Super Mario 64 Beta Remake by Dudaw12 (beta 1) Review by: Pacman+Mariofan - 8/10
Very interesting!Hello! Here is my review of what I think is a very interesting hack of Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64. This beta hack of Super Mario 64 features changed music, sound effects, level, object, and warp placement changes, and even some changed behavior which I will talk about right now.
In a few courses, the red coins behave differently. In the original Super Mario 64, the red coins displayed a number at the same time as a cool sound effect. In this beta hack, a couple of the courses have changed behavior in the red coins. Instead of the red coins displaying a number and making that sound effect, the red coins don't show a number and the sound effect used for them changed to sound similar to the yellow-coin-collecting sound effect. Because of the red coins behaving that way in a couple levels, a star won't appear when you collect all 8 red coins. There aren't any other major changes in behavior. The rest have to do with the sound, so I will wait until the sound category to talk about other behavior changes.
Now I will start reviewing each category.
Graphics: 8
Most of the graphics remain exactly the same. The only graphics in this beta hack that aren't from the original Super Mario 64 are the red coins in Wet-Dry World. They were re-textured to look like Yoshi eggs! The behavior of the Yoshi Eggs are the same as the original red coin behavior from Super Mario 64, unlike most of the other courses that you can play in this beta hack.
Sound: 8
All of the music is re-used from the original Super Mario 64 but the music placement was changed in a couple levels. For example, Wet-Dry World doesn't play the same theme anymore. It used to play the "cave theme" that you first hear when going into Hazy Maze Cave in the original Super Mario 64 but now it plays the theme you first hear on the "PRESS START" screen with the giant Mario head.
Some of the sound effects were changed or removed. For example, on the "PRESS START" screen with the giant Mario head, Mario usually said "Hello!" but now he says "Yahoo!" It sounds more like the Super Mario 64 DS sound effect when Mario says it on the "PRESS START" screen though. Also, Mario saying, "It's-a me, Mario!" on the title screen got removed.
Other changes in Mario's voice behavior are there in this game too. I could go on and on for the other sound effects but I'm sure you get the idea now. Let's move on to addictiveness!
Addictiveness: 6
If you've played and beaten the original Super Mario 64, you'll notice that lots of courses and stars got changed or removed. It really depends on who you are whether this game is addicting or not, but if you've played the original Super Mario 64, this beta shouldn't be very addicting. It wasn't for me. I found the Yoshi Egg hunt in Wet-Dry World to be addicting at first because it was challenging and fun for me but I got bored of it after a while. Nothing else was very addicting for me in this game. Once again, it depends on who you are whether this beta hack is addicting or not.
Story: 5
It's the same old story as always: Bowser kidnapped Princess Peach and Mario has to go on a quest to save her. You don't get to save Princess Peach in this beta hack, though. Like I said before, most of the courses are missing. Only the first Bowser course was included in this beta hack :(
Depth: 6
Like I said before, there's not much to do in this game because most of the courses are missing. You can't actually beat this game because of that. You can battle Bowser once and get the key, but that won't do you any good. You could count that as beating the game if you want to, though.
Difficulty: 7
All of the courses included in this beta hack were changed to be a little easier or a little more difficult. Tall Tall Mountain was changed the most because this beta hack only includes the slide part of the level with a star at the end of the slide. I didn't rate the difficulty too high because most of the changed stars are somewhat easy, like a couple stars in Lethal Lava Land.
Overall: 8
This game may have a few flaws, like the camera glitching at the top of Whomp's Fortress and most of the courses not being included,but overall it's a pretty decent hack of Super Mario 64. If you like Super Mario 64, you should try it. I like to think of this hack as a little bonus challenge quest of Super Mario 64. I hope you liked this review! I would highly appreciate some feedback!
Graphics
8 Sound
8 Addictive
6 Depth
6 Story
5 Difficulty
7