Review: Super Mario Bros. Peach's Adventure

Finished 100% in ~6h45

 

So before starting, here's the question everyone will ask: Why is Peach so fat? I means, I'm not to criticize the artist style, and I'm not against well endowed characters but... why make Peach fat? That is such a weird interpretation. It would have been better if it was an original character since she doesn't looks like Peach at all. Some people may think it's simply the author's fetish... They may be right. She's also not the only female character that gained weight in the game. Anyway ingame nobody mentions Peach's new shape. Heck, even if her sprite is larger, the hitbox stay the same (which is kinda bad, especially when trying to enter pipes as you think you're centered enough but you're not). So hum yeah let's jump into this.

So fat she need bigger pipes.

First, let's say that the author was very dedicated about the game. The game comes with a pdf manual just like oldschool SNES games. The cutscenes are sparse but feature drawings made especially for the hack. I won't spoil, but the postgame has a lot of content. Through the game there's lot of easter eggs and some little nice touch. Yeah, a lot of work was put into this.

Yep that's Peach.

The hack use 8-bit style graphics in the style of SMB1 (since this Peach is inspired by the SMB1 Peach, at least the colors). It's not strict 8-bit, it use the SMW elements as it's full disposal like using background with parralax effect. The hack looks really good.

In team of music however I'm slightly disappointed because it's just normal custom musics. They are good, but I think 8-bit style music would have been great for this 8-bit graphics hack. Also some tracks appears a bit too often, and these are the ones everyone already know (like the SMB1 overworld theme from All Star).

 

Ah the diagonal SMW pipes you can enter...

 

Honestly this game is pretty easy. After all, this hack is noted to be difficulty "Normal" on smwcentral and I'm more used of playing "Hard" hacks. One of the reason it's easy is that you have SMB3 powerdown AND item box. Like Variety of Chance, that makes you can take twice as much hit before dying. Plus, there's a big enough amount of powerups in levels, and the platforming isn't too hard. But this time, tiers 2 powerups don't get overwritten by mushrooms, and that's nice. The last levels are harder just because they are long, and even then if you don't panic you can easily complete them without breaking a sweat.

Oh no, a SMW minecart section! (well it wasn't too horrible in this game)

Game content:

- Each levels has 5 star coins to collect. The thing is, you have to collect all five without dying. That means you will soon begin to avoid midpoints so you don't have to complete the level to restart getting the coins. This add some challenge, but sometimes not the best challenges. Coins can be in the way, sometimes nice sidetrack, and sometimes in a random pipe that you may miss even if you tried to enter each pipes before because of the wide player graphics that sometimes doesn't enter pipes because not centered enough. I replayed one level 5 times before getting into a pipe the 6th time. But 90% of the levels I get all star coins on the first try.

- The game use multiple powerup patch. The racoon, hammer suit, boomerang suit are here and kinda nice. Also the ice flower only in like two levels, they aren't even in the shop.

- Oh yeah you have no lives. You get plenty coin, that you can use in a shop to buy powerups. Except it's the same powerups you can find in level, so it can be faster to go in a level, get a powerup and start+select than going to the shop. Well the game is easy so you may not need to get outside powerups anyway.

A food world... not surprised lmao

So the level design. The game has a linear progression, and the levels are too. Some levels have alternate paths, with remixed levels from SMB1. The game is made to feels like a normal SMB games, and it's do it job at that. Levels are distinct from one another, but are mostly old school romps, with classic enemies (koopas and goombas will appears everywhere, sometimes with different graphics depending on the world). Sometimes the obstacles doesn't feel very original. It's not bad, but very classic. In late/postgame, it picks up a bit and become more interesting. There are some good platforming at parts. At the same time, there is also a few late/postgame levels that are kinda boring. Like that space water level with sloooooow autoscroll. That you may have to play twice if you miss one pipe that has a star coin inside. There's also more bullet generators lategame, and we all know bullet generators are lame.

The classic ridding a Mega Mole over munchers. Can the mole support Peach's weight?

The game clearly had a lot of efforts into it. It has a really interesting aesthetic, and the level design is basic but fun to play overall. Some people will definitely enjoy it. But if you want more challenge, or a hack that deviate more to the traditional Mario platforming, it may not be for you.

