Mario after a long rest. returned to the mushroom kingdom. and mario see toad. he said that the princess was again stolen by the bowser. Mario already wanted to say "fuck you. toad") but he added, he will no longer save the princess. "Mario thought, and decided." Well, I'll save the princess. "And went on the road! (yea. i have bad english. i just translated from google translate.)
1.0
I WORK on version 2.0. what will be in 2.0?
-Walls of Banzai Bills? how about LAVA WALL?
-No dragon coins.
-Updated music.
-decoration.
-Some changes for TOAD SHOP!
-Remember Shy guys? well. i change in goomba.
-Other boss in 1-3
-trampoline jumps In 1-4! and in 1-1
-Fix bag with 1-up life in 1-3
-credit to creator CGFX (not all.)
-Some change on Game over and intro!
-Other background
-Inside castle!
(how ready version 2.0?)
IT'S ALREADY! - https://wohlsoft.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2884
(Logo 2.0)
(Made in Paint.net)
welp. see ya.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Last edited by marismb on Tue May 07, 2019 4:00 pm, edited 33 times in total.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOkey...
I'm finally done with this. And now I shall do a review on it. uuuuuuh... So, I should make it as constructive as possible? Will try.
First of all, as MoT only has 4 levels (seriously, just 4? I know it's your first episode or so, but I'd still make more levels, at least 10), I'll review each level individually on its own, step by step, pixel by pixel, showing its pros and cons. If you don't want to read that all (boy, is it long!), I hid them in a spoiler to save space and gave a summary at the end.
Okey, (Pic 1) first look at the level...
My eyes! So. Many. Birds.
Listen, birds and other things like that are meant to be a gentle and subtle decoration to what you are looking at, to make world feel a little bit more alive. But here the entire screen is filled with them. It doesn't look right.
Back to levels design. The first thing I did was trying to collect that Dragon Coin you put there. And I must say, it's a tough and irritating one. Not only it is put in small water pool, there are also two Cheep Cheeps and a firebar over it. Meh, no problem at all. After that this part with Koopa Paratroopas, which lets you get 1-UP, if you manage to land on Galoomba before he jumps off a cliff.
But then, a nightmare begins. At first, it looks innocent. Just a Hammer Bro. Easy. Next, a checkpoint and a trampoline. Not a problem. Problem is when you try to get that next Dragon Coin. There’s a Paratroopa and not enough space to jump over him. The only way is to go around and grab it. Then you fell down between Red Koopas. And then, a moving platform. With jumping Piranha beneath it. Not only that, if you don’t manage to land on platform on time, you’re gonna wait a while before next one comes. Ouch. And so, I died here. And now funny part. You remember that checkpoint, right? Well, it was put right on the side of the platform. Most of players start to hold Right button (and some also Run one) before level gets loaded. So do I. Guess, what happened. Ok, +1 to death counter. But wait, there’s more! You remember that Hammer Bro? Guess what happened. He sniped me as soon as game loaded checkpoint. Eh… After few tries I got further, past the Piranha Plant. There was this little 4 blocks wide platform with ? Blocks over it. Because I was small (restarted game from checkpoint) they cointainted Mushroooms. Guess what happened to them. Fell off a cliff. Okey, the show must go on. Another moving platform, a line of Galoombas, Goombas, three Bullet Bill launchers and then Shy Guys (Pic 4 and 5). And here I will describe problem, which I don’t know if it has been caused by you or it’s game fault (I’m guessing the second option). Shy Guys have weird hitboxes and often lost a power-up or life on them. When I managed to land on them, they were unpickable. Further, there’s a Sniffit with same problem as Shy Guys and checkpoint. Next, Koopa. And then the worst part of the levels. A tiny moving platform and multiple Thwomps over your head. Guess what happened. Death. Ok, back to checkpoint and about to sprint back to them. Or maybe no. Sniffit is put right after the checkpoint. Death. Again, checkpoint, this time I jump discovering a hidden block with what is meant to be Fire Flower. Meant to, but because of the fact of being small, it gave me Mushroom. At the same moment, nice and asshole move, as I wanted to get second Fire Flower (I had one in Select box). Back to Thwomps (Pic 3 and 6). As of now, I don’t know any way to get past them. After an hour I gave up and used Editor to delete them. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t finish creator’s version of Episode. I’m sorry. Finally finished that section, and went ahead. I didn’t like that part with Podoboos and Red Koopas, and next Dragon Coin (Pic 7), but after that came sweet release. Off to level 1-2. But before that...
I don't even know what to say about it. There are only two items, which prices are in hundreds (or 1-UPs for short) and option to sell (you have nothing to sell). This shop is unnecessary. You could give a free item or a mini-game, like in real Mario games.
