Overall 8.7 Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 5 Depth 8 Difficulty 8
7
It's something, alright. thudricdholee
If you've read my reviews before, you might notice that I'm a bit addicted to Super Mario game hacks. It's true! I can't help it-Super Mario was my first video game love and no matter how old I get, I still love the little plumber. Even if some of his games have been....less than stellar. (Not naming any names.) So the fact that there were so many different hacks of my old favorite games on Vizzed was one of the biggest draws for me to this game site.
This is another hack of Super Mario World. I think that's the most-hacked Mario game on here-I could be wrong, but it seems like it. And I've played many, many different varieties of these games. Some have been terrible, a few have been great. And some, like this game, are just...ok. Pretty good. Not bad. Eh. I think you get the idea.
If you're looking for a fantastic hack of Super Mario World, I'd suggest another version-maybe The Second Reality Project. If you're looking for something fun to play that feels like the original game but different, this isn't a bad game to pick up.
There's nothing about it that really is really good or really bad. It doesn't do a lot to change the basic game. No snazzy new enemies, no awesome new ideas. Just solid Super Mario game action with a slightly different package.
On to the numbers!
Graphics: 8Pretty standard stuff for the most part. Some graphic hacks of enemies (the flying sperm-goomba ghosts were hilarious, sorry.) Some background changes, mostly color-swaps and some texture changes. Pretty effective overall-there wasn't anywhere that made my eyes bleed or messed with my head too much, which was nice. I can't tell if some of the monsters were actual graphic-changes or just imports from other games, but if they were imports they were at least blended very well.
Sound: 8Once again, pretty basic. I gave it a slightly higher than normal score because I thought the choices were really effective in a couple of place. Didn't hear anything new as far as I know.
Addictiveness: 6Addictive if you liked the original. The difficulty level (see below) was a bit too high to be really additive; I had to rage-quit a few more times than I like. I kept coming back, so I guess it didn't do too bad a job hooking me. Or I'm just a sucker. Could be that, I suppose.
Story: 5Uh. I know that Super Mario Brothers doesn't have much of a story to begin with-save the princess. Repeat ad-naseum. This game takes that to a whole new level by...not having a story? They tell you right off the bat that 'someone stole the scenario.' and then you just right into it. Play through and it makes sense, but it starts you off going 'Uh, ok..."
Depth: 8I'm going a bit higher than normal on a Super Mario World hack for depth because there are so...many....freakin...red....worlds. Seriously, there's one place where almost every world has a second exit. And they're not easy to find, either. No walk-in-the-park Ooh lookie, there's the key' secret exits. Sometimes you end up backtracking over the whole level like three times carrying different pow-blocks and you get so confused. I started skipping some of them just because I wanted to keep going, and I never do that.
Difficulty: 8I would rate the original Super Mario Brothers about a 5 for difficulty (not counting the star-road secret areas, which were insane.) This game is much harder. There are stupid jumps, enemies everywhere, crazy convoluted pathways, annoying 'time the jump just right to hit the turtle' jumps, seemingly impossible-to-not-get-hit flying bomb areas, ghost-block-ladder-fun times...long story short, it's hard. Not quite 'rage-quit-forever' hard but there were a few times I put the controller down and said "Ok, yeah, I quit." I also made copious use of the save-state, something I try not to do in games I'm playing to review. (I think it's cheating. It's cheating. Don't try to argue with me about it.) I had to, so I could get through some of the more frustrating areas.
Overall: 7So, yeah, overall I'm going to go with a 7. Not great, not bad. Worth playing if you can be persistent and deal with some frustrating deaths. And if you love searching for hidden clues, this is really a good one for you. I already know some people will argue with me about the difficulty, but I'm an average-skill player, not one of the really good ones, so I review 'em like I see 'em.
Give it a try and tell me what you think.
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 5 Depth 8 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 01-03-15
Review Replies: 1
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