Information
A local-multiplayer episode that you can play with your friends. It features 2 minigames - Battle Blitz and Race Rivals
Battle Blitz - A modern version of the SMBX 1.3 Battle Mode, where this time you are able to customize your user experience however you like. That includes custom lives count for each player, start-up power-up selections, all vehicles options, support for duplicate characters and an ability to change your players costume.
Race Rivals - Somewhat similar to Mario Kart, this is a minigame where you must stay ahead of your opponent in time or reach the finish line first. This acts more like speedrunning levels where your goal is to be as fast as possible. Similarly to Battle Blitz, this minigame is also highly configurable, featuring almost every single setting from the Battle Blitz menu with some additional settings that are Race Rivals exclusive.
Development periods - This is my first episode that I've ever made and also my first time using LunaLua. Since 2018, I wanted to create a similar project like this, but mainly focused on reviving the old battle mode, which I was the first person to do so after years. Race Rivals on the other hand, wasn't even planned until late 2024. This minigame was my side-project while I worked on Battle Blitz, so I started making 2 minigames at the same time. Lastly, I decided to merge those two minigames in an episode together, making Dueling Trials exist in the first place.
Older versions
If you want to install the latest release, the download button above is the correct link (you can still download the latest version here, it will be placed on top of the list). This list will change every time Dueling Trials receives an update. Newer versions will be placed on top and older versions will be placed on the bottom of the list:
[LATEST] Version 1.3
Version 1.2
Version 1.1
[OLDEST] Version 1.0
Below is a list of what has changed over the past few versions. This will also receive changes every time the episode updates:
Version 1.3:
- Completely reworked the reserve box system
- Heart-based characters such as Peach, Toad and Link now have their own reserve boxes like Mario and Luigi
- Heart-based characters do not store Super Mushrooms in their reserve boxes; instead, they use it to regain a heart if they can
- If the heart-based character was originally in a Super Mushroom state and the player picks up a stronger power-up, only then will the Super Mushroom be stored in the reserve box as that heart-based character
- Using a Super Mushroom from the reserve box as a heart-based character on full health will waste it and it was not possible to fix this due to the 0x16 player memory being severely bugged and inaccurate; so have this information in mind instead
- Hearts will no longer be displayed because apparently it's impossible to have reserve boxes and hearts at the same time due to SMBX2's limitations
- Reworked the way an item would spawn in both minigames after the player has collected 12 coins to fit the new reserve box changes
- Replaced the Super Mushroom upgrade in Race Rivals with a better power-up upgrade system:
ㅤㅤㅤThe game will now detect what power-up the player currently has if he gets the power-up upgrade after collecting 12 coins; if the player has:
ㅤㅤㅤ-No power-up, upgrade to a Super Mushroom state
ㅤㅤㅤ-Super Mushroom, upgrade to a Fire Flower state
ㅤㅤㅤ-Fire Flower, upgrade to a Hammer Suit state
ㅤㅤㅤ-Hammer Suit, no more upgrades; reward with a shell instead
ㅤㅤㅤ-Any other power-up (Super Leaf, Tanooki Suit and Ice Flower), automatically upgrade to a Hammer Suit state
ㅤ
- It is now impossible to use the reserve box while riding any Yoshi or any boot to prevent bugs and crashes
- It is now possible to have power-ups in the reserve box in Race Rivals
- The way players use the reserve box will have the same function as before, except Link who will spawn the reserve item above his head instead, since he can't hold any item
- Rewards that a player can get in Race Rivals are a little restricted for Link:
ㅤㅤㅤSome rewards are useless for Link because of his inability to hold any item; instead of some rewards, Link will get a shell instead if he gets:
ㅤㅤㅤ-An Ice Block
ㅤㅤㅤ-A Poison Veggie
ㅤ
- Link will now kick the shell reward in Race Rivals from his reserve box after using it and it will go in the direction he's facing
- Reworked the UI a little bit in both minigames
- Made some small unnecessary decoration/gameplay changes to the following Race Rivals level and Battle Blitz levels:
ㅤㅤㅤThose levels are:
ㅤㅤㅤ-Blossom's Arrival (Battle Blitz - recolored the Fire Flower backgrounds)