Loaded the level and it welcomes me with same issue as 1-1 did - too many decorations (Pic 1) Let’s skip that. There’s this Big Whomp which has a big problem, propably caused by 38A devs, but I need to talk about it. You see, in NSBM Whomps’ hitboxes crushes us only if they’re almost lying on the ground. In 38A, they start to have this killing hitbox right from the beginning of their fall, which makes it almost impossible to jump over. And they fall really fast. I lost multiple lifes trying to get Mushroom which escaped in their directions. Luckily, you put here this ? Block which eases that allowing you to jump over Whomp or safely land on him. Next, there are three lines of moving platform for which you must again wait a while and my favourite part of the whole episode - trampoline jumps (Pic 2). I love this idea and I’m sad it wasn’t expanded further more. There’s a problem at its end of it. There’s a platform you have to land on at the end and lava next to it. I guess it’s again 38A’s fault, as lava’s hitbox kills you one block further than it should. Next section has three more trampoline jumps and then you land on a platform (Pic 3). In my opinion there should be a checkpoint due to a problem a bit further. There are three rows of moving (this time downwards) platforms (Pic 4), and each time I approached them, they were in different layout. I had to do it multiple times and I would be much happier if there was a checkpoint before it as I finally got bored of trampolines as their section is long and slow. Oh, also a tip for future players. I finally get through those platform when I got the high ground. In 38A you can wall jump and I learned about it way too late. It would have been so much easier if I knew. After that you get a checkpoint and a choice of going in two directions. Well, not really. The upper way is a troll. It closes a path behind you and you get hit with horizontal Thwomp (do they have their own name?) (Pic 5). It’s a dick move, marismb, but luckily you gave a checkpoint here. After dropping Mushroom from my Select box and choosing the bottom path, I found another problem. A space between two platforms is exactly 2 block high and it’s uncomfortable to enter ot with Super Mario (Pic 6). Then player will most probably get a power-up from ? Block and land on Flying Shy Guys’ head to go ahead, just to get reminded that they have weird hitboxes and lose freshly obtained power-up. Ouch. Further, there’s Chain Chomp, and section where you’re probably gonna lose another power-up - a little platform with moving up and down spikes between two pools of lava with Podoboos. But the biggest problem comes next. For no reason, when you’re on this flat surface (Pic 8), TWO WALLS of Banzai Bills spawn. Let me explain all problem with that.
ONE, you are supposed to escape from them, but you aren’t prepared for that and die.
TWO, they are most probably gonna spawn right on you, so you die.
THREE, across this path there are barely visible spikes you must jump over, but you don’t see them, so you die.
FOUR, there’s this path choice, if you take bottom one, there are spikes, so you die (Pic 9).
FIVE, in upper path there’s Whomp and if you’re Super Mario, you’ll lose power-up, it will slow you down, Banzai Bills will approach, so you die.
SIX, if to try to jump over it, you die.
SEVEN, there are Thwomps over your head, so you die.
EIGHT, game trying to load that Banzai Bills, freezes for few seconds and often skips those priceless fractions of seconds, so you die.
NINE, game trying to load that section, can crash leading to Runtime Error, so you die.
Guess what I finally did. That’s right, I used editor to delete Banzai Bills and left Thwomps as they don’t do much after that. Then came a sweet release of flagpole.
Hey, we’re halfway through! Not bad. Levels begins with nice-looking view of dark rainy day (Pic 1) There wasn’t much problem with it, but I found out that water pools you see here have 1 block of height and you can’t do anything when you fall in them. You just hover with no option to move or jump out of it. A softlock. Further, there was this platform with Red Koopas (Pic 3) and spikes between them, which are again barely visible. Then I had biggest case to crack (Pic 4). It seems like there is nowhere to go when you land on this platform next to big stack of blocks. I tried multiple things, going on that “platform” which seemed to be there on the right, jumping into water, until I accidentally found out that you can climb a tree. Wow, who would have thought? After that I had same problem where to go, but quickly found out that there is a portal to next section in water. About that portal, I’d personally put it one or two blocks deeper so it looks like Mario really falls into water. In section 2 there’s this path downwards (Pic 5). One time a 1-UP fell down here and I don’t know what triggered it. Next you get a path split and a choice to face Thwomps or Grinders first (Pic 6 and 7). I chose second option as vertical Thwomps which are second obstacle in the left path are way too quick. Paths connect again, and you again get a “choice”. “Choice” in quotation marks, because it’s another troll choice. Right path closes once you enter and only thing for you to do is to hug those spikes (Pic 8). Then came this section with spikes and Bullet Bills (Pic 9). With Super Mario it’s doable, but really difficult as in order to fit under spikes, you have to walk and walking is slow and Bullet Bill will get you. So it’s much easier to get through with small Mario. We leave water section and are welcomed with checkpoint and… ohhhhh God… pipe spawning Poison Mushrooms like crazy (Pic 10). It’s really difficult to get past them. Next, Piranha Plants, and Noteblock jumps over spikes, water and Chain Chomp (Pic 11). Back to water. This section has no problems, but in few places there are way to many Cheep Cheeps. At the end of this section there were those Grinders which at first I thought were almost impossible, but you just got to wait some time before you have a lot of space to go through (Pic 12). Fifth section is a boss fight (Pic 13). Guess how it ended. After 5 minutes, I was so exhausted of retrying that level and of episode in whole that I used editor. And not one time. First I gave myself a checkpoint in boss section. Then added few ? blocks with Hammer Suits. Then changed them to Hammer Suit generator which didn’t work as I wanted, so in the end I swapped Koopaling with two simple Hammer Bros. giving them the same Death event and finally finished the level.
