Andario: Beginning (Finished)

[HenryRichard]

It's one day late.
Here is my first successfully completed project! It has 4 worlds, each with 6 normal levels, a bonus level, and a castle. That adds up to about 32 levels! Anyways, here are some pictures:

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(The download has been updated to fix some issues FanOfSMBX has pointed out in a PM conversation, as well as some pointed out by Imaynotbehere4long. Thanks guys. )
Download

[YTsupertyrusland23]

1st suckers not all of you suck -__- nice episode I don,t really talk a lot.

[Imaynotbehere4long]

1st suckers

That's not true; HenryRichard was first! Anyone can see that.

AND NOW, MY REVIEW OF ANDARIO: BEGINNING
To begin, you left a save file in the upload. It's not even a complete save; it stops at Bomb Vase Forest with one star.

Second, why did you use the SMB3 World 6 song as the theme for The Wood Between Worlds? That song is too repetitive for a hub level. If you wanted an ice-related song, why didn't you use Freezeflame Galaxy, or Shiver Mountain, or Snowman's Land, or literally anything that's longer than six seconds? Use Hot-Head Bop for all I care, just as long as it's not annoying to listen to! (okay, maybe I'd care a bit). By the way, "Wood Between Worlds"... is that a Chronicles of Narnia reference? You even have the player entering pools to go to the different worlds. Are you suggesting that, like Mario, Andario is also a foreigner to the Mushroom Kingdom? (for those who say that Mario is from the Mushroom Kingdom, I counter with "there's no Italy in the Mushroom Kingdom, and Mario is canonically Italian.")

Okay, with my biggest complaint out of the way, I can talk about everything else. The intro left me a bit confused, not because of what the words said, but because of how it was designed. It was obvious that you went out of your way to use the font seen in Secret of the Dry Guys, Apocalypse of Foroze, and another episode I can't remember the name of. However, that was the only stand-out part of the intro; you could have had a cinematic playing as the text narrated what was going on, or you could have at least added a block that lets the player skip to the next text by jumping instead of having to wait. If you don't plan on doing any of these things, I recommend using SMBX's normal text boxes instead.

On to The Grasslands: something weird I noticed is that music speeds up for the second loop. Why did you use this version of that song instead of trying to find one that's more consistent? Also:

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The mask sprite for the shell-kickers is wrong.

Also, after I spoke to the chest, the key appeared and caused me to glitch through the pipe. I recommend moving both the chest and the key one unit to the left.

On to Peach's Castle:

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The way you made the tree was pretty clever, but there's still the issue of cut-off on its sides.

When I first played this, I didn't expect Kevin to become violent. I was in mid-run when I spoke to him, and ended up running right into him and taking a hit when the dialogue was finished. Also, that outline around the harmful Toads looks weird and 1x1-pixel-y.

Also, you forgot to change the harmful Toads' death effects. Both of them.

On to Flooded Plains:

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Not long after I got to this section, Birdo got stuck here:

Having to wait for the bomb to explode here is just boring. It makes me just want to throw the bomb into the middle of the wall and take a hit just so I won't have to wait.

A bit of a nitpick, but it can be a bit annoying trying to pick up this because of its close juxtaposition to the hill:

On to Evening Plains: The tiny Goombas don't have right-movement sprites, so even when they are moving right, it still shows their left-moving sprites and looks awkward.

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This waterfall looks awkward as well. Is there no custom graphic that illustrates curving water?

This part was almost clever. All you have to do is actually connect the background images to the pipe.

On to Field of Bombs: The collision height for the Bomb-Koopas is too high; unlike normal Koopas, whose height is only 32 pixels, the Bomb Koopas' height is the same height as their graphic, which threw off some of my jumps, especially the part near the ceiling with the Toad where I thought I could just walk off onto it, but I died instead.

