Super Mario Zeal (C3 Summer 2024 (1.7.5 "Encounter") Demo now available!)

[Valentine]

lol

[aero]

let me find out you implementing SMW glitches

let me find out each town is rocking a mini game

[MrNix]

I've done a playthrough of the episode and decided to write a short review.

First things:
The look and style of the episode taking on the SMW look is a good touch to the experience.
The world map is fairly unique with the DK island and pumpkin forest being the favourite.
I see this episode as bit of a difficulty curve especially in later parts of DK island and swamp land. I'm not necessarily an expert in smbx platforming but sometimes it felt unfair especially in levels that extensively used stingers. Perhaps this was done intentionally to keep a strong difficulty curve but i'm not sure. There are towns the player can use to get powerups and prepare which makes this issue less prominent in my eyes.

Good things:
Music choice. it allows to feel the immersion of the levels to a great extent.
Many levels are well designed to accommodate player movement, enemies, graphics, etc, making them fun to play, explore and complete like the temple level on DK island or the red sunset level on Wario island. Hopefully more levels like this will appear in the future.
The usage of dragon coins in every level giving the player rewards is a very good feature making the player want to go out of their way and grab them before reaching the exit. Getting that ice flower or green shoe feel rewarding and can be used in other levels.
The towns acting as a rest point providing powerups are great and useful for players to gear up before heading to a level that may be difficult.

What needs improvement:
The most obvious thing that needs improvement is the boss battles. The cloud boss from the starting island is a pushover with no real challenge, some variation in attacks would make the boss better.
The main boss of DK island is a disappointment as its just a cardboard cutout with moving cannon hands and three phases sorta dragging it out. It is a bit of a letdown considering what the player had to go through on DK island to get to that point. I'm aware this is still a demo so maybe it can be improved in the future and feature the real king K. Role as a boss.
There is a bug on the world map when the player finishes a level as Wario causing the player sprite to duplicate or disappear. Since Wario is intended to be used in other levels I hope this issue can be fixed in the future.
When I acquired enough stars to access Funky Kong's flights on DK island I went to the desert area town. I wanted to go back but I didn't have enough stars for that town to enter the building. This almost made me quit as forcing the player to stay and move around an area they may not want to be in is frustrating which breaks the experience. I hope this issue is fixed where the player is not trapped and can instead travel to the desert area using a system where the location is locked off from the flight menu unless the player has enough stars for the return journey.

Closing thoughts:
This episode has a good share of great things and stuff needing improvement. I do recommend the episode for those familiar with smbx and smw that don't mind a difficulty curve in some areas.
I'm aware the project still has a long way to go before its complete but I hope the feedback is taken into consideration throughout the course of development.

Overall: 7/10

[FireSeraphim]

@MrNix: Thank you for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed SMZ so far and allow me to respond to your queries
1. The first boss battle is kind of meant to be that way due it being world 1, but I will admit that it could be a little better.
2. The second boss battle is king cut-out from Donkey Kong 64, the fact you probably didn't get that (which is what I'm assuming) is surprising to me. An actual boss fight with K.Rool will come later on in the game, at the third and final starfort before Bowser's domain.
3. I am aware of the issues with Wario and have since fully updated to MrNameless's Wario and his Wario rewrite. There will still be a few levels or so that Wario cannot easily complete.
4. I have removed the star counter requirements for funky flights for now.

[BrosRoad]

I can help make levels tho I can only make them only firdays and weekends. Is that okay?

[FireSeraphim]

once again I have updated the opening post with new gifs and a new demo can be downloaded from the second post.