The first look at the level (Pic 1) and it’s good. I don’t like the fact there’s no obvious space with hidden power-up (seriously, a power-up is hidden in pre-hit block, what kind of idea is that?). I don’t like that Thwopms, but they’re easy to get past. In level there are two “walls” of Boos, which is a nice idea (sadly I didn’t take any pic of that, as I was super tired, and now I don’t remember exactly where they were). It makes you turn around and wait for Boos to gather in one place, so you can jump over them. Some time after beginning of the level there is this part with P-Switch and coins. In my opinion there is not enough time to finish this challenge, but still doable. If was so tired, that I gave up after few tries and added few normal platforms there - not too many, in good places, so there is still a challenge. At some point in level we get to the checkpoint and after that is a thing I really don’t like - a jump of faith (Pic 2). Wasn’t bad, did on first try, but this kind of jumps can be annoying. But later… LATER!!!... You all remember than Banzai Bill problem from 1-2? Marismb did that again (Pic 3-5). Look my list of bad things in it and cross out points FOUR to SIX and instead write in:
FOUR, there are way too many spikes, so you die.
FIVE, there’s this fire, you will probably think hurts Mario, so you do everything not to die from it, so you die from Banzai bills.
SIX, “decorations” are EVERYWHERE, including those fire flames, you thought they kill you, so you slow down, but it ends up you didn’t slow down early enough, so you touch those flames, so you think you die, but you learn, that you don’t, but you slowed down, so Banzai Bills catch up, so you die.
At this point I’m sure marismb just randomly move around the mouse pasting BGOs everywhere. It’s really visible. I was furious, so I opened editor and deleted BOTH Banzai Bills and Thwomps. I had enough of that bullshit. Okey, we get to that door, we open them and… Sweet Jesus! You can’t see a thing because of all this air blown by Foo (Pic 6 and 7). I know it’s the first thing you should do - kill him - but it’s hard to get him when you don’t see where you are and whether you’re running into exploding bomb. I deleted him, so I don’t have to worry about him anymore. The fight with Bowser itself is really well-thought and fun. Catching and throwing bombs at Bowser isn’t stressful and you can even chill out a bit. After you beat him, you get a pipe to next section with his second face (though I realised in editor that only pipe shows up, an entrance is there all the time, so if you know where it is, you can just skip Bowser’s first face). Second face is awful (Pic 8). Bowow spits fire literally everywhere, it is unavoidable and bomb often blows up because of his fire or as soon as you approach it. I was exhausted so I changed him into Hammer Bros. and finished the game. Finally. After 5 hours of straight-forward playing and editing the episode (with small break for Smash Direct [OMG, Luigi is dead! D-E-D! DED!]) I finally saved the Peach (Pic 9). Phew!
In this section I’ll say a few words about non-level things.
World Map looks neat. The only problem I see with it, is fact that you don’t need to go this swirly path to castle (Pic 1). These are two unnecessary tiles, as you can walk in straight line to the right. Remember - if there are to walkable tiles next to each other, you can walk between them.
I also really like the Game Over screen (Pic 2). It’s sad looking at Peach being enslaved. Yikes. The only thing you could correct is to add few more black foreground tile, as you can jump in very beginning and Mario will show up destroying that feeling you had.
I also need to point out that you included a lot of CGFX. These are nice ones, but you didn’t gave any credit to its creator. It’s bad thing to do, you should show them more respect.
OK, then, a summary.
Difficulty: Oookeyyy, where’s my noose?/10
Level Design: 5/10
Aesthetics: 3 Birds/10
The Best Level: 1-3
Final Score: 4/10
Finally, I want you to get better and better in level designing. I recommend you to get familiar with Kishotenketsu method used by Nintendo staff in creating Mario and Donkey Kong levels. I think I’ll write something about it or ask someone to do that in Sandbox section sometime later. This should be here.
Anyways, I hope I wasn’t too crude and you won’t give up on learning how to create awesome episodes.
Cheers!
EDIT: Corrected lists and spelling errors.
Last edited by goSciu on Thu Aug 09, 2018 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOkey...
I'm finally done with this. And now I shall do a review on it. uuuuuuh... So, I should make it as constructive as possible? Will try.
First of all, as MoT only has 4 levels (seriously, just 4? I know it's your first episode or so, but I'd still make more levels, at least 10), I'll review each level individually on its own, step by step, pixel by pixel, showing its pros and cons. If you don't want to read that all (boy, is it long!), I hid them in a spoiler to save space and gave a summary at the end.
Okey, (Pic 1) first look at the level...
My eyes! So. Many. Birds.
Listen, birds and other things like that are meant to be a gentle and subtle decoration to what you are looking at, to make world feel a little bit more alive. But here the entire screen is filled with them. It doesn't look right.
Back to levels design. The first thing I did was trying to collect that Dragon Coin you put there. And I must say, it's a tough and irritating one. Not only it is put in small water pool, there are also two Cheep Cheeps and a firebar over it. Meh, no problem at all. After that this part with Koopa Paratroopas, which lets you get 1-UP, if you manage to land on Galoomba before he jumps off a cliff.