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The wording here is a bit odd. Just change the last part to say "but the explosion will"

Speaking of the Creepers, they only take away one row of blocks per-explosion. This, on top of the frequently-spawning Para-Goombas, make this part take way longer than it should.

You should block this off or put a secret here. All you have to do to block it off is to put one tile above the top of the section's border

Also, in wrap-around sections, you should place one tile just off-screen where the platforms are. That way, NPCs can't fall through like this:

Now, on to The Ruins. Oh man, The Ruins...what a difficulty spike this is. Don't get me wrong; I like a good, challenging level as much as the next forum-member, but this for World 1? On top of it being a sudden increase in difficulty, its only purpose is to provide an alternate path to the fortress at the end of the world. That is not enough of an incentive for players to have to go through this difficult of a level in World 1. I suggest moving the level further into the episode. Also, the first half is so difficult, I completely forgot about the second half after I had beaten the episode until I looked at my screenshots again.

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Seriously, is there no curving waterfall graphic whatsoever? Couldn't you request one to be made? Er, anyway, the mask sprite for the breakable blocks is solid black when it should have transparency (white pixels) in the corners.

Also, Super Mario can't actually fit through here:

Also, I was thinking you could add a secret here, like a 1-up or something.

All right, on to NEW Super Koopa Bros: I actually have seen that Ludwig sprite swap used in episodes before, so it's not that new...
I actually thought the part where you have to avoid the P-Switch blocks was pretty neat; it only needed a warning, and it also needed to be a bit more fleshed out, in my opinion. Also, why does the Birdo fight have a switch that destroys the bridge? It's only Birdo, after all. On top of that, the switch can be reached from the incline rather than making the player jump on that extra platform you placed beside it.

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I'm fairly certain that it's impossible to get this 1-up:

This room is too left-centered. I recommend moving the right wall further to the right, and have a wall appear on the left to make the room symmetrical. I know it's only a Ludwig sprite-swap, but this is still a bit disorienting.

Something else about the hub that should be changed:

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...really? You could have put a power-up there, or even some coins, but you decided instead to put the most useless NPC for this situation there. I know you know that Ma--Andario can jump higher than this; I played through Desert of PWN!

I have just one thing to say about The Poison Waters...okay, two things:

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It's possible to jump over this top pipe, as I'm doing in this screenshot. I also just noticed the custom pipe graphic's incompatibility with 1.3.0.1's pipe graphic replacements.

The propeller section in The Woody Sky seems underdeveloped; it only consists of jumping on Albatrosses.

On to Unova Cave:

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The green background behind this pipe should be the darker green from the bush. For the pipe on the right, I suggest removing the green background and the shrub entirely (the bush beside the shrub can stay, though).

Also, try to avoid putting large background images in front of sizables, because this happens:

On to Bomb Vase Forest: there's no indication that the brown Bots can't be jumped on until it's too late. Sprite swap it with a Myu instead (it can still be brown if you want).
Also, I feel like the blocks shouldn't be modeled after the SMW bridge tiles if they act as solid blocks. I suggest using a different block or making it swap a block that's only blocktop, like the original SMW bridge tile.

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Why did you bother adding this secret warp vase...

...if it doesn't actually lead anywhere new?

On to Electric Hills:

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The sparky-thing generator doesn't have any indication other than its short delay period, making it seem like they're coming out of thin air. I suggest extending the section border one unit left and adding a pipe graphic there.

Also, WHY IS THERE A WALL HERE?? There's no indication that a wall is there until after you fall and die, and getting here from the other side requires jumping off of Yoshi, no matter how the jump is approached.

On to Don't Dig Down: Why is it called that when I can't actually dig? I can pull buried TNT graphics from the ground, but that's it. Also, the instant warps are only placed on the ladder, meaning it's entirely possible for the player to miss them. I recommend using two instant warps, each half a unit from the walls, to prevent this from happening.

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Yeah, I noticed a while ago!

