Name: | Samsara Mario World |
Author: | margot |
Added: | |
Version History: | View |
Demo: | No |
Featured: | No |
Length: | 22 exit(s) |
Type: | Kaizo: Expert |
Description: | Samsara Mario World (formerly known as Super Samsara World) is an intermediate, 99% vanilla kaizo hack that starts pretty easy and ramps up gradually, culminating in a challenging special world for players who find all three of the game's Switch Palaces. This hack features: Retry system Mostly non-vanilla music (except SMW Athletic because it still slaps) An any% ending, a 100% ending, and a bonus DLC level for players who complete the original game. Shoutouts to the kaizo creators who kept me inspired along the way Samsara Mario World is a one-woman project and my first SMW hack. This hack is dedicated to my best friend, who is the person who first introduced me to Kaizo hacks, and inspired me to try my hand at making one of my own. v1.1 update: A change log is included in the zip file, but major updates include: Nerfing/tweaking various tight jumps/awkward setups Reworking a secret exit to add a checkpoint Applying FastROM to help with slowdown issues Tweaking various levels to decrease spawn dependencies Reworking the water level to eliminate despawn issues v1.2 update: Added the ability to save the game on the overworld at any time Nerfed all of the special world levels Added a hidden bonus level that is new to version 1.2. DLC, baby! |
Tags: | traditional vanilla |
Comments: | 25 (jump to comments) |
Rating: |
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263.73 KiB | 2,222 downloads
Comments (25)
You even made a good five-room castle, which is a feat!
Favorite levels:
Castle Cainhurst
Parallel Palace (for real, play the DLC)
I think of things like GPW or Ultra Kaizo World and I look at what those hacks ask of you in terms of tricks. They are overall more difficult than many places in this hack, but somehow this one seemed less fun. If I had to guess it is that the midways in the previous two hacks I mentioned come at natural points whereas in Samsara they come way too late in the levels.
At certain points I felt like I wasn't making any progress at all even though I was completing long sections of tricks because the CP was nowhere in sight.
All of that aside, there were some really great levels in this hack. Golden Shell Garrison was amazing. Firmament Ascent was really cool as well. But certain secret levels and the 100% of this game are genuinely unenjoyable due to the demand that is put on the player.
For reference, I have a pretty high tolerance for annoying sections as I am working my way through GPW and UKW, but certain parts of this hack got even me to put the controller down for extended periods and not really feel like I wanted to return to finish.
I'm 25 hours in and I finally beat Gold Shell Garrison yesterday, so I wanted to give some feedback on it.
First things first: Fuck Gold Shell Garrison. It took me ~14 hours to get through exits 1-6 and the 1st secret exit but it took me ~11 hours to beat Gold Shell Garrison alone, most of it was spent on the 2nd half. The difficulty spike there is absurd, I actually had to use savestates to find setups for all 3 disco shell sections before I managed to beat the whole 2nd half and the boss in one life, something I didn't need to do in any other level so far. As a Split/Second speedrunner, that's not new to me, but I didn't expect it here. A few coin indicators or something for where to jump would've helped me a lot to figure things out sooner. I also wasn't a fan of the boss - I expected a checkpoint and a proper boss. Instead I got no checkpoint and reached the boss with a pounding heart. So of course I touched the boss for some dumb reason while avoiding the disco shell and died. That took me back half an hour and kicked my mood & motivation to the floor. Came back and killed the shell with a spinjump. Well. Fuck. A proper boss and a checkpoint would've made this level great, the way it's designed is just 100% FeelsBadMan. The level itself was difficult, sometimes unnecessarily tight and a bit too long for my taste too but it certainly helped me practice disco shell bouncing. Still, it's definitely my least favorite level so far. I'm glad it's over.
With that rant out of the way, I enjoyed all other levels so far (especially Grinder Palance!) and I will continue and play through the hack. I've already seen the CP pipe on Laughing Glade (took me half an hour), so it's just the difficulty spike of Gold Shell Garison that taints the picture. Thanks for making the hack!
Beware of the difficulty ramping up steeply (and unexpectedly) with the final few exits. This felt out of place but the level design there is still great.
My biggest complaint would be the overuse of (invisible) kaizo blocks. With at least 3 of these in most levels, they get annoying very quickly. I think kaizo blocks are unfitting for a hack like this which has otherwise fast-paced levels.
Graphics and colour palettes are very nicely done, music is meh as some of the tracks are quite repetitive (short loops), and one stage has vanilla music.
Also:
-> As you mentioned in the hack itself, the first boss is a joke. The Level was super cool but the boss wasn't. I prefered a bit more of a challenge. Place a checkpoint and make a boss which is worthy the level.
Re: this.
THAT's the joke. It's dumb but it's funny to me.
I'll check out the playlist when I get some free time! Thanks for putting that together! I'm glad you enjoyed your playthrough, and I really appreciate the feedback <3
I enjoyed playing through this and it never felt boring.
But there are some litte things, I like to point out:
-> As you mentioned in the hack itself, the first boss is a joke. The Level was super cool but the boss wasn't. I prefered a bit more of a challenge. Place a checkpoint and make a boss which is worthy the level.
-> Since I play a lot of kaizo, I have seen the gimmicks of your levels in a lot of kaizo hacks I played before. Please don't understand this wrong; your levels were great; but I missed the "WOW"-effect in the Levels. I think you have the potential to come up with even more creative and crazy ideas. Keep up the work and improve yourselfe. You can do it ;)
-> I found some cheese and unintended things while playing. I made a TAW and pointed out some parts. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uDfSKzOMWc&list=PL_v0ZZF2m13hILPTv52SVGWUpO7PBeo3B
Over all this hack was very good especially for your first one. Keep improving and I hope, there will be a second Hack from you soon.
I like to give your Hack 4.5 Stars. Since I can't give half stars, take an extra 0.5 Stars for a "first hack"-bonus.
the levels are pretty much with a nice architecture.
Congratulations on the work done.
5/5
The biggest error i found would be this, since you didnt actually disable the item box you can just wait for the mushroom and damage boost. Would be nice if you fixed that if there is another update.