But then, a nightmare begins. At first, it looks innocent. Just a Hammer Bro. Easy. Next, a checkpoint and a trampoline. Not a problem. Problem is when you try to get that next Dragon Coin. There’s a Paratroopa and not enough space to jump over him. The only way is to go around and grab it. Then you fell down between Red Koopas. And then, a moving platform. With jumping Piranha beneath it. Not only that, if you don’t manage to land on platform on time, you’re gonna wait a while before next one comes. Ouch. And so, I died here. And now funny part. You remember that checkpoint, right? Well, it was put right on the side of the platform. Most of players start to hold Right button (and some also Run one) before level gets loaded. So do I. Guess, what happened. Ok, +1 to death counter. But wait, there’s more! You remember that Hammer Bro? Guess what happened. He sniped me as soon as game loaded checkpoint. Eh… After few tries I got further, past the Piranha Plant. There was this little 4 blocks wide platform with ? Blocks over it. Because I was small (restarted game from checkpoint) they cointainted Mushroooms. Guess what happened to them. Fell off a cliff. Okey, the show must go on. Another moving platform, a line of Galoombas, Goombas, three Bullet Bill launchers and then Shy Guys (Pic 4 and 5). And here I will describe problem, which I don’t know if it has been caused by you or it’s game fault (I’m guessing the second option). Shy Guys have weird hitboxes and often lost a power-up or life on them. When I managed to land on them, they were unpickable. Further, there’s a Sniffit with same problem as Shy Guys and checkpoint. Next, Koopa. And then the worst part of the levels. A tiny moving platform and multiple Thwomps over your head. Guess what happened. Death. Ok, back to checkpoint and about to sprint back to them. Or maybe no. Sniffit is put right after the checkpoint. Death. Again, checkpoint, this time I jump discovering a hidden block with what is meant to be Fire Flower. Meant to, but because of the fact of being small, it gave me Mushroom. At the same moment, nice and asshole move, as I wanted to get second Fire Flower (I had one in Select box). Back to Thwomps (Pic 3 and 6). As of now, I don’t know any way to get past them. After an hour I gave up and used Editor to delete them. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t finish creator’s version of Episode. I’m sorry. Finally finished that section, and went ahead. I didn’t like that part with Podoboos and Red Koopas, and next Dragon Coin (Pic 7), but after that came sweet release. Off to level 1-2. But before that...
I don't even know what to say about it. There are only two items, which prices are in hundreds (or 1-UPs for short) and option to sell (you have nothing to sell). This shop is unnecessary. You could give a free item or a mini-game, like in real Mario games.
Loaded the level and it welcomes me with same issue as 1-1 did - too many decorations (Pic 1) Let’s skip that. There’s this Big Whomp which has a big problem, propably caused by 38A devs, but I need to talk about it. You see, in NSBM Whomps’ hitboxes crushes us only if they’re almost lying on the ground. In 38A, they start to have this killing hitbox right from the beginning of their fall, which makes it almost impossible to jump over. And they fall really fast. I lost multiple lifes trying to get Mushroom which escaped in their directions. Luckily, you put here this ? Block which eases that allowing you to jump over Whomp or safely land on him. Next, there are three lines of moving platform for which you must again wait a while and my favourite part of the whole episode - trampoline jumps (Pic 2). I love this idea and I’m sad it wasn’t expanded further more. There’s a problem at its end of it. There’s a platform you have to land on at the end and lava next to it. I guess it’s again 38A’s fault, as lava’s hitbox kills you one block further than it should. Next section has three more trampoline jumps and then you land on a platform (Pic 3). In my opinion there should be a checkpoint due to a problem a bit further. There are three rows of moving (this time downwards) platforms (Pic 4), and each time I approached them, they were in different layout. I had to do it multiple times and I would be much happier if there was a checkpoint before it as I finally got bored of trampolines as their section is long and slow. Oh, also a tip for future players. I finally get through those platform when I got the high ground. In 38A you can wall jump and I learned about it way too late. It would have been so much easier if I knew. After that you get a checkpoint and a choice of going in two directions. Well, not really. The upper way is a troll. It closes a path behind you and you get hit with horizontal Thwomp (do they have their own name?) (Pic 5). It’s a dick move, marismb, but luckily you gave a checkpoint here. After dropping Mushroom from my Select box and choosing the bottom path, I found another problem. A space between two platforms is exactly 2 block high and it’s uncomfortable to enter ot with Super Mario (Pic 6). Then player will most probably get a power-up from ? Block and land on Flying Shy Guys’ head to go ahead, just to get reminded that they have weird hitboxes and lose freshly obtained power-up. Ouch. Further, there’s Chain Chomp, and section where you’re probably gonna lose another power-up - a little platform with moving up and down spikes between two pools of lava with Podoboos. But the biggest problem comes next. For no reason, when you’re on this flat surface (Pic 8), TWO WALLS of Banzai Bills spawn. Let me explain all problem with that.
[*]ONE, you are supposed to escape from them, but you aren’t prepared for that and die.
[*]TWO, they are most probably gonna spawn right on you, so you die.
[*]THREE, across this path there are barely visible spikes you must jump over, but you don’t see them, so you die.
[*]FOUR, there’s this path choice, if you take bottom one, there are spikes, so you die (Pic 9).