I'm surprised you don't have an event to make him disappointed when I break the face part of his snowman. Also, why are there two "i"s in "is"?

*reads text*
*surveys surroundings*

Or I could just, you know...

...do this:

Wait, the keyhole exit didn't actually do anything! What the heck??

Well, it turns out you had the wrong exit labeled for the level on the world map. You need to change "5 - SMB2 Boss Exit" to "4 - Secret Exit"

On to Goomboss' Fortress:

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This Goomba is placed in a cruel spot. At first, I didn't know it was there, and by the time I noticed it, it was too late and I took a hit. Even when I knew it was there, it was still tricky to avoid. The only way to truly avoid it is to jump all the way back down and wait for it to fall into the poison water and die. Well, at least I was able to gather a bunch of lives from the Goomba generator nearby.

Would it really be too much effort to move the warp down half a unit and add a pipe graphic here?

I also recommend making his crown longer. Otherwise, this can happen:

Also, you should attach the first phase of the Goomboss to the layer of the second phase of the Goomboss, etc. That way, nobody will get unfairly killed if they happen to be in the spot the next phase spawns when they kill the previous phase. This did happen to me a few times.

Finally, the Goomboss itself, like The Ruins before it, is too difficult for where it's placed. The main cause of this difficulty is his fourth phase: the bully sprite swap. Theoretically, he would slow down before changing direction. However, he can bounce off of the frequently spawning goombas, and if that happens, there's almost no way to avoid him. I recommend removing his fourth phase entirely, because this makes him the hardest boss in the episode.

All right, on to Mushroomy Introductions:

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If this place is being guarded by a hammer bro sprite swap, there should be a secret here, not death! If you won't put a secret here, at least block this area off.

Also, it's possible to outrun, and by extention, off-screen Squawks. That causes this to happen:

On to Ice Chuck Man: The ice that the hammer bro sprite swaps chuck is larger than its collision boundary. I noticed this a couple of times during my play-through of the level, but I couldn't time it right to get a screenshot of it.

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Yoshi can't get up here:

Also, if you're going to guard this block with a poison mushroom, at least put something in it.

On to The Other Perspective:

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CLEAR THE AREA!

I thought that there was a secret down there, but it's just a bottomless pit. I say remove the water graphic to make this more obvious.

Why do you have the section boundary extended this far if there's no secret over there?

On to The Cold Ghost House: When I actually made it to the ghost house part of the level, seeing the Eries made me instinctively jump...into the Erie. I recommend putting the midway point right in front of the door (on the inside of the house) so that making this mistake is less fatal.

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What is the point of this? It isn't foreshadowing anything, it doesn't trigger a boss fight right then, and it's not in a spade level (I'll get to those later). Why, then, is it here?

This...is unintuitive.

Okay, now that I killed the only enemies in this section, I have to get the key and run through an empty area to get to the keyhole. This is more of a nitpick, but I recommend moving the keyhole closer or adding more enemies to this section.

On to Meteor Void--oh, I just got it! Ha! You even have a character in the level named "Troid." I met him. Anyway, this level also suffers from not-having-blocks-off-screen-in-the-wrap-around-section. It's actually more severe here because the Geemers will spin around out of control when they're suddenly not attached to a block, like in the original Metroid. The only difference is that, in SMBX, and by extension, your level, they slowly go up, which I find weird. You could also have had a warning that the silver pipe doesn't Allow NPCs rather than just having the Toad state that it's "ANNOYING KEY GIMMICK TIME" (yes, I did guess that correctly before speaking to him); my first key got off-screened because of that.

On to Defrostation (nice pun, by the way):

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Yeah, I'd say that's pretty self-evident--wait, you can't unfreeze Munchers to open paths! That's just ridiculous! Also, the "u" shouldn't be capitalized in "unfreeze."

