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

Review: A plumber for all seasons

 

Finished in ~3h30

 

 A hack that's been on the work for for 9 years. This hack's main feature are the mostly completely custom made graphics by WYE along with some ASM and a neat season gimmick to deliver an unique experience.

WYE love to put his logo into the ground graphics.

 

So first the aesthetic. It's just wonderful, all the tricks were used to make is looks as good as possible. The beautiful custom graphics, but the clever use of layers 2/3, parralax and so on. Each level has a unique appearance that fit well with the seasons. The custom musics are new too. They are nice, albeit some are a bit forgettable. The underground theme is my favorite, while I think the first castle theme would fit better a mountain. Still, very nice.

The snow's getting thicker.

The season gimmick is you have to play 8 levels on an island, 4 times for each seasons. But the levels are completely different between the seasons, only the theme remain. For example the fourth level is a forest level, but it looks different in each season. Light green with flowers in spring, rainy in summer, orange in fall and frozen in winter. Each world has also it's set of new enemies like some flowers in spring, although koopas are present everywhere, and a bit too much of them, but they are the classic enemies. The gameplay is classic SMW, a few change here and here that aren't bad. The cape is replaced with a raccoon leaf, but contrary to other hacks you only need to hold the jump button to fly and fall slowly, which is much better on the hand. The dragon coins (star coins here) are still 5 in each levels, and you must get all of them for 100% completion, which isn't hard and when you collect them once they stay collected forever.

A good raccoon tail finally?

 

The levels are fairly linear, with some detours and small little challenges to get the stars coins which are good. The few secret exits were also nicely implemented. Some levels have unique sprites or gimmick that makes playing them really fun. Even the more classical level, due to the unique aesthetic and season theme are refreshing to play. There was a lot of creative setups, except maybe a bit too much use of blocks on the ground you need a koopa shell to hit them.

I need 99 lives? Say no more fam. I won't spoil what it unlocks.

The game in intermediate difficulty on smwc, which is easy for veteran SMW players. I admit I breezed through most of the level, 100% the hack with it's 41 exists took me only 3h30 to complete, but it was still very fun. If you're looking for a short or easy hack with classic gameplay and extremely charming atmosphere, I definitely recommend this one.

Autumn best season don't @ me.

Rating: 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Amazing, must play

 

Review: Mega Man 4 Voyage

Finished in 4h40

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

2012-2018... this hack has been in development for 7 years ? Was it worth the wait?

Worst title drop?

This is a hack of Mega Man 4 (and not Rockman 4). Like the original, it start with a cutscene, that has been edited with a new plot explaining why the robot master of 4 are back. With only that you can see that this hack will be heavily edited. This will be confirmed when you start your first level and see how much it has to offer.

 

Some old enemies are back.

 

First the aesthetic: top notch. The graphics are varied, colorful and looks great. The music are all new and sound good too. But I didn't recognize any familiar song... I'm pretty sure all the musics are original composition. That's really neat. Some musics just feels like they would fit perfectly in a real Mega Man game. Some great efforts were put into the presentations. The (few) cutscenes were also greatly done, and there's some nice surprises in the plot.

You too?

The game has a lot of modifications. There are a lot of enemies from other Mega Man games that were implemented, and work just like the original. All the boss fights are different, and they are so good. The bosses are probably the best part of the game: not because they are modified, but because they are modified in the best way possible. The bosses attacks and pattern were made with great care. No bosses have cheap attacks (there may be a few attacks that are hard to understand at first, but nothing annoying), it's not too hard (I beat most boss with mega buster & no charge shoot only), but more important they are creative. Figuring the pattern of the boss to beat him unscratched feels so great. Even Toadman, who in the original MM4 is the lamest boss ever, is a formidable opponent in this one.

It even has one specific boss that I will not spoil, a boss from another Mega Man game that I usually hate, but in this game it was made in such a way that it was extremely fun to fight. I was really impressed, good job.

Finally, a good Toadman boss.

 

The level design is great too. Honestly the level are nicely constructed and the progression is good. If I would say one bad thing, it's that the levels sometimes have too much ideas. It's okay in Wily's castle to mix elements, but even the standard robot master levels have too many different enemies that you see a few time, where I would have liked if some enemies were exploited more. The level are slightly long, and sometime the theme shift too much (Toadman stage start with ice aesthetic and ends in a electric central?). But other than that, the levels are fine. The layout of the level and the obstacles are nice, no complains.

Some stages have secrets/alternate paths, for some lives or E-tank. I didn't find the two items of MM4 (I don't know if they are still here, I think yes) but I found something else very neat instead. Don't hesitate to explore previous level before tacking on Wily's castle.

Yes those are here too. But more fair.

 

The hack isn't too hard, but especially the hack isn't mean. The creator really wanted to not be too annoying. Like the "quickman lasers" doesn't instakill you, there's plenty of E-tank (you can completely beat the game without using these tbh), plenty of health/weapons refill, even the final boss give you some lives. That's nice... but I felt like it's TOO nice, and the hack could have been mean a few times I wouldn't have minded. But imo if you don't use e-tanks, the difficulty is perfectly fine. I liked it.

There's even a warning sign to signal those enemies.