[*]FIVE, in upper path there’s Whomp and if you’re Super Mario, you’ll lose power-up, it will slow you down, Banzai Bills will approach, so you die.
[*]SIX, if to try to jump over it, you die.
[*]SEVEN, there are Thwomps over your head, so you die.
[*]EIGHT, game trying to load that Banzai Bills, freezes for few seconds and often skips those priceless fractions of seconds, so you die.
[*]NINE, game trying to load that section, can crash leading to Runtime Error, so you die.
Guess what I finally did. That’s right, I used editor to delete Banzai Bills and left Thwomps as they don’t do much after that. Then came a sweet release of flagpole.
Hey, we’re halfway through! Not bad. Levels begins with nice-looking view of dark rainy day (Pic 1) There wasn’t much problem with it, but I found out that water pools you see here have 1 block of height and you can’t do anything when you fall in them. You just hover with no option to move or jump out of it. A softlock. Further, there was this platform with Red Koopas (Pic 3) and spikes between them, which are again barely visible. Then I had biggest case to crack (Pic 4). It seems like there is nowhere to go when you land on this platform next to big stack of blocks. I tried multiple things, going on that “platform” which seemed to be there on the right, jumping into water, until I accidentally found out that you can climb a tree. Wow, who would have thought? After that I had same problem where to go, but quickly found out that there is a portal to next section in water. About that portal, I’d personally put it one or two blocks deeper so it looks like Mario really falls into water. In section 2 there’s this path downwards (Pic 5). One time a 1-UP fell down here and I don’t know what triggered it. Next you get a path split and a choice to face Thwomps or Grinders first (Pic 6 and 7). I chose second option as vertical Thwomps which are second obstacle in the left path are way too quick. Paths connect again, and you again get a “choice”. “Choice” in quotation marks, because it’s another troll choice. Right path closes once you enter and only thing for you to do is to hug those spikes (Pic 8). Then came this section with spikes and Bullet Bills (Pic 9). With Super Mario it’s doable, but really difficult as in order to fit under spikes, you have to walk and walking is slow and Bullet Bill will get you. So it’s much easier to get through with small Mario. We leave water section and are welcomed with checkpoint and… ohhhhh God… pipe spawning Poison Mushrooms like crazy (Pic 10). It’s really difficult to get past them. Next, Piranha Plants, and Noteblock jumps over spikes, water and Chain Chomp (Pic 11). Back to water. This section has no problems, but in few places there are way to many Cheep Cheeps. At the end of this section there were those Grinders which at first I thought were almost impossible, but you just got to wait some time before you have a lot of space to go through (Pic 12). Fifth section is a boss fight (Pic 13). Guess how it ended. After 5 minutes, I was so exhausted of retrying that level and of episode in whole that I used editor. And not one time. First I gave myself a checkpoint in boss section. Then added few ? blocks with Hammer Suits. Then changed them to Hammer Suit generator which didn’t work as I wanted, so in the end I swapped Koopaling with two simple Hammer Bros. giving them the same Death event and finally finished the level.
The first look at the level (Pic 1) and it’s good. I don’t like the fact there’s no obvious space with hidden power-up (seriously, a power-up is hidden in pre-hit block, what kind of idea is that?). I don’t like that Thwopms, but they’re easy to get past. In level there are two “walls” of Boos, which is a nice idea (sadly I didn’t take any pic of that, as I was super tired, and now I don’t remember exactly where they were). It makes you turn around and wait for Boos to gather in one place, so you can jump over them. Some time after beginning of the level there is this part with P-Switch and coins. In my opinion there is not enough time to finish this challenge, but still doable. If was so tired, that I gave up after few tries and added few normal platforms there - not too many, in good places, so there is still a challenge. At some point in level we get to the checkpoint and after that is a thing I really don’t like - a jump of faith (Pic 2). Wasn’t bad, did on first try, but this kind of jumps can be annoying. But later… LATER!!!... You all remember than Banzai Bill problem from 1-2? Marismb did that again (Pic 3-5). Look my list of bad things in it and cross out points FOUR to SIX and instead write in:
[*]FOUR, there are way too many spikes, so you die.
[*]FIVE, there’s this fire, you will probably think hurts Mario, so you do everything not to die from it, so you die from Banzai bills.
[*]SIX, “decorations” are EVERYWHERE, including those fire flames, you thought they kill you, so you slow down, but it ends up you didn’t slow down early enough, so you touch those flames, so you think you die, but you learn, that you don’t, but you slowed down, so Banzai Bills catch up, so you die.
At this point I’m sure marismb just randomly move around the mouse pasting BGOs everywhere. It’s really visible. I was furious, so I opened editor and deleted BOTH Banzai Bills and Thwomps. I had enough of that bullshit. Okey, we get to that door, we open them and… Sweet Jesus! You can’t see a thing because of all this air blown by Foo (Pic 6 and 7). I know it’s the first thing you should do - kill him - but it’s hard to get him when you don’t see where you are and whether you’re running into exploding bomb. I deleted him, so I don’t have to worry about him anymore. The fight with Bowser itself is really well-thought and fun. Catching and throwing bombs at Bowser isn’t stressful and you can even chill out a bit. After you beat him, you get a pipe to next section with his second face (though I realised in editor that only pipe shows up, an entrance is there all the time, so if you know where it is, you can just skip Bowser’s first face). Second face is awful (Pic 8). Bowow spits fire literally everywhere, it is unavoidable and bomb often blows up because of his fire or as soon as you approach it. I was exhausted so I changed him into Hammer Bros. and finished the game. Finally. After 5 hours of straight-forward playing and editing the episode (with small break for Smash Direct [OMG, Luigi is dead! D-E-D! DED!]) I finally saved the Peach (Pic 9). Phew!