Having to unfreeze all of these coins here is just tedious. The frozen Muncers aren't a threat here because just running into the wall of frozen coins and shooting two fireballs each time is enough to get through unscathed. I actually died shortly before the midpoint, so I just cheated to get through here the second time. I recommend ending this part right where the fireball is headed; you can even move the frozen Munchers up to that part and add more ice blocks to remove the possible indication of a bottomless pit being there.

I have an idea, instead of having this Toad here, make it to where the player has to scale up the entire time; that way, cheating won't accomplish anything.

Or, heck, make some of the Munchers unfrozen to begin with. There's two Muncher columns in a row right here (I'm not talking about the one to the right of Andario, but the two to the left of him); make the left column unfrozen so cheaters will be forced to take a hit!

On to Iceoshi's Castle: First of all, it should be "Ice Yoshi" instead; It's not like you can make a pun using words that don't have similar syllables. I'd say it's more of a dense forest than a castle, too. Also, during the fight against the ice Yoshi, the little blocks of ice are harmful, even when jumping on them. You should at least add spikes to indicate this.

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The orange note blocks can be walked through. They also suffer from the same mask-sprite problem as the breakable blocks in The Ruins.

Also, you should probably move the ice Yoshi's glass out of jumping range. There's a bit of a bug in SMBX where the simple act of holding an NPC next to Mother Brain or the glass NPC will cause each to take damage until they die, meaning I only needed (and used) one ice block to kill the ice Yoshi. This bug effectively makes him the easiest boss in the episode. Moving the glass out of jumping range will prevent this; just make sure the ice block can still be thrown at the glass.

Something else I noticed about the hub:

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Each world has an SMW star recolor to tell you what kind of world it is...except for this one. Why?

Speaking of that world, why do you have the hammer suit in various easy-to-reach locations in that world? The hammer suit is episode-breaking, especially when it comes to layer bosses like the final boss. If it weren't for ice Yoshi, Bowser Jr. would be the easiest boss in the episode because it's so easy to simply hammer-suit him to death. I'm surprised there are so many episodes that make this Classic Mistake.

On to Fungus Empire:

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"some one," not "somone."

That's a standard block, not a "yoshi suit." Even if this was the first section, which shouldn't matter because it should start off as a ? block and only become a standard block if the one in section 1 is hit, it's a hammer suit, and it only causes risk for the enemy NPCs, not me. Seriously, what did you mean by this?

The chain graphic can be seen when the block is at the top of its movement cycle. Also, the Thwomp sound effect can be heard even from the start of the section, which is annoying, so I recommend removing the sound effect entirely.

What's with this? Goombas aren't Pokemon! You even have a Goomba speak in one of your spade levels, so you have no excuse to do this.

Finally, I have something against your secret: it's all the way at the end of the level. This isn't just me, either; one of the tips that appears occasionally on SMW Central is something like "Don't put secret exits near the end of levels. The player will basically have to go through the same level twice." My recommendation is to make one of these four vertical pipes the warp to the secret (the player has to figure out which one), then the player has to get the key to the keyhole before being crushed by the auto-scroll. I think it would be a neat idea.

Something else that you should do is, if I kill the Lakitu in section 1, make the Lakitu in its clone section disappear as well. You should also extend this to more than just the Lakitu, like the block I mentioned earlier.

On to Unnamed Desert Level: the area by the midway point is difficult because of all the NPCs in that area, and the hammer bro sprite swaps. It took me too may deaths to finally figure out how to get through that part unscathed. What I'm saying is a power-up should be placed very close to where the midway point is. Now, you may be wondering how I ended up dying when I had the almighty hammer suit. This is why:

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It's unintuitive that a running start is needed for the second sliding part, or maybe I'm just not used to playing as Mario (I usually play as Toad). You should have an NPC tell players this to prevent unnecessary deaths. This is what happens if I start sliding at the top of the hill rather than get a running start:

When players inevitably die that same way, it's back to the midway point without power-ups. That makes this part boring because, if the "Chase" Koopa gets stuck behind the sphere tile like it is in this screenshot, players simply have to wait for the regular Koopa to walk back to where the player is.

