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

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.

Review: Rockman 2 β

 

β is Beta

 My boss order: Flash, Metal, Wood, Bubble, Quick, Clash, Heat, Air

Vanilla?

When booting the game, you have the vanilla intro. Then the title screen very slightly modified, and the classic stage select. Then you select a stage, and notice the layout is different, but until now, no new palette and no custom music. That's right, this is a "vanilla" Rockman 2 romhack. But is it really?

The further you play, you will notice that it is not. Despite the palettes and music untouched, the boss them are changed to be harder, and have different weakness. Some enemies are also slightly changed, and there are some rare new graphics. These changes are a bit off-putting, the game try to feels vanilla while it is not.

 

Oh boy

Even if vanilla, aesthetic should be rated, on how the vanilla graphics are used. And I have to say it is rather lackluster. The original RM2 has some great graphics, but here there's isn't as much. While some looks good, like bubble man and the waterfall section, some level have very simple, if not no background at all, just a blank black BG like Woodman stage. It is a bit disappointing.

 

This is sort of a maze level.

Being mostly vanilla, the main focus of this game should be the level design. Unfortunately, it is not the best. It is hard for sure, but also infuriating. I recognize the game try to do new things and use new elements, or mix new elements not commonly see together. However it also overuse some enemies.

And some times when elements are mixed or used in new ways, it isn't for the best, and feels really bad to play. I can't really explain why, but I had a sour feeling in some of the levels.

Take for example the screenshot of Metal Man stage above. Normally the screws are in a corridor section. Here the game change it to put them in more open space But it feels really bad to have precision platforming with these. It is hard, and annoying to have one tile jump on conveyor, especially on top of the screen where the screws can spawn directly into you.

 

You don't often see "bloopers" and "pokeys" together

The game changed some things but not for the best. It seems the game fixed the "pause trick" of resetting your momentum when pausing in the air. Sure, it was more like a bug, you can fix it so people don't abuse it. But it felt good to abuse it, to have a safety net for awkward jumps. Now there's not any at all. Also this game has many, many one tile jump. Too much precision platforming, and the item 1 and 2 to help you in those section are behind the two hardest levels (well Heatman's level is not hard, but the boss is, and it's weakness is not Bubble and it may be Airman so fuck it).

 

One of the few new graphics is THAT! WTF

One of the reason why I felt bad playing it is the lack of polish. I encountered multiple times platform that don't act like they should. See below some example. While maybe Metal Man ones can be understand as a way to get down it's still a dick move that made me die on my last life. And in Quick Man stage the collision doesn't match the platform, while the shadow under do. Minor anomalies, but still should've been fixed before release.

 

Test your game

 

One other reason is the teasing. By that I means every level have a secret hidden (E-tank or live) in plain sight but you can't collect unless you have the required item (mostly item 1) or have a weapon to destroy the barrier (I learned too late that metal blade CAN destroy barriers here).. It's annoying to see so many paths and E-tank you can't get especially since the boss are hard and they can greatly help if you don't have their weakness.

Blind jump. Went the wrong side? YOU DIE LOL

As of now, I've played 6 levels in 3h30. I'll quit for tonight, but I don't know if I will continue. Yes I'm the sort of guy who can give up on games after playing for a while if I notice I don't have fun. Because there's so many great games to play, I don't feel bad giving up a bad game. But games I don't have fun aren't necessarily a bad game, sometimes it just doesn't fit my tastes. It's my own feeling. Having said that...

Temporary rating:

⭐

Poor 

Edit: Picked up the game again for one hour. Heatman stage isn't too bad, and I've found how to exploit it's pattern and it's weakness to quick boomerang. Finally with item 1 I can get past Airman's first part (btw item 1 move downward now, while item 2 move immediately without waiting for you). The second part isn't too bad despite using wind. And Airman is weak to Heatman. So finally done with the 8 robot masters, Wily's fortress stage 1 is slippery but other than that it's okay, Mecha dragon is as annoying as ever. But Wily stage 2 is annoying, it's one of this stage where it expect to correctly use your items to progress, but in a annoying way. I'm stuck on one part where I keep dying. Will try again later maybe...