User Experience
- SMBX2 somehow makes the user experience more inconvenient for gamepad users. The title screen is gone, meaning you have to select episodes, configure controls, and manage saves through a mouse. The Battle Mode is also gone, which makes no sense at all.
- TheXTech greatly improves the user experience. Rather than an installer, you can just download and start the program, then you're all set. You can do almost everything from within the game with its improved menus.
- SMBX2 is a hack of SMBX 1.3, which was already unoptimized. Even on great hardware the game takes a while to load things in.
- TheXTech is completely rewritten in C++ using SMBX 1.3's source code. The game boots up and loads content almost immediately.
- SMBX2 only supports Windows. It can run on MacOS and Linux using Wine.
- TheXTech natively supports Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, modded consoles (Switch, Wii U, etc.), and more.
- SMBX2 removes the exciting title screen sequence, as well as remove the level start screen and jingle with a generic, muted loading screen.
- TheXTech improves the game's presentations through smoother transitions, reverb and echoes in set rooms, Yoshi drums, screen shake, controller rumble, and more. It feels more like a professional game.
- PGE Editor is bundled with SMBX2, which is a huge step up from the Legacy Editor from SMBX 1.3.
- TheXTech features a built-in Level Editor with controller support, though I would still recommend using PGE Editor. While PGE Editor is not bundled with TheXTech, it can be downloaded and used the same, just requiring some additional setup.
- SMBX2 features lots of new content, but is not presented in its bundled episodes, like how SMBX 1.3 showcased almost everything using The Invasion 2. To experience it, you have to either download user-created campaigns or make the levels yourself.
- The new characters are unpolished and some straying too far from the 2D Mario experience. They do not play nearly as well as the original 5 characters in standard levels, and the demo levels poorly demonstrate the characters on top of being confusing and frustrating.
- The Mario Challenge makes for a nice quickplay mode with some fun things to mess around with. However, 2-Player doesn't work in this mode, which is a major letdown if you want to play casually with a friend.
- The LunaLua API allows users to code more features into the game. While this is impressive, it's too advanced and overblown for a fangame. It feels like its developers are neglecting beneficial features and telling their userbase to "do it yourself", which requires a decent amount of coding knowledge.
- The only QoL improvements I've noticed were improved full-screen and audio.
- The options menu allows users to change even more settings, and can also be accessed in-game.
- TheXTech features Multi-Language support, which is great people who don't speak English.
- TheXTech natively supports any resolution, meaning you can play in widescreen with an extended field of view while mostly keeping levels compatible. This is a massive improvement for 2-Player, because it fixes screen-crunch.
- Up to 4 players can play simultaneously. This works in Battle Mode too; it makes for a great party game!
- You can choose to force either split-screen or shared-screen.
- Players can join in and drop out fairly easily alongside the menu improvements.
- A V-Sync option to run the game at 60FPS. It's a tiny bit slower, but absolutely worth it for how buttery-smooth it is.
- Several QoL features, such as faster world map movement, infinite lives, seeing stars on the world map, etc.
- A compatibility mode is included if you want the original experience.
- I never liked SMBX2 ever since I first tried it. Its new content leaves a lot to be desired. The new characters are excessive and unpolished, and the rest of the new content is tucked away in the editor. The user experience is a step back in ways with both the Title Screen and Battle Mode gone. And between it being a hack of SMBX 1.3 and the LunaLua API, it's still a buggy mess with development apparently in the consumers' hands.
- TheXTech on the other hand is something I absolutely love. It completely transformed SMBX 1.3 and brought it to the modern age with several Quality-of-Life improvements while paying respects to Redigit's work. Any changes to the game are done with intentions to make the game more enjoyable, and it's clear that its developers care about making this the best experience possible.
- SMBX2's new content will never compare to the level of polish and quality that TheXTech delivers. In my honest opinion, TheXTech is the version of SMBX that should be standardized by the community, and you should absolutely play it if you haven't already.