Finally, why give players a Yoshi if they can't actually bring it past this part without bouncing off of an NPC? The only way I beat the level was by getting lucky (normally the NPCs fall into the quicksand before I have a chance to jump on them), bouncing off of an NPC, and finally jumping off of my Yoshi at the part two screenshots ago. I only found out about the needing-a-running-start later by cheating and trial-and-error.

All right, on to Andario's Arrival at Nightmareland: There's no indication that the wheel is harmful when jumped on, similar to the brown Bot and small ice blocks. You should have an NPC warn the player about this rather than have it complain about me being in it's game when there's clearly Goomba pillars in the background as well as Goombas and Koopas throughout the level.

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When I got the Maximum Tomato, I glitched through the ground because there were blocks above me. Afterward, all I could do was fall down the pit right after this part. I recommend removing the two blocks on its sides to prevent this glitch.

Why is there an empty space here if it doesn't indicate anything?

I almost missed these cloud platforms on my first play-through of this level. I recommend putting coins above the platforms to make them a bit more obvious.

I have just one thing to say about Desert of PWN:

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Why did you have to place these blocks just barely out of Andario's standing-jump-limit? It's simply bothersome to have to make a slight running-jump in this case.

On to Pyramid Time!

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...was being able to do this intentional?

Also, Level Wrap is disabled for this section, making it impossible to get to that switch.

Even if it was enabled, my reward for going through that extra bit of puzzle is a red Yoshi? Really? I mean, I'm glad that you were able to make a puzzle level that was more of a puzzle than all of Super Mario Enigmatic, but the reward has to be worth doing it! Also, maybe you could use a song that isn't as repetitive as the SMB2 Cave theme. After all, it takes time to solve these puzzles, and time is something the SMB2 Cave theme doesn't have.

All right, on to Bowser's Vacation Home:

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Similar to the chucked ice from before, the boos collision boundary is smaller than their actual graphic.

I'm normally not one to call out graphics clash because this is something that's very opinion-based, but I think we can all agree that flat-styled, Andario-recolored Mario clashes with pre-rendered 3D Yoshi's Island bricks. Also, the Boo's effect is cut-off.

Also, the mushrooms in this section aren't needed because the other sections are too short to cause any real damage, except for the SMB1 styled section. I recommend extending and adding more to the other three sections. As you can see, I didn't even get hit once after getting the hammer suit provided in the level.

I'm using the over-powered hammer suit; duh!

...and this doesn't lead anywhere either! Dang it, Henry, why?!

Okay, this time, it turns out you didn't put the path close enough to the level. all you have to do is move the path one unit down and it will work.

Yet another thing wrong with the hub:

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The hammer suit is so powerful, it can even kill berries. Of course, this wouldn't be an issue if you didn't put the hammer suit in your episode in the first place.

Finally, on to the outro:

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Like I said before, I couldn't access the outro from the world map because of a path placement error, so I just opened the level in the Level Editor.

This doesn't make any sense. He can't get out, but he got out somehow to tell me that since he can't get out, he'll be waiting for me to get him out...it's just confusing.

This was a clever gimmick! Who did you steal this idea from--I mean why didn't you use it in an actual level? Sure, there are some issues with it messing up the jumping Toad NPC, but that's about it.

Though not necessarily part of the outro, there are only four stars in the episode, so why is this...

My final complaint about the hub:

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Using SMW star recolors as speakable NPCs messes up the counter. I believe that Starry Ocean Pipes from MaGL X found a way around this.