In this section I’ll say a few words about non-level things.
World Map looks neat. The only problem I see with it, is fact that you don’t need to go this swirly path to castle (Pic 1). These are two unnecessary tiles, as you can walk in straight line to the right. Remember - if there are to walkable tiles next to each other, you can walk between them.
I also really like the Game Over screen (Pic 2). It’s sad looking at Peach being enslaved. Yikes. The only thing you could correct is to add few more black foreground tile, as you can jump in very beginning and Mario will show up destroying that feeling you had.
I also need to point out that you included a lot of CGFX. These are nice ones, but you didn’t gave any credit to its creator. It’s bad thing to do, you should show them more respect.
OK, then, a summary.
[*]Difficulty: Oookeyyy, where’s my noose?/10
[*]Level Design: 5/10
[*]Aesthetics: 3 Birds/10
[*]The Best Level: 1-3
[*]Final Score: 4/10
Finally, I want you to get better and better in level designing. I recommend you to get familiar with Kishotenketsu method used by Nintendo stuff in creating Mario and Donkey Kong levels. I think I’ll write something about it or ask someone to do that in Sandbox section sometime later. This should be here.
Anyways, I hope I wasn’t too crude and you won’t give up on learning how to create awesome episodes.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOkey...
I'm finally done with this. And now I shall do a review on it. uuuuuuh... So, I should make it as constructive as possible? Will try.
First of all, as MoT only has 4 levels (seriously, just 4? I know it's your first episode or so, but I'd still make more levels, at least 10), I'll review each level individually on its own, step by step, pixel by pixel, showing its pros and cons. If you don't want to read that all (boy, is it long!), I hid them in a spoiler to save space and gave a summary at the end.
Okey, (Pic 1) first look at the level...
My eyes! So. Many. Birds.
Listen, birds and other things like that are meant to be a gentle and subtle decoration to what you are looking at, to make world feel a little bit more alive. But here the entire screen is filled with them. It doesn't look right.
Back to levels design. The first thing I did was trying to collect that Dragon Coin you put there. And I must say, it's a tough and irritating one. Not only it is put in small water pool, there are also two Cheep Cheeps and a firebar over it. Meh, no problem at all. After that this part with Koopa Paratroopas, which lets you get 1-UP, if you manage to land on Galoomba before he jumps off a cliff.
But then, a nightmare begins. At first, it looks innocent. Just a Hammer Bro. Easy. Next, a checkpoint and a trampoline. Not a problem. Problem is when you try to get that next Dragon Coin. There’s a Paratroopa and not enough space to jump over him. The only way is to go around and grab it. Then you fell down between Red Koopas. And then, a moving platform. With jumping Piranha beneath it. Not only that, if you don’t manage to land on platform on time, you’re gonna wait a while before next one comes. Ouch. And so, I died here. And now funny part. You remember that checkpoint, right? Well, it was put right on the side of the platform. Most of players start to hold Right button (and some also Run one) before level gets loaded. So do I. Guess, what happened. Ok, +1 to death counter. But wait, there’s more! You remember that Hammer Bro? Guess what happened. He sniped me as soon as game loaded checkpoint. Eh… After few tries I got further, past the Piranha Plant. There was this little 4 blocks wide platform with ? Blocks over it. Because I was small (restarted game from checkpoint) they cointainted Mushroooms. Guess what happened to them. Fell off a cliff. Okey, the show must go on. Another moving platform, a line of Galoombas, Goombas, three Bullet Bill launchers and then Shy Guys (Pic 4 and 5). And here I will describe problem, which I don’t know if it has been caused by you or it’s game fault (I’m guessing the second option). Shy Guys have weird hitboxes and often lost a power-up or life on them. When I managed to land on them, they were unpickable. Further, there’s a Sniffit with same problem as Shy Guys and checkpoint. Next, Koopa. And then the worst part of the levels. A tiny moving platform and multiple Thwomps over your head. Guess what happened. Death. Ok, back to checkpoint and about to sprint back to them. Or maybe no. Sniffit is put right after the checkpoint. Death. Again, checkpoint, this time I jump discovering a hidden block with what is meant to be Fire Flower. Meant to, but because of the fact of being small, it gave me Mushroom. At the same moment, nice and asshole move, as I wanted to get second Fire Flower (I had one in Select box). Back to Thwomps (Pic 3 and 6). As of now, I don’t know any way to get past them. After an hour I gave up and used Editor to delete them. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t finish creator’s version of Episode. I’m sorry. Finally finished that section, and went ahead. I didn’t like that part with Podoboos and Red Koopas, and next Dragon Coin (Pic 7), but after that came sweet release. Off to level 1-2. But before that...