 

This may be one of my favorite Mega Man romhack. It is full of new content with fair and well crafted level design and awesome boss battle.

Oh no, not again.

Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Amazing, must play

Multi-reviews: Kochobo Dourado, slurdgery, 2mice

 I played multiple short hacks tonight, here's the first one.

Finished in 1h15

 

Kochobo Dourado is the first I played. It's a collaboration hack from a brazilian community. It is a compilation of multiple levels. The overworld is open, all levels are unlocked from the start. So various levels by various users. In most of them the aesthetic is well done, and the level design is pretty good overall.

 

wrong doughnut sprite gfx dude

Level design is good, but some levels were a bit too simple, just some short romps with no particular gimmick. They weren't bad, but not memorable. In a big hack having some filler levels can be good. In a short 12 level collab it feels a bit... disappointing? But some levels were more original, and pretty good. The hack is normal difficulty, so can feel too easy for experienced players. The hack has some changes, some major like the new status bar (I don't like it much but it becomes more common since it allow for full layer 3 BG), some minor and very occasional that you can completely miss like bob-ombs immediately exploding in contact of fireball, and some annoying like the removal of P-speed jump, in that when you jump at full running speed you do a normal jump and lose your p-speed. Maybe a solution they found to remove cape flying, but a bad one. The last level has a big jump that is really ass to do and make me thing it was made before deciding to apply this change.

nice graphics

Honestly the fact that all levels are open is not something I enjoy, as I prefer to see my progress on the overworld. Also it says there's 14 entries, but I'm missing one level. Is there another level to unlock? How? Well the hack is locked in LM so I can't look, and not interested to explore all levels again. 

 

epic

 

This hack had some good levels and nice aesthetic, but a bit simple and easy for my taste.

⭐⭐

Okay

Next hack is...

Finished in 1h15

Well this is a quality title screen. But it's because they didn't spend efforts into trivial things like the title. It's all level design. So it's a 9 levels hack and a good one. First for the technical aspect. Aesthetic is mostly vanilla, even the palette but using layer 3 BG. It's not bad, but because it's simple it's not confusing. The game does have custom music, and custom blocks/sprites when needed.

 

Mix of custom elements.

 

Each level has it's own gimmick, some really interesting gimmicks that are well used with many interesting setups. All levels are straightforward platforming levels (I think all level have no vertical scrolling), but to go forward you have to pass through all the setups. This hack is good because each level is unique, and every gimmicks are first introduced in a safe setup and where you can easily see how they work, and then the level expand upon it with new way to spin the gimmick around, sometimes introducing new elements that totally fit with it.

Poison flowers? What has science done.

And because the hack goes full gimmick, it remove everything that can hinder it. No status bar and everything inside (no time to farm lives and cie) but also powerup filter at every level start. You can't bring powerup from over level, but it's not needed. The hack does get a bit hard later on, but nothing too crazy, and there is instant retry so you can focus all your mind into the great levels. Perhaps it's the only downside of this hack, it's all level design but nothing outside of it: no pretty graphics, story, etc. But in the end, gameplay is the most important part in platformers video games. This hack is not an adventure, but it is a wild ride.

It's not over until the level is over.

9 levels that are a blast to play through. Excellent ideas and perfectly designed levels. The only downside is it's too short, I want more of it!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Amazing, must play

Last one is.

Finished in 2h10

 

Sort of a sequel to stick mices into my head and hit me with an hammer and let them out. But only from two people. It use a bunch of resources from smwcentral into a hack. The hack has a different aesthetic from usual, but it's coherent. The game start relatively standard. With few custom elements, and the more you progress the more custom sprites there are. The difficulty picks up from the start, and get mostly constant the whole hack, so it feels hard at the start and when you get used to it the late game feels better, feels easier than the start.

Why would you change the megaspike hitbox!!!

The level use various resources, and use them well. Some custom sprite were used in a surprising and interesting ways. The later levels had really good ideas. But the starting levels aren't as well-though in my opinion. Honestly after the first world I though of rating this hack 6, but after the late games levels it's closer to 8. The levels quality are uneven, but the late game levels are really well done and fun to play. The level design is great set-up based, and had that JUMPy feel, sometimes relying too much on JUMP tropes like screen scrolling pipes and sprite only blocks. 

Interesting use of this sprite.

Some things irk me though. There's an overworld counter for Yoshi coins, but status bar has been removed. You can't see ingame how many Yoshi Coins you got in the level. And actually, after collecting all DC in a level, the icon doesn't change? So it's completely useless. In fact even the level beaten counter doesn't work. That's an example of this hack, the levels are well done, but there's some things here and there that lack polish, that aren't implemented well. Other thing is with no status bar, there's no item box but you still get small when getting hit no matter your status. It's not a SMB3 powedown, and that's very annoying to only have two hits max. Plus no status bar equals no lives, yet the game have many coins like standard hacks and even some rewards 1up that doesn't serve a purpose here. Also no proper end game, the quirky messages/level names gets annoying after a while too.

Very original. But very frustrating to play!

A great hack but it lack polish in some areas. The level are creative and very well done, but the quality isn't consistent, the second part of the game being way better than the start.

⭐⭐⭐

Good

Time to go to sleep.