 |
|
 |
|
| Details for Super Mario: Buried Treasure |
| Hack Name: | Super Mario: Buried Treasure - 998.3 KB - 6219 downloads.
Added: 2009-07-05 03:19:55 PM |
| Rating: | 0.0 (0) |
| Reviews: | 4 (jump to reviews) |
| Length: | 23 levels |
| Author: | Kc1336 - Submitted by: Kc1336 |
| Description: | An Egyptian themed hack in which Mario has to help the Nebu tribe remove the threat that is destroying their lands.
DO NOT USE ZSNES1.42
Checklist in the .zip incase you think you haven't found everything.
Also, if you're wondering where the credits are, they are at the end of the hack, once completely finished.
I have added a F.A.Q. to my profile.
Enjoy.
Updated hack as of 9th July |
|
| Screenshots |
| Loading... (If this doesn't disappear, chances are that you do not have javascript enabled.) |
|
| Review by Rameau's Nephew | Buried Treasure has been a much-awaited hack for me, and one I've been following since pretty much its first announcement. So now that it's finally out, how does it meet up with expectations?
Aesthetics.
I must say, from a visual perspective, this hack shines--it's absolutely gorgeous. Every level is filed with an assortment of beautiful graphics--many of them hand-drawn--and it manages to combine graphics from a wide variety of sources without any real noticeable clash. Mario's own sprite, with his Indiana Jones outfit, is a particularly nice feature (not too sure about the red pants in fireball mode, but that's a relatively minor detail), as were the various intertitles and the like placed throughout the game. From an audio perspective, this hack comes out ahead as well--the music tracks are well chosen, compliment each other well, and provide each level with its own, distinctive mood. In short, this hack has atmosphere in spades.
There is, however, one non-insignificant flaw in this area--namely, it's sometimes difficult to guess what certain objects do. The biggest offenders here are spikes--a lot of them are far too well camouflaged, above all the diagonal spikes in Cryptic Catastrophe, which the player often does not notice until they've already been damaged by them. The various cactuses throughout the game are even worse, as some of them are harmless background objects and others harmful obstacles, yet the visual differences between the two are often very subtle, and they vary in style throughout the game, which makes it extremely difficult to tell if any given cactus will harm the player or not. In short, more care needs to be given to distinguish damaging items from their purely decorative surroundings--if an object can harm the player, there should be absolutely no doubt in the player's mind that it will do so from the very first time they see it.
Gameplay/Design
Another field in which this hack shines. I absolutely adore puzzle-heavy hacks, and Buried Treasure is positively filled with puzzles--some of them downright devious. Levels are well-designed and stuffed to the brim with secrets, and there's even a few unique, custom bonus games. Though the actual number of playable levels is fairly low, this hack in no way feels short, as there's simply so much to do. Each level is unique, significant, full of personality, and almost invariably hides some secret which may not be evident on the first play-through. There are absolutely no throw-away or filler levels—every level is important to the hack and designed with care.
That said, there's two elements I don't think work very well. Firstly, the piano rooms. Don't get me wrong, they're a very cool idea--however, as implemented, they're a bit too inaccessible. It's demanding rather too much of the average player to expect them to go into this game A) knowing how to play the piano and B) knowing how to play these three particular songs on the piano. Considering how important these secrets are, it would probably be a good idea to include a brief explanation of the keyboard layout for the non-musically inclined players (which includes me, sadly enough) and it's absolutely imperative that you include the notes to the songs rather than just their titles. As things stand, it's equivalent to including a set of password blocks but not including the password anywhere in the game.
Secondly, there's the shops in the game. They suffer from a severe case of price gouging. Alas, this seems to be endemic to all hacks that use the shop blocks, and I admit it's nice to see that the shopkeepers at least seem somewhat apologetic about it here. Really, I can see why a star might cost a pretty penny--they're a rare and helpful item, and you obviously don't want the player buying one for every single level--but 750 coins for a measly extra life? They only "cost" 100 in the original game--that's a 750% price increase. With prices that high, one basically assures that the player will never buy anything (aside for those unique, absolutely necessary items like the scarab stone), and thus this feature ends up largely going to waste. No matter how difficult extra lives are to find in the stages themselves (and they're not that much trouble, especially once you find the secret rooms), you can always be sure that they'll be easier to find than 750 coins. Even the quiz mini-game--perhaps the trickiest room to reach in the game (unless there's some obvious trick I'm missing) is less of a hassle to get to than that--and you at least get five lives for your effort there. Unfortunately, I fear this may simply be an inherent weakness in the shop system itself--perhaps it simply doesn't translate well into a game like SMW.