>tfw you will never get stomped on by fat Peach

⭐⭐⭐

Good

Review: The Variety of Chance remastered

 

Finished in ~8h

Like Romancing Mario, The Variety of Chance is a hack I remember raocow let's played a while ago, and so I decided to play it myself. Although I do not remember anything about it, except that the overworld use graphics from the Zelda Oracle games. The hack is a bit old, however the creator posted a Remastered version in 2018, which fix the musics on modern emulators and other things I do not know. So let's go.

Ah, those Zelda Oracle graphics are nice.

You play as Marin. There is a plot, probably, getting rid of the bad guys or something. The plot is very minimal, however Marin and the enemy have some funny interactions together. And I totally like that, no detailed plot but funny interactions. Well there's some cutscenes in the first part, but later in the game they mostly disappear unfortunately. In particular, the final boss and ending (or lack of) was disappointing.

Very cute piranha plant.

You play as Marin, which plays like Mario. The only difference are the ability to double jump, which is nice. It sure makes the game easier, and some levels can be completed without. But there's some later levels that requires double jump, and have tricky obstacles using it. You can also shoot fireball upward which is pretty useful. The cape was replaced by a racoon tail, but it's alright. Other important change is the game use the SMB3 powerdown while still keeping item boxes. This means you can have 4 hits before dying (fire->big->small(use reserve fire)->big->small->death) and contribute to making the game easier, maybe a bit too much? This system also force you to juggle a bit with your powerups, for example if you are big and have a reserve feather, you must drop your feather before getting a fireflower or else you will get a mushroom in your reserve box replacing your feather. The game would have benefited to have some sort of powerup priority system.

In the Mega Man level you shoot fire straight. Nice touch.

Not only Mario changed. All the enemies have changed graphics, from original graphics to rip from other games. In general, the game is very romhacky, in that it openly use many inspiration from many games together, and I think it's totally fine. The graphics are good (I love the overworld). There may be some clash sometimes but nothing looking too bad.

Clash 8-bit/16-bit.

Some levels are more generals, while some are greatly inspired from games. The biggest inspiration you can see are Mega Man (with many, many custom musics from MM games), Zelda, Metroid, and mostly Touhou. There's multiple touhou "bosses", were it's just dodging projectiles for a fixed duration, but it's fine. Better than some other boss, which are literally custom bosses straight from smwcentral, with no new graphics or change in rooms designs. Yeah some bosses were nice but some others very unoriginal.

 

👁️

 

The level design is good. Most of the levels are simple vanilla-like design that doesn't revolutionize the genre, but are nice to play. Sometimes a bit too simple, I remember I breezed really quickly through forest world, double jump helping rushing the obstacles. But it is fun to play like that. The game still have some puzzle levels or interesting secret exits that made me use my brain. For the simple levels Yes more elaborated level design is good, but old school fun short rompy romp have a certain charm you know. Actually at the start of the game I felt the levels were a bit too long and hard for a beginning and I was getting worried for the future, but turns out it was fine. Even, I felt in the lategame the levels were shorter, and I definitely wanted them longer. Maybe they were short because they were harder, but honestly they weren't that hard. I would have liked more challenge tbh. Also no need to lifefarm, I got over 50 lives without trying.

Boss bass in the sauna.

The game quality is overall good. But it's varied, and unfortunately uneven. You have simple SMW-like levels and have levels very inspired from other games. You have cute cutscene in the first half of the game but almost none in the second half, and no ending. The levels feels shorter and the boss less interesting in the second half too. But still since lategame is harder, it play more around the double jump which is great, there were some nice platforming challenge. But not always, sometimes the double jump still felt too strong. Well I'm repeating myself. I'll just say I had fun playing it, and you can tell the creator had fun making it too. I hesitated to rate it 8 tbh.

Use your double jump at the right time!

A really fun romhack, with some simple but enjoyable level design, and a lot of flavor. The levels, with the double jump and it's diverse aesthetics, feels good to get through, but sometimes they seems to go by too quickly.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Very good

Review: Super Mario World - The After Years (Ultra)

 

Finished in ~10h

Playing an old hack I got recommended. Let's see if it aged well.

Two levels in and already soft-locked.

