Sooo... It's been almost a year since I began working on this episode, but I am proud to present everyone, my newest creation
This episode features 6 Worlds, almost 50 levels and over 10 bosses to play through!
-Some informations-
This episode features 6 worlds with each one having 7 levels, one separate boss fight (in some levels you can encounter a mini-boss fight) and one bonus level to find. There is also the main hub area from where you can access the final world. Also in the hub, you can gain access to 3 minigames, a library where you can read about the plot of the game and bosses' bios and see how each world's map looks like. This episode was created using SMBX 1.3.0.1, but I think it is compatible with SMBX 2.0.
You can access any world you'd like to in any order (though it's better to choose the way one of the stars tells you in the hub, because of difficulty level and the plot)
-The Plot-
Millions of years ago there was a powerful force that created 5 Stars with enormous power. Time has passed, the force died and The Stars sealed themselves in a Sanctuary in the Mushroom Kingdom. But nowadays someone found them. He has no good intentions for The Stars, so they flew away in five different directions. The masked figure captured Peach and now wants Mario to collect all 5 Stars for him. Will Mario save Peach? Or will he fail this time?
Yes, especially the city level. Your episode is great and I don't see it strange to be inspired by it. Thanks for the feedback, as always!
Thank you, appreciate it! Of course there's nothing wrong with being inspired by it. If anything, it makes me even happier I'll give your episode a try soon and will let you know what I think.
Yes, especially the city level. Your episode is great and I don't see it strange to be inspired by it. Thanks for the feedback, as always!
Thank you, appreciate it! Of course there's nothing wrong with being inspired by it. If anything, it makes me even happier I'll give your episode a try soon and will let you know what I think.
I'd be more than happy if you will give me some criticism. Thanks a lot and enjoy
Also, I've just realized that if you are playing this on 2.0 you may notice the black aura around the main villain. It may be caused because I accidentally added a .png version of the NPC to the folder. You may consider adding the mask that I give you here to the episode's folder.
I'd be more than happy if you will give me some criticism. Thanks a lot and enjoy
Hey again I had some time to play through your episode and here's what I think:
- There really is a lot of inspiration drawn from 'Reign of the Gatekeepers' (the pyramid lift being just one of the examples) but I like that you've added your own little bits and still kept it original with an interesting plot. Also, I really enjoyed the train murder mystery level as I'm a big fan of Agatha Christie lol
- Music fits each level and I like the custom backgrounds and sprites used!
- I also like the fact that you can choose what order you can complete the worlds in (hmm, I wonder where that came from ).
- Some levels felt a bit too linear to me (particularly the first few levels in the desert, fire and mountain worlds). Perhaps add some challenges/gimmicks or an element of exploration (verticality or warping to bonus sections)?
- I like the creativity of the boss fights but a lot of them were very hard! I struggled with the Ice King's second phase and gave up completely on the fight with Boom-Boom in the train level as there were just too many projectiles. Maybe get rid of the Spinies and make the time lapse between projectiles longer?
- There was a lot of awkward enemy placement and to me it felt there were a lot of enemies clustered in one place (especially the second half of the city level and in the last world - it's nearly impossible not to take a hit there so recommend getting rid of a lot of those Phantos!). You also seemed to like 'stacking' enemies on top of each other, which I personally am not a big fan of as I see it as a cheap way of adding challenge for the player. There was one particular section (I think in the desert world) where you go underground and have to go back up again and there were 2 Shyguys on top of each other on a ledge so it's impossible to pass next to them without taking any damage.
- The lava world was probably my least favourite (specifically that level before the boss), mostly because of how tight spaces were in sections where you had lava both below and above (and died so many times in that section where lava goes up and down and you need to climb the fence). Perhaps get rid of the lava on top or make sure it's well away from the player.
- Sometimes fast-moving projectiles or enemies would appear on the screen but there were no warning signs and I was bound to take a hit. Please place some exclamation marks to signal where fast-moving objects might be coming from.
- I felt that certain sections had a lot of backtracking in them, for example the Ice palace in the first section where you go underneath. You can easily replace the ice blocks with the yellow bridge blocks so that the player can simply swim upwards and avoid wasting time going back to previous rooms.
Overall, I really liked this episode and it's got a lot of potential! I would recommend tweaking the difficulty level by reducing number of enemies and projectiles on the screen and getting rid of unnecessary backtracking. I give this episode a rating of 7/10.
I'd be more than happy if you will give me some criticism. Thanks a lot and enjoy
Hey again I had some time to play through your episode and here's what I think:
- There really is a lot of inspiration drawn from 'Reign of the Gatekeepers' (the pyramid lift being just one of the examples) but I like that you've added your own little bits and still kept it original with an interesting plot. Also, I really enjoyed the train murder mystery level as I'm a big fan of Agatha Christie lol
- Music fits each level and I like the custom backgrounds and sprites used!