I don't even know what to say about it. There are only two items, which prices are in hundreds (or 1-UPs for short) and option to sell (you have nothing to sell). This shop is unnecessary. You could give a free item or a mini-game, like in real Mario games.
Loaded the level and it welcomes me with same issue as 1-1 did - too many decorations (Pic 1) Let’s skip that. There’s this Big Whomp which has a big problem, propably caused by 38A devs, but I need to talk about it. You see, in NSBM Whomps’ hitboxes crushes us only if they’re almost lying on the ground. In 38A, they start to have this killing hitbox right from the beginning of their fall, which makes it almost impossible to jump over. And they fall really fast. I lost multiple lifes trying to get Mushroom which escaped in their directions. Luckily, you put here this ? Block which eases that allowing you to jump over Whomp or safely land on him. Next, there are three lines of moving platform for which you must again wait a while and my favourite part of the whole episode - trampoline jumps (Pic 2). I love this idea and I’m sad it wasn’t expanded further more. There’s a problem at its end of it. There’s a platform you have to land on at the end and lava next to it. I guess it’s again 38A’s fault, as lava’s hitbox kills you one block further than it should. Next section has three more trampoline jumps and then you land on a platform (Pic 3). In my opinion there should be a checkpoint due to a problem a bit further. There are three rows of moving (this time downwards) platforms (Pic 4), and each time I approached them, they were in different layout. I had to do it multiple times and I would be much happier if there was a checkpoint before it as I finally got bored of trampolines as their section is long and slow. Oh, also a tip for future players. I finally get through those platform when I got the high ground. In 38A you can wall jump and I learned about it way too late. It would have been so much easier if I knew. After that you get a checkpoint and a choice of going in two directions. Well, not really. The upper way is a troll. It closes a path behind you and you get hit with horizontal Thwomp (do they have their own name?) (Pic 5). It’s a dick move, marismb, but luckily you gave a checkpoint here. After dropping Mushroom from my Select box and choosing the bottom path, I found another problem. A space between two platforms is exactly 2 block high and it’s uncomfortable to enter ot with Super Mario (Pic 6). Then player will most probably get a power-up from ? Block and land on Flying Shy Guys’ head to go ahead, just to get reminded that they have weird hitboxes and lose freshly obtained power-up. Ouch. Further, there’s Chain Chomp, and section where you’re probably gonna lose another power-up - a little platform with moving up and down spikes between two pools of lava with Podoboos. But the biggest problem comes next. For no reason, when you’re on this flat surface (Pic 8), TWO WALLS of Banzai Bills spawn. Let me explain all problem with that.
[*]ONE, you are supposed to escape from them, but you aren’t prepared for that and die.
[*]TWO, they are most probably gonna spawn right on you, so you die.
[*]THREE, across this path there are barely visible spikes you must jump over, but you don’t see them, so you die.
[*]FOUR, there’s this path choice, if you take bottom one, there are spikes, so you die (Pic 9).
[*]FIVE, in upper path there’s Whomp and if you’re Super Mario, you’ll lose power-up, it will slow you down, Banzai Bills will approach, so you die.
[*]SIX, if to try to jump over it, you die.
[*]SEVEN, there are Thwomps over your head, so you die.
[*]EIGHT, game trying to load that Banzai Bills, freezes for few seconds and often skips those priceless fractions of seconds, so you die.
[*]NINE, game trying to load that section, can crash leading to Runtime Error, so you die.
Guess what I finally did. That’s right, I used editor to delete Banzai Bills and left Thwomps as they don’t do much after that. Then came a sweet release of flagpole.
Hey, we’re halfway through! Not bad. Levels begins with nice-looking view of dark rainy day (Pic 1) There wasn’t much problem with it, but I found out that water pools you see here have 1 block of height and you can’t do anything when you fall in them. You just hover with no option to move or jump out of it. A softlock. Further, there was this platform with Red Koopas (Pic 3) and spikes between them, which are again barely visible. Then I had biggest case to crack (Pic 4). It seems like there is nowhere to go when you land on this platform next to big stack of blocks. I tried multiple things, going on that “platform” which seemed to be there on the right, jumping into water, until I accidentally found out that you can climb a tree. Wow, who would have thought? After that I had same problem where to go, but quickly found out that there is a portal to next section in water. About that portal, I’d personally put it one or two blocks deeper so it looks like Mario really falls into water. In section 2 there’s this path downwards (Pic 5). One time a 1-UP fell down here and I don’t know what triggered it. Next you get a path split and a choice to face Thwomps or Grinders first (Pic 6 and 7). I chose second option as vertical Thwomps which are second obstacle in the left path are way too quick. Paths connect again, and you again get a “choice”. “Choice” in quotation marks, because it’s another troll choice. Right path closes once you enter and only thing for you to do is to hug those spikes (Pic 8). Then came this section with spikes and Bullet Bills (Pic 9). With Super Mario it’s doable, but really difficult as in order to fit under spikes, you have to walk and walking is slow and Bullet Bill will get you. So it’s much easier to get through with small Mario. We leave water section and are welcomed with checkpoint and… ohhhhh God… pipe spawning Poison Mushrooms like crazy (Pic 10). It’s really difficult to get past them. Next, Piranha Plants, and Noteblock jumps over spikes, water and Chain Chomp (Pic 11). Back to water. This section has no problems, but in few places there are way to many Cheep Cheeps. At the end of this section there were those Grinders which at first I thought were almost impossible, but you just got to wait some time before you have a lot of space to go through (Pic 12). Fifth section is a boss fight (Pic 13). Guess how it ended. After 5 minutes, I was so exhausted of retrying that level and of episode in whole that I used editor. And not one time. First I gave myself a checkpoint in boss section. Then added few ? blocks with Hammer Suits. Then changed them to Hammer Suit generator which didn’t work as I wanted, so in the end I swapped Koopaling with two simple Hammer Bros. giving them the same Death event and finally finished the level.
