Review: X-drive

Not a good idea to play a hard romhack just before playing Mario Wonder but hey.

Playtime and number of deaths are visible ingame. Very cool. It took me around 14 hours to 100%

 

Here a romhack I really wanted to play. Why? Because it's made by fellow frenchmen. In fact it is a collaboration hacks of three people. Or more like compilation hack it feels like sometimes.

Underwater bush?

In term of aesthetic and stuffs. The game has custom graphics (nice overworld) but most levels are quite vanilla. There doesn't seems to be any rules for the graphics, anything goes. But overall the levels looks good. You play as Mario, no change in gameplay. There's no story, the bad guy this time is Poubel (get it? "poubelle" means trash) but it doesn't matter. Then the level design, is mostly good Mario platformer, but it varies between levels. Let me explain it:

I like Yoshi's Island graphics in SMW romhacks, it's so cheesy.

It seems a compilation of various level, with some levels being good and some... not as much. Not due to the authors, just some designs choice that are sometimes dubious. Also the game can become quite hard. For the better or worse. Let me explain: each level has a difficulty rating. World 4 (which can be your second world if you want) has the first two 5 stars levels (very hard). You can avoid them if you want, but I played them of course. These levels are radically different in their approach of difficulty. One is classic SMW challenge, with tricky enemy placement but with powerups and enough rooms to get around them and it's a ton of fun. The sort of classic challenging difficulty that I love. Then the one before start in a normal level in the forest with a strange gimmick of invisible bullets, then after a few screens you get in a sublevel and this gimmick is immediately forgotten, you are now in a ghost house "maze" (lot of paths with no way of knowing beforehand which one is useless or not so just guess right lol) and a powerup filter at the start of that section (which remove the powerup you got at the start of the level).  Powerup filter at the start of a level okay, but in the middle, why? That sucks. Especially since that maze still has tricky enemies to avoid. Also some random platforming sections there and there each themed differently, and a midpoint very far. This level is a mess, it's like multiples levels crammed together without though, and that's unfortunate. Too bad, because most levels in the game are alright, and like I said some are very fun and challenging, but you have these weird levels there and there that feels like weren't tested properly, or that sometimes are okay but just too long without enough checkpoints and/or powerups filter inbetween. Also with capes and Yoshi (which aren't filtered properly, as some filter blocks don't remove reserve item) can break some levels. Which is good, it's fun to break levels. I did bring cape from previous levels (best spot to farm cape I found is 2-1) to use in a few levels, but overall tried to do the levels legit, and you should try to, they're fun.

I didn't cheat, I somehow managed to clip into the wall while mounting Yoshi lel.

 

So what's more to say? The level has various level, some with gimmicks to break the pace but overall they are vanilla-like platforming challenges. In general, the hack is fun, there's just a few levels that really aren't as fun as the rest, which is unfortunate. The very last levels which is [SPOILER] three levels stuck together who should have been three separate levels, of varying quality where imo the castle section is the best and only one I attempted "legit" because despite the hard difficulty the setups are better and it has powerups and that makes all the differences, it's extremely fun, while I hate that last section with the fast boos with no powerups and no safe spots and PAUSE BUTTON NOT WORKING [/SPOILER] resume well that feeling.

Take your time and find the right timing.

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐

Good

Just pick another bowser castle room next time lol.

Review: Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii

How new is newer?

 

Let's play another sort of 2D Mario romhack. Newer SMBWii is a famous romhack, and maybe the only large-scale romhack of NewSMBW (that I know at least). The game is 10 years old now but let's try it.

Yoshi can be of all colors randomly.

It's been a while since I played newSMBWii, so there's some parts I don't remember or don't know if they were present in the original game or not. Still, the hack looks like it has been modified a lot. But starting playing it, it feels like playing newSMBWii. In the sense that the level design philosophy of the newSMB game is preserved in this hack: the levels are short, easy, filled with coins and 1up. That is the main appeal to this hack, trying to make a game close to the original Nintendo games. And they did a good job at that, while adding new fresh content.

Those spikes graphics looks different than the rest.

