Yes, they did that...FOR THE TIME. Nowadays, it's not as precise as other games. As I said before, they haven't aged well. You have times where you're trying to have Mario turn round, but it won't work so he has to go in a circle. I have had times where Mario wouldn't fall off a ledge, would just climb up and down and up and down, or be on the edge and be hopping like crazy. So many times when you try to walljump, but Mario just hits the wall and falls backwards and so forth
I'm not saying it's not a masterpiece, all I'm saying is that the controls haven't aged well