake block ride at the beginning. I think it might even be the whole castle, actually. I don't remember.

>>12004738
>Forest of Illusion 2 (the swimming level)
Damn. One of my least favorite, especially since you have to play it twice to get the blue switch palace.

>>12004756
Larry's castle snake ride is great because that's the easy way to do it. You can take all kind of shortcuts by jumping on the block and bouncing off the ball n chains. If you're a real pro you can fly through it. Great section of the last Koopa Kid Castles. It isn't all the way through. Then there is the magikoopa section.

>>12004764
>One of my least favorite
there's nothing wrong with that level
>Larry's castle snake ride
hate this shit

>>12004652
Donut Plains 2 and Butter Bridge 1

Forest Secret Area is actually not an autoscroller, if you have a cape or blue yoshi you can fly over it instead of waiting for the platforms.

>>12004798
Ah good point. Yeah those are definitely the 2.

my favorite level is chocolate island 4, it feels spelunky

Valley of Bowser 3
Chocolate Island 5
Vanilla Dome in its entirety

>>12004213
The one Mario inflates himself just like a ba-loon

>>12004251
I dont like sunken ghost ship because the disappearing boos always reappear right on top of me and it doesnt seem like theres anyhting I can do about it without doing that section as slowly as possible or tanking a hit. And trying to nab the yoshi coins during the freefall is a real pain in the ass

so many really fun ones to replay. but one that i really enjoyed (because number go up) is that one forest of illusion stage with the 2 platforms that snake up and down, simply because i enjoyed hitting the end with so many things on screen and all of the bonus 1-ups you can get. i liked trying to bring as many extra things as i could for maximum bonus.

>>12004213
Forest of illusion, the secret level that turns the background screen till you have to vomit.

>>12005552
That was a unique level. I love talking about SMW levels.

i've only ever played 11-exit

Are the other levels any good?

>>12004237
Dome is the best. You can even get on top of it!

>>12007091
speedtrooners in a nutshell

>>12004213
Sunken Ghost Ship, Donut Secret Level, and Gnarly.

>>12004756
>>12004764
I feel like a bitch, I just replayed SMW on real hardware and Larry's castle was the hardest level in the game for me. I took as many tries on it as I did Tubular.

>>12008772
Why do so many people like the sunken ghost ship?