Review: SMW Gaiden

 

World 1-7 in 13 hours (in a row 😵), world 8 in 6 hours, special world in 3 hours (with some feathers)

 

 SMW Gaiden is a collab with a new team comprised of old school SMW hackers, some relatively know. This hack aims to be some old school challenge, let's see what it has. Sorry if I lack details, I made this review a while after I finished the main game.

Yuck! Plants everywhere!

One look into the game and you can feel the old school. Sort of. Let me explain: the graphics are mostly vanilla, with new palette, mostly well done but a few questionable. One thing that I hate, is the music. The game only use musics from SMW and SMB:AllStar for that retro feels. I'm fine with SMW musics but I'm not a fan of SMWAS ones, it get tiring to hear them after a while. Also only the level have retro musics, the OW has nice custom musics, so the contrast really feels weird. It could have made the levels stand out more. The fact that all the level have generic names doesn't help. The overworld is very nice though.

Weird rhino palette.

The game has few custom sprite, and only retro one. And the mark of fabric of this hack are piranha plants / venus fire plant. They are in EVERY level, and I'm not exaggerating. I understand the idea, really. But that doesn't means I enjoy this decision. It's an annoying sprite and having it in EVERY level gets annoying. It's not even a modern one, it's the old school venus that means upside down always ignore Mario and comes out. They could have at least used modern one with red stem venus to mix things / identify them better. About sprites, most common sprites in the games like koopas, spinies, etc. have slightly different properties, in that they are quite faster. This is a nice change to shake things up. Strangely, the exception are the SMB3 hammer bro that throw less hammer than the typical custom sprite. It's an annoying sprite so I won't complain. Also it's green here.

And despite being classic, the final boss is custom. It's a really impressive custom boss, but it makes it contrast with the classic feel of the hack even more.

Even underwater, PLANTS!

But beside the overuse of Venus, the level design is great. It's classic, but the obstacles are well put together, it's challenging but fair. It's the typical linear Mario platforming, but very well polished. If you're good at Mario, seeing all those enemies (mostly plants) and blazing through their fireball is a lot of fun. The game has a few secrets, but overall the levels are simple and neat.

Some postgame levels are a bit of a pain though. Thankfully powerups aren't filtered. You can even bring Yoshi, though they greatly reduced the timer before he eats items in his mouth, so you can't grab a blue shell and fly.

Two plants one pipe?

The hack feels classic but also mixed with modernity, and seeing those modern aspect sometimes feels like missed opportunities, like how the OW have custom musics but not the levels or a few custom sprites. The hack having a fetish sprite (the plants) seen in every levels is kind of interesting but may or may not be annoying. However, the great level design makes for some fun challenge and it is a superb hack if you're looking for good old fun Mario platforming.

 

Even in your switch palace, PLANTS!

 

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐

Good

Fkuc