The first look at the level (Pic 1) and it’s good. I don’t like the fact there’s no obvious space with hidden power-up (seriously, a power-up is hidden in pre-hit block, what kind of idea is that?). I don’t like that Thwopms, but they’re easy to get past. In level there are two “walls” of Boos, which is a nice idea (sadly I didn’t take any pic of that, as I was super tired, and now I don’t remember exactly where they were). It makes you turn around and wait for Boos to gather in one place, so you can jump over them. Some time after beginning of the level there is this part with P-Switch and coins. In my opinion there is not enough time to finish this challenge, but still doable. If was so tired, that I gave up after few tries and added few normal platforms there - not too many, in good places, so there is still a challenge. At some point in level we get to the checkpoint and after that is a thing I really don’t like - a jump of faith (Pic 2). Wasn’t bad, did on first try, but this kind of jumps can be annoying. But later… LATER!!!... You all remember than Banzai Bill problem from 1-2? Marismb did that again (Pic 3-5). Look my list of bad things in it and cross out points FOUR to SIX and instead write in:
[*]FOUR, there are way too many spikes, so you die.
[*]FIVE, there’s this fire, you will probably think hurts Mario, so you do everything not to die from it, so you die from Banzai bills.
[*]SIX, “decorations” are EVERYWHERE, including those fire flames, you thought they kill you, so you slow down, but it ends up you didn’t slow down early enough, so you touch those flames, so you think you die, but you learn, that you don’t, but you slowed down, so Banzai Bills catch up, so you die.
At this point I’m sure marismb just randomly move around the mouse pasting BGOs everywhere. It’s really visible. I was furious, so I opened editor and deleted BOTH Banzai Bills and Thwomps. I had enough of that bullshit. Okey, we get to that door, we open them and… Sweet Jesus! You can’t see a thing because of all this air blown by Foo (Pic 6 and 7). I know it’s the first thing you should do - kill him - but it’s hard to get him when you don’t see where you are and whether you’re running into exploding bomb. I deleted him, so I don’t have to worry about him anymore. The fight with Bowser itself is really well-thought and fun. Catching and throwing bombs at Bowser isn’t stressful and you can even chill out a bit. After you beat him, you get a pipe to next section with his second face (though I realised in editor that only pipe shows up, an entrance is there all the time, so if you know where it is, you can just skip Bowser’s first face). Second face is awful (Pic 8). Bowow spits fire literally everywhere, it is unavoidable and bomb often blows up because of his fire or as soon as you approach it. I was exhausted so I changed him into Hammer Bros. and finished the game. Finally. After 5 hours of straight-forward playing and editing the episode (with small break for Smash Direct [OMG, Luigi is dead! D-E-D! DED!]) I finally saved the Peach (Pic 9). Phew!
In this section I’ll say a few words about non-level things.
World Map looks neat. The only problem I see with it, is fact that you don’t need to go this swirly path to castle (Pic 1). These are two unnecessary tiles, as you can walk in straight line to the right. Remember - if there are to walkable tiles next to each other, you can walk between them.
I also really like the Game Over screen (Pic 2). It’s sad looking at Peach being enslaved. Yikes. The only thing you could correct is to add few more black foreground tile, as you can jump in very beginning and Mario will show up destroying that feeling you had.
I also need to point out that you included a lot of CGFX. These are nice ones, but you didn’t gave any credit to its creator. It’s bad thing to do, you should show them more respect.
OK, then, a summary.
[*]Difficulty: Oookeyyy, where’s my noose?/10
[*]Level Design: 5/10
[*]Aesthetics: 3 Birds/10
[*]The Best Level: 1-3
[*]Final Score: 4/10
Finally, I want you to get better and better in level designing. I recommend you to get familiar with Kishotenketsu method used by Nintendo stuff in creating Mario and Donkey Kong levels. I think I’ll write something about it or ask someone to do that in Sandbox section sometime later. This should be here.
Anyways, I hope I wasn’t too crude and you won’t give up on learning how to create awesome episodes.
Cheers!
Thank you.i use in future episodes ALMOST all. that I understood. when I read this post.
Wasn't this said before?
If you can't make bosses, then don't make them. They are not necessary. Same goes for logo.
About bosses and logo. I just wanna make version 2.0... Special....
Bosses don't exactly make an episode special. Not including bosses and using an alternative in place would probably set it apart from other episodes more than having bosses. You should try to see what else you can do rather than getting people to things you can't for you, or try to learn how to do what you are currently unable to do. This is something Enjl stated in a previous thread you made about a similar subject.