Finally, sometimes after exiting a secret room, the start + select function ceases to work for the rest of the level. This is particularly irksome when searching for password hints, as it forces the player to either trudge all the way through the rest of the level or commit suicide after they've found what they need. By this point the player should probably know all the good extra life spots, so this isn't too serious a problem, but it's still a bit of an annoyance.
Still, those are all just minor features; on the whole the levels are well-designed and great fun to play.
Story
Unfortunately, this is probably the hack's biggest weakness, if only because the fails to live up to the very expectations it sets itself. The set-up is actually quite good--we're introduced to the world and its peoples, given a wee bit of local history, Mario is assigned (at least the begins of) a quest, plunges deeper into this mysterious land, and then...the story just stops. The game goes on, but we no longer get any more explanation for anything. Indeed, throughout most of the second half of the hack (shortly after the arrival in the Uben Lands), I found myself completely at a loss as to where Mario was going and why. I figured things might start to make sense toward the end, but the opposite seemed to be the case--instead Mario simply engages in a(n admittedly dramatic) battle with God-Knows-What for no apparent reason (other than that it wants to crush him), and then afterwards something inexplicable happens. I understand this is but the first chapter in a longer work, and is meant to end on a cliff-hanger, but even then some degree of self-containment is needed. Feel free to leave the player wanting to know more, but don't leave them confused as to what has already happened.
One of the first things that caught my eye about this hack in its early stages was its heavy use of cut scenes--and this at a time when cut scenes were much less common (and far cruder) than they tend to be in hacks today. As a result, I was somewhat surprised to discover that relatively few of them made it into the final version, and that those which did are decidedly concentrated toward the beginning. I understand that the plot of this hack underwent some major changes during development, which necessitated some of their being removed, but it doesn't seem as though any new ones came to take their place. Mario's Log struck me as a particularly under-used element--the occasional log entry before or after a level would have been a great way to provide a little more context for the player and to help provide a greater sense of narrative coherency in the second half of the game. Indeed, I sort of sense that his was the original intent of the log, but this idea somehow got lost in development. Ah well.
Also, where are the Uben in this game? At first I thought that the various NPCs found in the Uben structures were the Uben, but later evidence seems to suggest that they're just different-colored Nebu...who for some reason like to hang out in Uben buildings...which strangely don't have any Uben in them. Was this perhaps a deliberate plot point? If so, it might be a good idea to explicitly draw attention to it in the game itself.
Finally, it really might be a good idea to have someone proofread all of the dialog in the hack; it's absolutely riddled with spelling and grammatical errors ("wear" for "where" and "I have forgot" are two that I particularly remember), and there's a certain lack of punctuation which makes everyone appear to be talking in a very hurried, rushed manner. This may seem a minor point, comparatively speaking (and I suppose it is), but it's an important factor in making hack feel properly finished.
Conclusion
I apologize if it sounds like I'm harping a bit too much on the negative points, most of which are fairly minor in comparison to the positive ones. Rest assured that you made an awesome hack, and that I had a great time playing it. It just sort of feels as though we're getting the second-to-last version instead of the complete, finished product, and I feel as though a hack like this deserves to be the best that it can possibly be. The gameplay, the graphics, the atmosphere are all there...there's just a few minor details that could use some polishing, a few small bugs that need fixing, and a few plot points that could use some expanding. In any case, you certainly seem to have a talent for this sort of thing, and I look forward to any future chapters this series may provide.
8/10
| | Posted by: Rameau's Nephew - 2009-07-09 05:23:13 AM |
|
| Review by GoldenSonic15 | I was planning on doing the review AFTER I finished this, but, due to a certain SOMEBODY (Glares at Alex/Dinomar), I really just need to get a review for this hack out there.
Level Design-9/10 The level design is pretty great. The puzzles are really unique, and nothing like the generic "Use the P-Switch to get the other P-Switch to get the springboard to continue", and, unlike some hacks (Looks at SMI/SMI2), doesn't throw in random invisible coin blocks. Great level design.