- I also like the fact that you can choose what order you can complete the worlds in (hmm, I wonder where that came from ).
- Some levels felt a bit too linear to me (particularly the first few levels in the desert, fire and mountain worlds). Perhaps add some challenges/gimmicks or an element of exploration (verticality or warping to bonus sections)?
- I like the creativity of the boss fights but a lot of them were very hard! I struggled with the Ice King's second phase and gave up completely on the fight with Boom-Boom in the train level as there were just too many projectiles. Maybe get rid of the Spinies and make the time lapse between projectiles longer?
- There was a lot of awkward enemy placement and to me it felt there were a lot of enemies clustered in one place (especially the second half of the city level and in the last world - it's nearly impossible not to take a hit there so recommend getting rid of a lot of those Phantos!). You also seemed to like 'stacking' enemies on top of each other, which I personally am not a big fan of as I see it as a cheap way of adding challenge for the player. There was one particular section (I think in the desert world) where you go underground and have to go back up again and there were 2 Shyguys on top of each other on a ledge so it's impossible to pass next to them without taking any damage.
- The lava world was probably my least favourite (specifically that level before the boss), mostly because of how tight spaces were in sections where you had lava both below and above (and died so many times in that section where lava goes up and down and you need to climb the fence). Perhaps get rid of the lava on top or make sure it's well away from the player.
- Sometimes fast-moving projectiles or enemies would appear on the screen but there were no warning signs and I was bound to take a hit. Please place some exclamation marks to signal where fast-moving objects might be coming from.
- I felt that certain sections had a lot of backtracking in them, for example the Ice palace in the first section where you go underneath. You can easily replace the ice blocks with the yellow bridge blocks so that the player can simply swim upwards and avoid wasting time going back to previous rooms.
Overall, I really liked this episode and it's got a lot of potential! I would recommend tweaking the difficulty level by reducing number of enemies and projectiles on the screen and getting rid of unnecessary backtracking. I give this episode a rating of 7/10.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate any kind of criticism, as it is a way of getting better. As I have already realized the fight with boom boom was really too hard. Also, I thought that some backtracking would be just a way of making lebels seem a little longer. As for the bosses, I may think that in the polish community I'm kinda known for making hard boss fights The W4 castle was in my opinion one of the most challenging levels in the episode, so it's no wonder you had some problems with it. The last world was really the hardest in the episode mostly because of the amount of phantos, I admit. Maybe I'll release updated version soon, so it will get better. Thanks for the feedback
I downloaded this episode exactly after the ending of the default "The Invasion 2" smbx episode but im getting alot of problems on playing it.
1: Difficulty Balance: im playing on this world order: Jungle (completed), Ice Mountains (completed), Metropolis (Im working on it), Desert (not completed yet) and Lava world (not completed yet). The Jungle boss had a pretty cleaver and readable moveset, but his hitbox was bigger than the boss itself, causing you to getting an unfair hit that could cost you the battle. The Ice Mountains boss was a quite interesting choice, good first phase but annoying and frustrating second phase. Frustrating cause the combination of ice floor and springs makes movement and dodging very difficult, and if you dosen't jump properly the boss ohko you by wall crashing. I suggest you to add some extra springs near the existing ones, so the risk of missing the vital jump is softned. Im now at the metropolis world, and this was a pain in the A hole since the first level. The train mystery level was a pretty creative one but some factors made me hate it. The annoying chef's oven that costantly harms you while trepassing it, the SPOILER guy/s boss/es fight that is a chaotic madness where winning is impossible (i was forced to cheat some items in order to complete this level) cause of the MASSIVE enemy flood that dosen't let you harm the boss/bosses with the bombs (that 4/5 times also explode in your hands cause of collisions with enemies). Rooftop level, basicly a trial and error based level with some unvaiable paths (a noteblock jump placed on a pit that makes you collide with a pipe instead of bouncing on the next noteblock) and another mini boss fight at the end of this level. Metropolis Capital level is difficult cause of the lacks of mushrooms in the slums area.
2: Bugs/glitches: The aforementioned jungle boss bigger than itself hitbox. Those others bugs/glitches could be caused by the smbx version im using (smbx 2.0 open beta) but im not entirely sure: A jungle world enemy sports a twitching sprite sheet of the purple bad guy toad as idling sprite instead of his correct one. On metropolis capital the mini boss of the slums area dosen't properly trigger the unlocking item that is required in order to finish the level, and also i can't transport the hidden key to the elder toad apartment, cause it vanish when you open the door on his house.
I'll give your episode a try soon and will let you know what I think.
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