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
No comments:
Post a Comment