This would make a great bookmark. <3

Bookmark? Bookmarker? It's been a long time since I've picked up a book. ;_;

I totally second this. If this happens I will buy one. Guarantee. I HAVE books I can use this in <3

Kinda want this for my Zelda hardback strategy guide set...

I'd be using it honestly with coding books :3

Or a dakimakura, that way you can hug yours nostagia, =)

This is a close second all the warm hues...never be sad snuggled up in it.

Missing that game, one of my favorites.

Its very NoSTARlgia. :b

this is basically my entire childhood.

bravo, good sir, bravo.

Thanks, man.
Good times.

I love it!

It looks like something from Yoshi's Island!
PS: I'm aware that this is actually from Super Mario World.

Thank you - I really love the art style from that game. I planned to use a dry brush/pastel-like effect from the beginning, and it was about a quarter of the way through where I realised that I'd squished the two games' art styles together, more or less

Made me realize that the colored yoshis are really only found in the Star Road. I wonder if that means that Yoshis are like...star dinosaurs or something.

Or maybe it was just a way to combine two spiffy features and I'm thinking too much!

I'd completely forgotten, but you're right, and I remember taking many trips back to Star World 2 specifically to get that blue Yoshi. And there were also many long trips back to the Top Secret area before that. :,V

And then after powering up and getting a yoshi, accidentally falling down a cliff or into lava a whole six seconds into the stage...

thank god they fixed both issues in the GBA remake. ;w;

Has anyone ever stuck on the Special World for a good while, and before you know it, the Super Mario Bros. theme starts playing? I know I have.

Of all the things that I have discovered as an adult that I didn't as a kid... It's really beautiful.

Glorious. T___T

Ah, I love it!

Takes me back....

Lovely artwork.

for some reason it feels like it's marshmallow~

I'd be quite tempted to eat those clouds, personally!
And on a somewhat related note, I really appreciate how most of the locations in the game were based on sweet foods. Chocolate Island was still a pain in the butt, though. :I

The stage TUBULAR... Argh! DX

The bane of many childhoods.

Heh.. now I want to watch one of those speedruns and see the miracles possible...

At least half of those special levels were abusively hard for a kid!

Wasn't that the P Balloon one?

The same one... damn, I often had to return to get 1ups. XD

Good with a blue Yoshi and a few Koopas. /cheater

it would be a time saver... but info about the game was veeeery scarce ,20 years ago. Internet? What the hell is that? <3

It wasn't a matter of internet; it was a matter of putting 2 and 2 together.

I wanna play Mario now

I'm feeling the nostalgia!

I remember when my uncle unlocked that level. I was like, how come I never knew about that?

Hah, similar story here. I always thought the game was pretty big, but eventually discovering those two secret worlds tucked away was a nice surprise.

AWWW YEAH!!

I think I'm in love

This is just beautiful ;w; now I wanna commission ya! Hopefully I can do so soon.

Thank you! That's always nice to hear. I plan to open up again fairly soon - just got a few outside distractions to deal with first.

I can still hear the music in my head from the Special map. :)

Mission accomplished, then.
I was playing yesterday, and that exact same music, along with Star Road's, was the catalyst for making this.

My memories from 23 years ago.

wow, it looks simply stunning in your style!
is that the original resolution, or is there a higher res version? I'd love to be able to look at it closer

Thank you.
If you're seeing the 500x3500 in full view or download view, then yeah, that's the original size.

oh wow, it has so many neat details I thought the original resolution would be higher
do you have a sketch of it or something like that? it would be so interesting!

I'm a long time admirer of your art,for some time, your art was the only reason I stayed on the site

I do have a very bare-bones sketch, but it's really only a bunch of lines and circles to get the feeling of the composition. I had a few screenshots open as references, which proved extremely useful to get the colours as well, and just went along from there.

Overworld themes started playing in my head while i scrolled down :3 <3

Oh boy, my childhood.

Wow this really brings me back!

excuse me while i go dust off my SNES and SMB-World cartridge.

Wow, this is quite awesome.
Reminds me how I have made the entire map but with remade 32x32 sprites for every 16x16 sprite.

Think I've said this before, but this hits me right in the nostalgia~ ^^

you're pretty special yourself there mister

great work as always

Ohh... <3

Oh my childhood... I just wanna cry ;3; Its as beautiful as I remembered it! How ironic I never knew about the secret song in the Special part of Star World unless you wait and listen long enough, but once it came oh gosh X3

Hah, I know! When it started to play, I literally jumped, and I'm pretty sure I stared at the screen like ":D" until it was over. I can't remember exactly how I ended up hearing it the first time, but it was likely something along the lines of being stumped with Tubular and flopping onto my bed for a break while leaving the game on on that screen.

OH GOD I hated Tubular that FUGGING level! The one where you had to desperately rely on those P balloons to guide you to safety, but all that butthole chargin' chucks ruining everything! I lost one TOO many lives on that >8C

Second place goes to the frustrating key and keyhole secret in Bowser's World, in the ghost house. UGH, it was so hard to get up there!

Would you believe me if I said that I once BEAT Tubular without a balloon? Instead I used a blue/purple yoshi (BEST yoshi in the game) to fly around it all? It was kinda harder than normal, but it was fun~

Oh man, that ghost house... I would say that, when I was younger, I had significantly more trouble getting that key than making it through Tubular.

And I can believe that - I certainly remember using the blue Yoshi a lot in that area of the game. What surprised me is that Tubular is a really short level, which kind of makes the fact that it took me so long to beat all the worse. :V

The fact Tubular was such a short yet butt busting level just only made it that much more worse to endure... just adding insult to injury ;3;

I can't remember that one Special bonus world, that was completely ice, but that one was my FAVORITE!

AMAZING LOVE THE MOON

This is really just beautifully soft, magical even <3 It reminds me of my childhood so much... about secrets leading into the heavens and just the pure adventure of it all ;w;

Mmph, I miss my Super Mario World...