So this hack. As you can see, you don't play as Mario but as a new character named Mute. The game take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, but in the future. You don't play as Mario, but as someone wishing to be Mario. The After Years means that you, a nobody, will have to take over Mario as the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom since he isn't here anymore. Likewise, Bowser and Peach aren't around, but Peach's descendant is. The game use cutscenes to narrate the plot. And a lot of cutscenes, sometimes multiples ones in the same level. Sure you can skip them, but it is annoying. The story isn't bad; it's not revolutionary but it is enjoyable. What bothered me with the story and the cutscenes are the following:
- The cutscenes are text only. There is no picture to accompany the text, not even a simple character portrait.
- In fact, ALL the story progression and characters descriptions are only in the cutscenes. Your two sidekicks, who are major characters through the story, are never shown. Not even outside the cutscenes, you just never "see" them, they are only described through text. Some may like it as it's up to your imagination to see how they exactly looks like, for me it bothered me a bit.
- It's just my personal opinion, but I didn't liked the protagonist personality. He's just a lame dude who somehow becomes the hero of the story. No charisma. I know that's the point that an ordinary boy become the next hero, but I personally wasn't a fan.
Again, the story wasn't too bad, I just didn't liked how it was presented.

It can't be helped.

Despite a new character, it controls like Mario. The only gameplay change is the Metroid HP bar. And like always, the creator didn't bother editing it a bit so everything remove you 20 HP exactly. I really wish one hack to use the Metroid HP bar and have different enemies remove different amount of HP when hurting you. Oh well. The hack has capes, however you can't fly, and they are located mostly in secret areas. Well let's go to the main subject of the level design, and oh boy...

The fact most of the overworld has no visible path bother me.

Level design is...  eh. It's an old hack sure, but even at the time I think I wouldn't have loved it. I means the levels have some okay obstacles through it, but sadly many, many, too many times, the author decided to put forced backtracking into the level. The detour to get the p-switch/springboard/shell/onoff-switch/key to continue the level isn't long, but there are way too many, in almost every level. Maybe it was an attempt to make the levels less linear,but it was just too much. Listen, there is nothing wrong with linear levels when you only go to the right without turning back okay? So like I said, there's some decent platforming sections, but the constant little backtracks get more annoying the longer you play.

One of the many item fetch quest. Also one of the many dark level with spotlight (which cause slowdown).

As the level, most of the levels looks different. But although they have different obstacles, there are some elements that appears way too often, which is unfortunate. Despite having many levels, some elements appears in too many levels. The one I noticed the most: Chucks, Volcano Lotus, Slow horizontal autoscroll with bullet generator, Vertical autoscroll, Dark level with spotlight. While those elements were overused, some other elements were instead underused. Sometimes the game introduce some new elements, like a nice custom sprite, or a new gimmick like the ability to double jump. But those are used for only half a level in the whole game, sometimes even less. In short the variety is greatly unbalanced.

Slow autoscroll with bullet generator feat. non-scrolling layer 2.

When I say elements introduced in half a level, that is the truth. In fact, there are some levels that suddenly have a different gimmick in the second half. I would prefer level to have one main gimmick, and why not in the second half use the same gimmick in totally new ways. Here sometimes we hop from one subject to another.

Another dark level. Also the game never tell you this water kills you.

I have to mention: this game wasn't properly tested. By that I means the roofs are never blocked. A lot of the time you can go above the ceiling and either skip large portion of the levels, or get permanently stuck. I got stuck in levels with 0 timer two times, one time going above a ceiling, one time because you can pass through some blocks while wallrunning which wasn't intended. Also some levels have barrier that only let you pass if you have collected 4 Yoshi coins. If you collected them all, you better restart your game since they don't respawn. Also multiple cut-offs and the like.

Lifefarm kinda.

Not much too say about the aesthetic. It looks decent. Mute graphics are okay. Some custom musics haven't aged too well.

Hello darkness my old friend.

The game isn't bad, and it isn't hard so I was able to finish it, but it wasn't very good. Despite some interesting ideas, there are some poor design decisions, the biggest offense being the constant little backtracking. Some people will enjoy the game, and I did in some parts, but unfortunately other parts weren't of my liking. And please, close the ceiling!

⭐
Poor