Overworld-8/10 While the overworld isn't exactly PRETTY, I like the concept of it being an old map. I'd never thought I'd see an overworld like this.
Story-8/10 I like the storyline. Kc didn't abuse story elements, but scattered them out evenly within levels, and it's really unique that it evolves from a treasure hunt to helping a tribe with an enemy tribe who wants to take over there lands.
Music-10/10 The music is very nice, and fits the levels they are in. You get calmer music in more dungeon-like areas, and it tends to get more of a beat to it when you're outside. And, the music in action-packed levels get you pumped. Nice music!
Graphics-9/10 Instead of throwing out multiple themes for each world like most hacks, this hack sticks to a single Egyptian theme throughout your playing it. My only problem was in the third trial in the truth area, the graphics hurt my eyes. But I'm pretty sure that was kind of the point, so whatever.
Overall-9/10 This hack isn't the greatest, but it's well polished, with great EVERYTHING, including LEVEL DESIGN! | | Posted by: GoldenSonic15 - 2009-07-06 02:10:53 PM |
|
| Review by Alessio |  | | Posted by: Alessio - 2009-07-06 01:18:02 PM |
|
| Review by Golden Yoshi | From the early stages of this hack, Buried Treasure stood out among all the rest for its innovative approach. Above all things, it stuck to one theme rather than throwing many generic ones at you at the same time. Now that it has reached completion, I can say with complete honesty that this hack has met and exceeded all my expectations.
Level Design: 9.5/10
The most important criteria for me, personally. One could think that sticking to just one environment theme, in this hack, being the desert, that the levels could get very repetitive. That's definitely not the case here. Kc brought the levels completely to life by coming up with a bunch of fun, imaginative levels. On your adventure, you'll get a bunch of variety: dunes, runaway trains, ancient villages, and tombs are just to name a few. To top it off, levels are sprinkled with secret areas to keep the players yearning for more after completing the main portion. Puzzles are clever and fun to figure out, and are a reasonable difficulty. The only thing I would subtract a mere half point off of is that the level difficulty spikes up at random points and is a bit unbalanced at times. However, they are still immensely fun to play that this does not stand in the way at all. Excellent work with this!
Graphics: 10/10
Whether they're graphics for anyone to download on SMWC, ones ripped from other games, or ones completely made from the fruits of Kc's artistic talents, the graphical style remains flawlessly consistent and polished throughout the entire hack. The graphic choices are always very smart, and appropriately accompany all of the fun-packed levels you will encounter here. I don't imagine that anyone can be turned off by the wise graphical choices in this hack.
Story: 8/10
While there is not an overload of storyline elements in this hack, Kc offers a taste of what's to come in future installments with the use of the Nebu and Uben NPCs (same name spelled backwards...didn't realize until I was almost done with the hack XD). Apparently, these two tribes have it in for each other. Even if Kc did not wish to explain all the details of the story in this first part, I would've liked to have seen a little more allusion to the nature of the tribes' dislike for each other. Still, I look forward to seeing how this story develops in the next installments.
Music: 10/10
What can I say here? Music is fitting in all locations, whether its a dry desert, a mysterious tomb, or a disheveled village. You will always have a great tune to get you pumped for the action-packed levels!
Replay Value: 10/10
This is definitely a stand-out feature of the hack. Buried Treasure offers a generous handful of secrets in many nooks and crannies of the level. Whether the players stumble across them on the first time around playing the levels, or upon revisiting them, your hard work will be paid off with bonus levels, items, Easter Eggs, minigames, and even cheat codes! I've always loved games that offered plenty of bonus material upon main completion, so the fact that Buried Treasure offers the same things is yet another stand-out feature.
Overall: 47.5/50
I have played hundreds of hacks in my eight years of SMW hacking experience. It's a rare occasion that I play one in which I genuinely enjoy very much, and I'm very glad to say this hack joins the ranks of top-quality projects I have come across. So Kc, congratulations on making it to the final release, and I commend you for producing such a fun, high quality hack that many people here and beyond are sure to enjoy! | | Posted by: Golden Yoshi - 2009-07-05 05:20:23 PM |
|
| Please log in to review this hack. |
|
|
 |
|
 |
The purpose of this site is not to distribute copyrighted material, but to honor one of our favourite games.
Copyright © 2005 - 2013 - SMW Central
Legal Information - Link To UsTotal queries: 31
|
|
|
|
