Postby cold soup » Sat Mar 15, 2025 3:12 pm
just finished this episode. as far as more "standard" mario experiences go, this is pretty solid! i would like to state that episodes that stick close to the standard mario formula aren't usually my thing, but there's still stuff here i enjoyed. the lack of unique gimmicks in most levels does affect their memorability but they're still engaging, and even the easier levels are fun to run through. castle levels tend to be my favorites in most mario games and that carries over here, as i feel these (aside from 7-4) were the strongest in the episode. almost all of them had solid enemy placement and variety, though later levels did have a bit of a cheap shot problem i'll mention later
i have a few gripes though. first off a lot of jumps are pretty cramped, especially near the end. i actually liked some of the more cramped jumps personally since they require you understand SMBX's physics and use crouch jumping, even if it kinda goes against the casual direction the episode's going for. some are just plain annoying though, the last star coin in 7-4 being the prime example. speaking of the star coins, their placement feels arbitrary. they range from being too easy to get to too frustrating, and a lot of setups repeat (finding a hidden block, jumping into a piranha plant pipe under a platform, etc. the episode also has a problem with occasional cheap shots, with a lot of areas where enemies blindside you on a moving or falling platform. world 7 was especially egregious with this (not to mention the grabby hands in 7-3 that pop out of random pits with no warning). finally the episode felt pretty stingy with extra lives. maybe i'm used to games like the DKC games where lives are common but i felt like i wasn't really gaining lives as my playthrough went on even during parts where i didn't die too frequently.
lastly i'd like to comment about the episode's themes and general variety, which i feel is its biggest flaw. every world aside from world 7 (and 9 i suppose?) takes on one of the standard NSMB world themes played completely straight, which was pretty disappointing. this, compounded with the generic title and typical mario premise makes it so this episode doesn't have much of its own identity. there's not much at a surface level that makes this one jump out as a unique experience. again, aside from the flaws i mentioned, the gameplay is solid, so i feel you already have the hard part down and will only keep improving as time goes on. but if your future projects stick to this sort of "do what the official games do" philosophy, they'll probably be unjustly written off as not worth playing. now i'm not advocating for you to pivot to lua-heavy total conversions or anything of the sort, hell, i don't think you should feel like you need to make big changes to your philosophy period. in fact if what i'm saying goes against the kind of episodes you want to make, disregard it completely. make projects for you first, and everyone else second. but i do think this episode could have used more pizazz. in fact, there a few examples in the episode of what i'm looking for. the last two levels of world 6 felt very unique, both of which having interesting vibes with their visuals and music choices. 6-4 in particular being the only real vertical level in the episode solidified it as my favorite since it's so different from the rest of the episode. 9-2 was also great, again being a theme you don't typically see in mario with gimmicks that aren't all too common. world 7 i'm mixed on. on one hand while it is obviously something different and i do appreciate it trying to tone things down compared to its inspiration, i still think the hanging toads were too far for an otherwise regular mario experience. either way i would like to see more variety in your future work, and more levels like the ones i mentioned. that's just my perspective though