A note about the spade levels:

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All spade levels are really just pointless jokes. Waffle World works because its joke is based on the situation: you literally can't do anything except visit the Yoshi graphic at the end of the level. Istillplaywithlegos is a reference to a cheat in SMBX, so that one works, too. Finally, the Doge level is based on popular internet memes, so people will most likely get that one as well. However, I don't get the 100% Dragon Free one. Is it an in-joke? There's no explicit ban on dragons in SMBX levels, obviously, so it doesn't make sense in context. What does it mean? What is it referencing?

Hey, at least it wasn't as short as 100% Dragon Free.

Finally, before I forget again, I must address that there are some songs in this episode that are unlabeled. Remember: music is just as important as custom graphics, so be sure to label your custom songs. The ones I'm referring to are "13," "cat," and "Land" (I know it's a remix of the Super Mario Bros. theme, but from where is it?).

IN CONCLUSION:
This episode has great potential, but it is very unpolished. If the errors are fixed and some ideas are expanded upon, like Andario not actually being Mario, this could potentially be good enough to be a featured episode.

[YTsupertyrusland23]

-__- ... just wow XD but really there was only 0 when I came so yeah XD

[Magna]

In the third screenshot, the SMW Beta goomba clashes with the galoomba. Maybe recolor the beta goomba using SMW galoomba colors?

[HenryRichard]

AND NOW, MY REVIEW OF ANDARIO: BEGINNING
*long review*

Finally, before I forget again, I must address that there are some songs in this episode that are unlabeled. Remember: music is just as important as custom graphics, so be sure to label your custom songs. The ones I'm referring to are "13," "cat," and "Land" (I know it's a remix of the Super Mario Bros. theme, but from where is it?)..

Ok. First of all, I have a LOT of stuff to fix. Second of all, the songs 13 and cat are from minecraft. Land is something I stole from Mario Forever X, no Idea where they got it from (Maybe mario forever? IDK.) Also, this is gonna have a sequel, which will tie in some stuff later (like the 8 stars). But thanks for the review!

In the third screenshot, the SMW Beta goomba clashes with the galoomba. Maybe recolor the beta goomba using SMW galoomba colors?

It's supposed to be VERY varied, with lots of different goombas. Not to mention that it doesn't clash.

[YTsupertyrusland23]

the needs to be fix?

Land is something I stole from Mario Forever X, no Idea where they got it from (Maybe mario forever? IDK.)
-->um who is land<--

[HenryRichard]

Fixed some general weirdness on my part.

[bossedit8]

Made some playthroughs of this Game:



Original Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qua7z_fzzXI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQpDsx8Z0DY

More to come.

[HenryRichard]

Made some playthroughs of this Game:

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Original Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qua7z_fzzXI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQpDsx8Z0DY

More to come.

Thanks! Oh, and just one quick tip, you don't get all 8 stars to enter the secret room in this episode. I'm saving that for the sequel.

[arcade999]

Honestly, i find this episode very good and original with just anough custom graphics to make it enjoyable.
My only bad poit come from the goomba boss: i putted the episode into smbx 2.0 to kill the boss with ninja bomberman, but episode still very good anyway!

[Snessy the duck]

Honestly, i find this episode very good and original with just anough custom graphics to make it enjoyable.
My only bad poit come from the goomba boss: i putted the episode into smbx 2.0 to kill the boss with ninja bomberman, but episode still very good anyway!

The episode was never meant to be played with the 2.0 characters, so he didn't account for them.

[arcade999]

Honestly, i find this episode very good and original with just anough custom graphics to make it enjoyable.
My only bad poit come from the goomba boss: i putted the episode into smbx 2.0 to kill the boss with ninja bomberman, but episode still very good anyway!

The episode was never meant to be played with the 2.0 characters, so he didn't account for them.

I know, but i only used 2.0 to kill kill this boss, because otherwise, it would be unfair. After that, i reputted the episode in normal smbx.
(also i never said it was meant to)

On to Don't Dig Down: Why is it called that when I can't actually dig?

I think its a reference to minecraft, because if in the actual game, you dig down under your feets,there is a lot of chance for you to fall on lava.