The new graphics are cool. Some objects looks a bit weird (the spikes above for example) but nothing too disconcerting. There are new world themes, like an autumn forest seen above, and that is very cool. Much creative than the original newSMB games lol. A great thing, and the biggest stuff that makes you know this is not an official game, are the musics. There's a lot of custom musics. Each world has at least two new music on it's own (one for bonus worlds), and there's also global new songs. The songs are cool, I have some preferences but none are bad (I'm not a fan of the global level and underwater song but I love the castle and athletic songs and one of the world 4 level song). There's even some songs that are used in only one or two levels and feels too underused. Also, there's remix musics from other Mario games, including non-mainline Mario games like SMRPG or even Wario games. You know it's a romhack when you hear them, Nintendo would never allow non-mainline musics in mainline Mario games.

Stop looking at me!

About content, the game is bigger than newSMBWii, as there's 8 worlds with 5 short bonus worlds on the map accessible through secret exits. There's some new Toad house minigames, some item shop I never used, switch palaces, etc. The game has a lot of content, even if the levels are short and easy. About that, I would say the game is as easy as NewSMBWii? Which is too say, too easy for me. The game shower you with coins and lives. But it is like NewSMBWii. So yes, the game does a really good job at emulating the game it's based on, but this means a very easy and forgivable difficulty. If you like that, then good! If you want some challenge, don't really expect it. Still, the levels are fun to traverse and getting all the star coins is fun.

I fucked up.

Honestly I don't have a lot of negatives about the games, except that it is too easy for my taste. Because the hack tries really good to feel like a game that could have been an official newSMB sequel, the very small and minor details pop out more. For example, there's a new shy guy enemy that need two stomp to die. It's a great new enemy. But if you kill it in one hit (ground pound or fireball), it doesn't give points. If it was a real Nintendo game, it would have given points no matter how you kill it. Or they added the hammer suit which is a cool powerup, and when you finish a level, Mario does the "remove hat" animation like when he's Super, but he doesn't remove the hammer suit hat. Again, very very minor. But you can't help noticing it when the rest of the package is so well done.

Oh I forgot to mentions, there's new enemies but also new bosses. Very cool.

Lil sparky and Hotheads! They only appear once in the game. D:

Conclusion: This romhack feels like a official newSMBWii sequel that Nintendo could have made. If you liked the newSMB games and want more with new levels and more secrets and the same easy difficulty, it is definitely a must play. If you're looking for absurds gimmicks or hard difficulty, you won't find it here.

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Very good, must play

Review: Rockman VI Unique Harassment

 

Finished in 5h

My order: Napalm, Chill, Tomahawk, Galaxy, Dust, Jewel, Spark, Pharaoh

Mega Man 6 while still good is my least liked NES Mega Man game. I never played a romhack of MM6 before, let's try that with Rockman VI Unique Harassment (R6UH) which I heard good things about it.

...Huh?

First of all what, why is there only one robot master from MM6 in here? Well the game looks like will have lot of change. So much that inbetween game session I decided to replay the original MM6 because I didn't remember the game a lot and to appreciate better the changes made. Let's talk about the levels first. All bosses but one are new, and all the levels are new too. In fact, most of the levels have nothing to do with the robot master associated to it. Like why is Dust Man level a japanese style level? Why does Napalm Man level have teleporters that send you to completely unrelated levels? You shouldn't think about it and just enjoy the levels. Which are goods. The level design is good, not too hard, it mix various enemies from various Mega Man games, and enemies from MM6 have new attacks. Like MM6, some levels have path you can reach only with the Rush upgrades, and visiting them is very encouraged : the original MM6 had BEAT parts in 4 levels, here there's 4 secret upgrades in levels that unlock some neat upgrades even if it isn't explained what they do so you'll have to guess yourself with the icon in the pause menu.

What am I doing in SMW?

The boss are quite something, the biggest change of the game. In the robot master levels, you do not lose lives when dying to a boss. An interesting choice, but it make sense are the boss are very hard. The first boss especially without other weapons. They went all in in the boss: every boss has two health bar. When you deplete the first one, you regain all your health and the boss change to a completely different pattern. About that, the pattern of the boss are all new, and almost have nothing to do with the original bosses. They could have been new robots master instead of ones from previous MM games it would've been better. The boss pattern are interesting, very original. Quite hard, but nothing too unfair. You will get hit a lot by the bosses, but they usually don't deal too much damage. You can even damage tank some boss. Honestly I prefer boss with more simple patterns, but I will admit they are well done.