ㅤㅤㅤ-Candyshrooms (Battle Blitz - moved the flying yellow spiny in the sky)
ㅤㅤㅤ-Space Battle Planet (Battle Blitz - the level is now symmetrical on the bottom)
ㅤㅤㅤ-Zero Deaths (Battle Blitz - fixed block connections)
ㅤㅤㅤ-SMB3-Raceway (Race Rivals - the last pipe that leads to the ice blocks is now behaving like a Clear Pipe)
ㅤ
- Added descriptions on some menu options to inform/warn the player about the action that will take place if a specific option was selected
- Added an option "Camera Controls" in the Race Rivals menu that can customize the SMBX2 camera in three ways:
ㅤㅤㅤThe following settings are possible:
ㅤㅤㅤ-Standard split screen (the default camera for local multiplayer; no modifications here)
ㅤㅤㅤ-Forced horizontal split (this ensures the screen is always split horizontally, regardless of where the players are located)
ㅤㅤㅤ-Forced vertical split (similar as the setting above, but the screen is always split vertically, no matter where the players are located as well)
ㅤ
- Basic HUD camera controls have been updated in both minigames to fit the new reserve box changes
- Timer camera controls in Battle Blitz have been removed due to hearts not being visible anymore and the reserve boxes being in different places now
- Replaced an option in the main menu "Restart Episode" with "Reset Statistics" in the pause menu that can now delete all the statistics
- Moved the "Banlist" option in the Battle Blitz menu for two options up
- Nerfed the slow effect in Race Rivals a little bit
- Fixed a bug where the Banlist wouldn't keep the banned characters banned if the player bumped into the banned characters Character Switches or if a level had a code to bypass the character bans
- Fixed a bug where, if the Super Mushroom is banned through the Banlist, the SMB2 Mushroom would still spawn in the player's reserve box after collecting 12 coins; it now spawns a ? Mushroom as the replacement
- Fixed a bug where Stopwatches (both yellow and green) wouldn't work if they were eaten by any Yoshi
- Fixed Player 2 lives display not showing properly in Battle Blitz after the lives counter reaches above the value of 99
- Lives for both players in Battle Blitz now have a hardcoded limit of 9999 and anything above that value is not possible anymore
Version 1.2:
- Fixed a critical bug where the game would crash if a player is holding the down key, has any boot mounted when spawning an item and the player was either character Peach or character Toad
- Fixed a bug where a Yoshi would eat a spawned item from a player if a player has any Yoshi mounted when pressing the drop item key
- Fixed some checkpoint graphics not showing properly in some levels in Race Rivals
- Fixed bottomless pits launching players in the air only if they had immunity
- Fixed a level "Rushed Midnight" in Race Rivals being almost impossible to finish because of the previous pit behavior change
- Fixed the timer not randomizing properly in Battle Blitz menu
- Fixed the countdown text ("3", "2", "1", "GO!") splitting on the screen in both minigames
Version 1.1:
- Checkpoints in Race Rivals now fully disappear if both players claimed it
- Pits in Race Rivals can no longer make the players bounce and instead they will just kill them
- Some levels were slightly tweaked to fit the new pit behavior
Version 1.0:
Some screenshots:
Credits
Big thanks to all the people in the Codehaus discord server who helped me a little with some parts of the code. More credits can be found below:
-Graphics made by h2643, PROX, DARKMECHA and Sednaiur
-Music and sound effects not by Zenetal (some credits can be found in specific level folders)
-Bouncy pits created by Rixitic and KBM-Quine
-Boost Block made by AndrewPixel/Akromaly
-Pause menu template made by Rednaxela
-Warp Transition by MrDoubleA
-Code help from MrNameless, Marioman2007, MrDoubleA, KBM-Quine, and Supermario1313
(Modern Reserve Box script that was used in older versions of Dueling Trials was created by KBM-Quine)
More credits can be found in the episode folder and some specific levels
Stuff by me:
-The entire episode and almost all the scripts are by Zenetal
-Small graphics patches/extensions done by Zenetal
-Every battle and race level made by Zenetal
Guides on how the episode works can be found in the post below. This is basically the "read me" file that's present in the episode files. There's everything you need to know about the episode and how to make proper levels without any bugs, as well as some warnings that you need to keep in mind. Both the game and the episode are not perfect and there could be new bugs discovered any time.