Everything is normal here.

The boss weapons are good, and pretty strong. Sometimes even too much I feel like lol. Most boss have multiple sub-weaknesses so really it's the first boss that is the hardest. Napalm cracker seems to work well on most bosses, and Pharaoh's weapon can surround you with something that auto-attack and works great on some Wily bosses. About Wily, still two fortress. The final boss is impressive, but they went hard a bit too much. Hopefully the game provides enough E-tanks which respawn after game over or when you exit and restart a level, so if you want you can farm E-tanks in Dust Man stage.

Power Rush suit is strong.

As for the game defaults... well, it's a bit hard especially some bosses if you don't use other weapons (and sometimes become too easy if you do so). There's parts where you must switch to Rush suits and like the original there's the cutscene that plays every time that is annoying even if you can skip it. There's also parts that didn't seems to be made with Rush suits in mind and seems very easy with it, especially platforming section. I guess it's up to you the player to chose if you want to play normally or cheese it with Rush. Which is good, having choice is nice. As said, some mechanics like the secret upgrade you unlock aren't explained ingame (maybe in the .txt file with the game that's all in japanese?). Also the game crashed once for me, after I died at the same time as Pharaoh Man did one of it's attack I disappeared and got CPU Jammed error in Nestopia. But I think it was a very rare crash, it shouldn't happens to you. Take screenshots of your passwords or use savestates just in case. No other than that the game is fine. It's just has a different feel than most MM games, especially the two health bar boss battles, that you may enjoy more or less.

I didn't talk about the graphics or musics: They're all good, no complain.

This water level is special...

Rockman IV Unique Harassment is a unique Rockman hack. It has huge amount of change, with it's high point being the new eccentric boss battles. It can be hard at time, but using the right weapon or Rush suit can make it easy.

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Very good, must play

Review: Rockman 2 Yendor Code

Completed in 4 hours.

My order: wood,air,bubble,crash,heat,flash,quick,metal

Rockman 2 Yendor code is a strange hack, it has a vanilla look, with no new musics nor new graphics (not even new palette). However, it has a lot of other change, making this hack a nice alternative remix of Rockman 2.

 

The shrimp act like the seahorses in Super Mario Land.

As said, this hack is more of a remixed Rockman 2. The level themes are the same. However, the level design is all different, and is quite good. It remixes some old obstacles, or replace existing one with new one with similar feels (like Quick Man's stage). But more importantly, all the enemies are modified to act different, in a fair and fun way. Some change are minor and other major. There's even some common enemies that were edited to be middle boss.

 

Small bird generator?

The boss and weapons are different too, and it feels just right. The boss fight are really fun, the pattern can be learnt and doesn't feel unfair. The weapons are more useful, and the overpowered one (metal blade) nerfed. Special mention to Air Man's weapon that push enemies like the wind, and Flashman's being really useful in some situations. About bosses, it's not just the robot master. Wily's boss too were changed to be very interesting. Special mention to Mecha Dragon for being fun in a MM2 romhack which is rare, mostly because this time there's enough footing and not just one one-tile block, and for the Wily stage 4 boss which was completely changed to be very unique while still not using custom graphics for it.

Woosh!

I won't say the hack is perfect. It's main problem is the difficulty becoming suddenly hard starting Wily's castle 2. As always in MM2 and it's romhacks, Wily stage 2 is the stage to master the items, but the game didn't prepared you enough to use them so you have to learn on the go in difficult situation. The boss is also pretty hard, and strangely this is the only Wily stage without an e-tank. A good point: the game is generous enough on lives and e-tank. Still it is MM2 so e-tanks are lost on Game Over. But if the difficulty doesn't bother you, it's cool. Another point is while the bosses are fine, some can be a bit spammy if you let them. Better take them down quickly.

Platforming.

In conclusion, despite it's simple presentation, this is a hack with a lot of new content which keeps the same feel as the original game but remix it in very fun ways.

 

Pattern exploit is fun.

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Very good, must play

Review: Rockman 4 minus infinity

 

Completion time:

My order: Toad, Bright, Pharaoh, Ring, Dust, Skull, Dive, Drill

One of the most famous Mega Man romhack, I'm only playing it now. Let's see how good it is.

Indeed, the item is dug.

Rockman 4 Minus Infinity (let's say R4MI) is a japanese romhack of Rockman 4. There is a "engrish" language option made by the autor and translation tools to somewhat understand a bit the game. The game say a proper english translation may be made in the future, but considering how old the game is starting to be, it's not happening. Not like there's many text, or that the text really matter. It's Mega Man after all. The game start simple (although you can see a really neat option menu at the start) but become really crazy at the end. I would compare it to Brutal Mario in some ways.

 

The train Metool from MM5. Strangely it appears only twice in this level, here.

 

The first 8 robot master levels. The level graphics is mostly vanilla, unlike other romhack it doesn't try to completely change the theme of the levels, instead it build on it and introduce new and exiting gimmicks. I though some levels were longer than others (especially Toad Man), being a bit longer than the original but still not absurdly long. The new gameplay elements are of course impressive technically, but blend well with the level. I have a critic though, is that in some of the levels (not all), some elements are underutilized, which seems a waste. Two contradiction examples is Bright Man, the two halves have their gimmicks which is great, while Toad Man has too many different level ideas that came and go too quickly like the rush surf at the end (the game also doesn't teach you that you can double jump in that part). Pharaoh man may be the worst offender in that case. Skull man level, being centered about platforming was awesome, my favorite robot master level.

 

Diagonal scrolling? Awesome

 

The endgame levels and the boss is where Puresabe show all it's ASM knowledge and try to show how impressive it can be. Indeed, it become really impressive. But sometimes it's too crazy, some bosses can spam you of projectiles you can barely dodge, or have movements too erratic. At least they don't deal too much damage, but it becomes a bit of brute forcing, using an e-tank if needed. Also notable is the invulnerability frames were greatly decreased.

Yes I lost 8 times to Toad Man. He's a pain in the ass in this version.

The game tries to be kind to the player. There's many option to chose to adjust your difficulty (I played on normal), you start with some items like the energy balancer and can get new ones in-game. You have Rush dug to find items, you get the two items while playing normally (even if you can unlock them earlier though a challenge alternative path), the game isn't shy to give you e-tank and lives, as seen above where I game over only twice but lost 84 and could have lost more if I didn't use e-tank in some bosses.

 

Still icy.

 

But all these quality of life are balanced by the fact that, like I said, some bosses goes a bit too crazy. I think all of them can be done without e-tanks, except Wily. The levels also goes crazy, you will see many sprite flickering due to the sheer amount of simultaneous sprites on-screen. This craziness really gives it a "romhack" feel, which I like but some may prefer their hacks to be more "clean", have a more "this could be an official game" look. The absurdity of the game doesn't deter from it's enjoyment, except in the end and the postgame, but talking about it would be a big spoiler, so avoid the section below if you want.

Flickering hell

Spoiler for the endgame and postgame: How the fuck are you supposed to dodge all those attacks willy capsule throw you. It's a full danmaku fight. Yes, this is really, really impressive, but it's at this point that the impressiveness of the coding deter from the gameplay. Not only that, why does Wily have two health bar? Just to make the fight longer. Well I used 4 e-tanks for this fight. Also the postgame, yes there is a lot of content including a postgame. Spoiler more: it's an arena. Kirby-like boss fight arena. But it's not Kirby. Arena in Kirby are fine because it's rather easy, if it was in MM4 it could be okay but here with the new bosses it's a bit too much. If you don't find it fun after 10 tries, you should give up. You miss on some content but it's fine, the main game was fun, better stop here before you hate yourself. I wanted to see the new stuffs, so I enabled invincibility cheats. Well spoiler there's a true arena, with 40 (FORTY) bosses, all in hard mode, still limited to one life. You have some e-tanks, but it's bullshit. Then the second to last boss barely takes damage and has two health bar of course. Then he grabbed me and INSTANT-KILLED ME. 30 minutes lost. And it was with cheats. I gave up. If you want to see the true secret final boss yourself, use savestates or you will be miserable, especially if a boss decide to say fuck you and instant-kill you.

 

haha yes

 

Conclusion : R4MI is a really impressive hack technically, one of a kind, and discovering all it's new elements is very fun. The game is generous in resources but sometimes goes a bit too crazy with the number of sprites on screen. I absolutely recommend playing the main game, but do not recommend doing the post-game.

 

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Very good, must play